URC PLAYOFFS: Stormers head to Glasgow and Munster to Durban

The final round of league play in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship did not deliver the upset results of the week before so the DHL Stormers will be heading to Glasgow for their quarterfinal while the Hollywoodbets Sharks will be hosting Munster.

For the anticipated script to have changed it required Cardiff to knock over the Stormers in Cape Town on Friday night without allowing the hosts a bonus point, the Sharks to lose to the Scarlets in Durban or the Glasgow Warriors to shock Leinster in their own backyard in the final game of the regular season on Saturday night.

The first one was never on the cards but the Sharks had to get through a titanic battle against the Scarlets before they awaited the result of the Leinster/Glasgow game to see if they had achieved their objective of ending third. At the same time the Stormers, who would have preferred to go to Durban in two weeks time, were hoping for a Glasgow win.

From around the halfway mark of the second half of the Dublin game it looked like the Stormers’ wishes could well be met, as Glasgow fought for the win. But they just couldn’t add to their solitary try when they were trailing by five going into the last minutes and Leinster suddenly discovered the game management that had eluded them and they got into Glasgow territory and kicked a penalty to make the game safe and condemn the reigning champions to a fourth placed finish.

The bad news for John Dobson and his Stormers team is that Glasgow appear to have rediscovered a bit of their Mojo. Theirs was a much better performance against the team that thrashed them 52-0 in the Investec Champions Cup quarterfinal six weeks ago and sent them into what until this most recent Dublin game looked like a confidence crisis.

The return of Scotland international centre Sione Tuipoluto, who looked strong in the first half before being rested in the second, had much to do with that and the Stormers will know they face an uphill battle in the repeat of last year’s quarterfinal at the Scotstoun.

The Sharks weren’t good against Scarlets but should be emboldened by the memory of the comfortable victory they scored against Munster in Durban earlier in the season. The Bulls meanwhile probably got their preferred opponents, with a last minute Aphelele Fassi preventing the Scarlets from getting the losing bonus point that would have sent them to Pretoria rather than Dublin, for their meeting with Leinster, in the first match of the Finals Series. Instead it will be Edinburgh, who held on to seventh, who will go to Loftus on the weekend of 30/31 May.

The Bulls made sure of their second placed finish when they thumped the Dragons 55-15 in the first game to played on Saturday.

VODACOM URC QUARTERFINAL LINE-UP

Glasgow Warriors v DHL Stormers

Leinster v Scarlets

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Munster

Vodacom Bulls v Edinburgh

Key results in round 18

DHL Stormers 34 Cardiff 24

Edinburgh 47 Ulster 17

Vodacom Bulls 55 Dragons 15

Hollywoodbets Sharks 12 Scarlets 3

Munster 30 Benetton 21

Leinster 13 Glasgow Warriors 5