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URC WRAP: Bulls have given themselves a great chance

rugby19 May 2025 05:54
By:Gavin Rich
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Vodacom Bulls © Backpagepix

It is the Hollywoodbets Sharks that have the Galactico team on paper and the DHL Stormers have impressive momentum but it is the Vodacom Bulls who carry the real hope of the South African teams heading into the Vodacom United Rugby Championship Finals Series.

And it is a fair chance too, for while the Glasgow Warriors’ apparent return to some sort of confidence in their tight game against Leinster that brought the curtain down on another absorbing URC league season wasn’t good news for the Stormers, Leinster did show some vulnerabilities that the Bulls might be equipped to exploit should the two teams clash in the final.

First let’s look at Glasgow and what the game meant for the Stormers. The Cape side would have ended their league campaign feeling confident after a final-stage flourish that saw them pick up a maximum of 20 points from the four home games that finished their season.

The key word though is ‘home’, for the Stormers have so much more strut and confidence on their home patch at DHL Stadium.

GOOD REASON WHY DOBSON WAS TORN

They’re not bad elsewhere in South Africa either, which is an additional reason why it was completely understandable that Stormers coach John Dobson seemed a bit torn ahead of his team’s closing fixture against Cardiff.

Of course he wanted to win in the final game in front of the Stormers’ fans, but at the same time a trip to Durban rather than Glasgow was so much more appetising, not least because the Sharks are far from firing on full cylinders.

Even though it would also have been an away game, the Stormers might even have started against the Durbanites as marginal favourites.

Given the Glasgow travails since their 52-0 humiliation at the hands of Leinster in their Investec Champions Cup quarterfinal six weeks ago, with defeats against the Bulls and Benetton on their record, you might have suggested before the final league game that the Stormers could even be slight favourites in a Scotstoun quarterfinal.

Even though the Stormers have never won there.

However, Glasgow pushed the log winners all the way at the AVIVA Stadium at the weekend and were still in the game until Glasgow kicked a penalty in the final minute to finally end the contest.

It was one try apiece, the Glasgow defence was excellent, which sent out an unambiguous message to the Stormers that the champions, who successfully welcomed back Sione Tuipoluto in the first half in Dublin, are back in business and emerging from their slump. 

The Stormers meanwhile were dealt a savage blow when Damian Willemse, who has been in such outstanding form, was red carded just before the hour mark in their victory over Cardiff. It means he might miss the start of the playoff phase through suspension.

LEINSTER SHOWING VULNERABILITIES JAKE’S MEN CAN EXPLOIT


So it’s a tough road for the Stormers to the trophy that they won in the inaugural URC season, for if they do beat Glasgow their next stop is most likely going to be Dublin. The Bulls could also have a Dublin game in their future for that is where they will end up if both they and Leinster win their first two playoff games.

When Leinster were knocked out of the competition they are most engaged with, the Champions Cup, there was an assumption that it means they will throw everything into winning the URC title that has eluded them in the first three seasons.

And that is the correct assumption, although against Glasgow we saw the re-emergence of what could be Leinster mental frailty that has become a trend to be exploited by opponents in the knock-out stages.

In the early parts of the second half against Glasgow, Leinster looked like they might put their opponents away by a big score. But the try they needed wasn’t forthcoming, Glasgow scored a try of their own to break back to 10-5, and suddenly Leinster looked decidedly jittery.

The Leinster jitters might be familiar to the Bulls, who have beaten the Irish juggernaut twice at the URC semifinal stage - in Dublin (the RDS Arena) in the first season, and then at Loftus last year. 

The Bulls will be hoping that one of the teams in the other side of the draw will knock them out so they can host a final in Pretoria, and on the evidence of this past weekend Glasgow might just be able to do that.

However, if it comes to a final in Dublin in mid-June, the Bulls won’t be going there without any hope even though the logistical challenge of winning a semifinal in South Africa and then flying straight to Dublin might be a tough one to overcome.

QUARTERFINAL OPPONENTS WERE LAST TEAM TO BEAT BULLS

The Bulls are in fine form, with their last URC defeat being against the Stormers on the first day of March and their only recent defeat being their narrow loss to Edinburgh in the EPCR Challenge Cup quarterfinal.

In that sense, there’s an element of a revenge mission about the Bulls as they prepare to host Sean Everitt’s team, but they will also have respect for their opponents, who in the last two weeks have finished off like a runaway train (a 30 point win over Ulster is not to be scoffed at and neither is a 10 point away win against Connacht).

If they get through that game as winners the Bulls will host the winner of the Durban quarterfinal between the Sharks and Munster and neither opponent will be easy. Munster won a league game at Loftus last season and the Sharks won both games against the Bulls in this URC season and also prevailed in an epic Carling Currie Cup semifinal in Pretoria last September.

However, the Bulls are in a different space to where they were earlier in the season, and their two good wins away from home against first Munster and then Glasgow Warriors, the two most recent URC champion teams, has galvanised their confidence.

The only caveat for them is the flyhalf question, with the status of the injured Johan Goosen a big talking point.

Against the Dragons the specialist No 10 was never really going to be missed, but will that be the case against more formidable opponents than the URC wooden spoonists? We don’t know, which is why there’s a question. It is the one mitigating factor to weigh up against the undeniable Bulls confidence.

SHARKS ARE LIKE THE TRAIN THAT NEVER COMES

So the Sharks have beaten the Bulls twice in league play so what about them? Frankly, the expectation that because of the star quality in their ranks and their massive financial resources they will suddenly click and start playing like a champion team is starting to become like the words of that Madness song … waiting for the train that never comes.

All the talk in Durban before their final league game against the Scarlets was that they needed to turn in the 80 minute performance ahead of the playoffs that hasn't been forthcoming, but while they retained a winning habit that is something to consider given the nature of knockout rugby, that eluded them again.

If you were coming in to watch the game from another planet you would not have thought the Sharks were the team loaded with World Cup winning internationals in a frankly thoroughly forgettable fixture. If the Stormers are the team that has most connected with its DNA over the past few weeks, the Sharks look like a team that has no DNA at all.

It is so hard sometimes to see the direction or intent in the Sharks play and in many ways their win over the Scarlets was not dissimilar to their loss to the Leinster second string team back in March. They won the territory battle quite comfortably, but just couldn’t get their attacking game together.

It is a mystery because the attack was working fine back in October through December, but apart from Andre Esterhuizen taking the ball up to the gainline and setting that as a platform it is hard to tell what’s the plan, if there is any, with a star studded backline.

The upshot was that the normally brilliant attacking fullback Aphelele Fassi had his role limited to winning the game with his placekicking, a role he performed really well once the injury to Siya Masuku forced him into becoming the Sharks’ frontline goalkicker at this level for the first time.

The Scarlets are difficult and disruptive opponents and the wet ball certainly didn’t help, with the dew an odd accompaniment to a game in Durban in the autumn, but come on, the Sharks have much more class on their team sheet than they have been delivering recently.

LIONS PROVIDED THE MOST WATCHABLE AND ABSORBING GAME

They do have title winning experience too though, so that must be kept in mind. If any team can come close in the URC to matching the Leinster international representation, it is the Durban team. And that does make them dangerous as they know how to prevail in an arm wrestle.

The Durban game was one of two at the weekend where a last-minute penalty proved a cruel blow to an opposition team. The Scarlets were heading to Pretoria rather than to Leinster in their quarterfinal before Fassi removed their losing bonus point, while the late Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kick in Cape Town cost Cardiff, who ended ninth, just that one solitary point in the end behind eighth-placed Scarlets.

There was a similar ending of course to the game in Dublin, but Glasgow being denied a losing bonus point was irrelevant given that they were already condemned to be finishing behind the Bulls and Sharks on the final log.


Talking about how games finish, the one in Johannesburg that had nothing riding on it but was contested by two fiercely committed teams and decided in favour of the Emirates Lions by a try in the corner after the hooter, was the most watchable of the matches played in South Africa on Saturday.

The Bulls turned it on up the road later in the day, but they were always going to smash the Dragons and there was an air of expectation, whereas the game between the Lions and Ospreys at Emirates Airlines Park was always close and the lead changed several times, not least in the final 10 minutes when there were three changes.

It was a reminder of what the Lions can do but also a reminder of where they are short, for they could have put the Ospreys away much earlier. Their inconsistency in the last months of the season after a promising start is to me an indication not only of their lack of depth but also the folly of their decision to take the Currie Cup seriously.

And sure enough when Man of the Match JC Pretorius was interviewed afterwards he mentioned that the game was a good buildup to the Currie Cup, or something like that. Hopefully I heard wrong, because URC players should not be playing in the domestic competition given that it is played when they should be enjoying their off-season and recharging for their next URC campaign.

Vodacom URC quarterfinal line-up

Glasgow Warriors v DHL Stormers (Glasgow, Friday 30 May, 8:35pm)

Vodacom Bulls v Edinburgh (Pretoria, Saturday 31 May, 1:30pm)

Leinster v Scarlets (Dublin, Saturday 31 May, 4pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Munster, Saturday 31 May, 6:30pm)

Results of Vodacom URC round 18 matches

DHL Stormers 34 Cardiff 24

Edinburgh 47 Ulster 17

Munster 30 Benetton 21

Vodacom Bulls 55 Dragons 15

Zebre 12 Connacht 22

Emirates Lions 29 Ospreys 28

Hollywoodbets Sharks 12 Scarlets 3

Leinster 13 Glasgow Warriors 5

Final Vodacom URC log standings

1. Leinster 76; 2. Vodacom Bulls 68; 3. Hollywoodbets Sharks 62; 4. Glasgow Warriors 59; 5. DHL Stormers 55; 6. Munster 51; 7. Edinburgh 49; 8. Scarlets 48; 9. Cardiff 47; 10. Benetton 46; 11. Emirates Lions 40; 12. Ospreys 40; 13. Connacht 39; 14. Ulster 38; 15. Zebre 29; 16. Dragons 9.

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