URC SCENE-SETTER: Being without Boks means tough start for SA teams

The chances of some of favoured local teams finishing in the coveted top spots on the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log could depend on how they deal with their respective tough starts to the competition at a time when many of their star players are committed to the Springboks.

This weekend’s first round of the URC coincides with South Africa’s penultimate Castle Lager Rugby Championship clash with Argentina in Durban, while the second round will clash with the return game against the Los Pumas in London on 4 October.

The Boks will theoretically then be available for the third round, but it will be risky reintroducing players who haven’t been part of the pre-season preparations just a few days before those games.

It is not just because they have the most Boks on their books that it is particularly tough for the Sharks, but also who and where they play first up.

They start their campaign in Glasgow at the Scotstoun, a venue that has not tended to be kind to visiting teams. And of course Glasgow were the 2024 champions and have plenty to prove this year.

The Sharks will be on tour for three games, with their third game being against Leinster in Dublin. Leinster are the reigning champions and, get this, their game against the Sharks will coincide with the moment they welcome their phalanx of British and Irish Lions, who were given an extended rest, back into the fold.

Sharks coach John Plumtree has the option perhaps of asking his Boks who play against Argentina at Twickenham the week before that to stay on for the game, but it seems more likely he’d want to have more time to assimilate them back into his system. Which means the first home game the following week against Ulster will be the first time he sees his international players.

There is one more game after that before the competition takes a break for the international window, with hostilities resuming in the last weekend of November, when the Sharks will be back overseas to play against Connacht.

EASIER START FOR STORMERS AND BULLS

If the Sharks have drawn the short straw the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls have been a bit luckier. The Stormers start against the champions on Friday night, the first game of this season’s competition, but they are at home against a Leinster team that should be missing several international players.

Of course the Stormers will be without stars too, with new recruit Cobus Reinach, Bok flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and last week’s Bok man of the match Damian Willemse set to make their seasonal debuts later in the competition.

And we all know just how strong the Leinster second string team is. But still, hosting Leinster at this stage of the competition is far preferable to traveling to Glasgow or, as the Sharks have to, playing Leinster in Dublin as they return to full strength.

The Bulls, with a new coach in Johan Ackermann, have an even better draw if you consider that the last thing any visiting teams wants to do at this time of the year is go to Loftus for an early afternoon game. Which is exactly what the Ospreys have to do on Saturday, with a 2pm kick-off.

However, while Ackermann will have the benefit during the season of being able to call on several newcomers recruited by his predecessor Jake White, players such as current Bok Handre Pollard, a former Bok in Jan Serfontein and a former national squad member in Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, we understand he has early season injury issues.

Particularly in the second row, where much may depend for him on whether Bok coach Rassie Erasmus intends engaging Cobus Wiese in the buildup to next week’s game in Durban.

The Stormers and Bulls play reverse weeks against the same opponents, so the Bulls will be hosting Leinster in round two, and could benefit from Leinster still being a week away from returning to full strength, while the Stormers will host the Ospreys.

BATTLE-HARDENED LIONS NEED TO MAKE IT COUNT

The Emirates Lions are likely to pay later for their decision to commit as many URC players to the Currie Cup as they did, but for now the fact they played finals rugby over the past two weeks might actually mean they will be battle hardened and sharp for their first game against Cardiff.

The drawback though is that the game is being played in Cardiff, which means the Lions have to deal with the disappointment of their agonising defeat in the domestic final and travel across the equator in the same week.

One thing to the Lions’ advantage, as was the case last year, is that they don’t miss as many key players to Bok duty as the other local URC teams do. But given that they didn’t learn from history, meaning they didn’t learn from their mistake of going all in in the Currie Cup, which left them looking gassed in the later stages of the competition, the Lions are under pressure to win now.

The pick of the games not involving South African teams in the first round could be Munster’s visit to Scarlets, with the Llanelli based team having been one of the revelations of last year’s URC and on a sharp upward rise on the performance graph.

The trans-continental competition gets tougher and more competitive each year and that should be the case again, with some star players who were injured towards the end of last season back in the fold at Glasgow, while Connacht have been boosted by the arrival of former England coach and senior figure in the Leinster setup Stuart Lancaster as their head coach.

WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES (first round)

DHL Stormers v Leinster (Cape Town, Friday 7pm)

Glasgow Warriors v Hollywoodbets Sharks (Glasgow, Friday 9:05pm)

Ulster v Dragons (Belfast, Friday 9:05pm)

Vodacom Bulls v Ospreys (Pretoria, Saturday 2pm)

Zebre v Edinburgh (Parma, Saturday 4:05pm)

Scarlets v Munster (Llanelli, Saturday 6:30pm)

Connacht v Benetton (Galway, Saturday 7pm)

Cardiff Rugby v Emirates Lions (Cardiff, Saturday 9:05pm)