URC WRAP: SA well placed after dramatic landscape changing round

The Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks would have felt they’d dropped the ball when they lost their derbies but then other results conspired in their favour and it all ended with a dramatic round of upsets in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship leaving all the South African teams well placed.

Well placed when the DHL Stormers are still only 12th after winning their tight rain impacted north/south derby in Pretoria? Yes, because 12th doesn’t really mean what it looks like when you look at the points situation on the log table and note that the team lying eighth, which is now Connacht, only has one point more.

The Lions, lying ninth after their excellent win over the Sharks in Johannesburg, are on the same number of points as the Stormers, 28, as are 13th-placed Benetton.

The 14th-placed Ulster are just one point further back from the five teams all bunched on 28, and even Zebre, who were involved in one of the most interesting games of the weekend, are still in it even though they lie second last.

Their 25 points is just four off the top-eight bracket that represents URC playoff qualification and participation in next season’s Investec Champions Cup.

LOG IS REFLECTION OF COMPETITIVENESS OF URC

It is a reflection of how competitive the URC is that there is such a tight logjam and that after 12 rounds there are 15 teams out of 16 that still have a chance of winning the competition (well theoretically that is the case as any team that makes the playoffs has a chance and right now 15 teams can make it).

The Bulls and Sharks would have felt they’d dropped the ball and lost ground in their quest to catch the Glasgow Warriors and move into a top two position that will make all the difference to their chances of going all the way to the trophy.

But that was before Glasgow themselves dropped the ball by losing at home to the Ospreys in the last game of the weekend.

Who would have seen that coming? Well, we did predict an Ospreys win in the supersport.com weekend preview, but not many others would have. It means that with both teams having six games to play, the Warriors are still just three points ahead of the Bulls. And the teams still have to play each other.

Admittedly that will be an away game for the Bulls, but hopefully the Bulls will have some of their injured players back by then and they do have time to work on their game, as do the Stormers, in the three week break that they go into now before they next play.

The Lions and Sharks don’t have three weeks because they meet in Durban in the only game of this coming weekend, a clash that is not only about the Sharks’ quest to keep in the mix for a top two finish and the Lions’ quest for a top eight finish but also about determining the winners of the South African Shield.

PROSPECT OF FOUR SA TEAMS IN TOP EIGHT

Saturday’s game will be the last local derby of the season and it is what comes after that for the local sides that makes the outlook so promising for them.

All of them have big home runs to look forward to and if the Lions can start doing something they almost never do, which is back up from one week to the next and get some consistency, there’s a real prospect of their being four local teams among the eight in the playoffs.

With Munster also being hurt this weekend, with former Sharks coach Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh helping his old team by beating the fifth placed team away from home, even a top four finish is not completely out of range of the Lions and Stormers.

Should the Joburg-based side back up their win in the return clash with the Sharks in Durban, they will be within a couple of points of the fourth placed Sharks.

The Lions and the Sharks have a game in hand on the other teams and the Hollywoodbets Kings Park derby will be the game that squares it all up. If the Lions win they will be in the hunt for a top four finish, as they are only six points adrift as it stands, and so will the Stormers.

At the very least the inaugural winners of the competition, the Stormers, are in the running for what they would have considered the second prize of finishing fifth or sixth, which would make a trip to either Durban or Loftus for the quarterfinal round rather than a long trek to the northern hemisphere a strong possibility.

And given the fact that their narrow but completely deserved win at Loftus was their third at that venue in four URC games there, plus that they should have the likes of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse back by then, and their loss in Durban in November was by a narrow margin, no-one would write them off.

BULLS REMAIN WELL PLACED

The Bulls though still have a fair chance of avoiding that by finishing second, although their coach Jake White should be concerned about the way they have allowed teams to pierce the ramparts of Fortress Loftus in recent times.

The loss to the Stormers followed a similar defeat there to the Sharks two weeks ago and they also lost to Northampton Saints there in the Champions Cup. Memories of last year’s defeats to Munster and then Glasgow in the final should also still be fresh in their minds.

Otherwise though White was right when he said afterwards the loss was not a train smash. It was definitely a game the Stormers needed to win more. A defeat would have left the Cape side in a parlous position. In fact, they would have been second last.

But now you’d bet on them making the top eight given who they play in their remaining six games, and fourth place is not the impossibility it seemed.

Not after a weekend where almost everywhere you looked there were upsets, and the teams inhabiting the top eight, like Munster, Benetton and the Scarlets, all had their challenges dented.

Which is something that Sharks fans who might suddenly want to turn on their team after the no show at Emirates Airlines Park should keep in mind too - the only team in the URC that don’t have setbacks is Leinster, who comfortably top the log and are unbeaten.

But history reflects that they do have setbacks in the playoff rounds…

WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Connacht 38 Benetton 30

Glasgow Warriors 31 Ospreys 32

Munster 28 Edinburgh 34

Zebre 31 Dragons 21

Emirates Lions 38 Hollywoodbets Sharks 14

Leinster 42 Cardiff Rugby 24

Vodacom Bulls 16 DHL Stormers 19

Ulster 30 Scarlets 28

LOG POSITIONS

1. Leinster 57 points after 12 games, 2. Glasgow Warriors 44 points after 12 games, 3. Vodacom Bulls 41 points after 12 games, 4. Hollywoodbets Sharks 34 points after 11 games, 5. Munster 33 points after 12 games, 6. Cardiff Rugby 31 points after 12 games, 7. Edinburgh 30 points after 12 games, 8. Connacht 29 points after 12 games, 9. Emirates Lions 28 points after 11 games, 10. Scarlets 28 points after 12 games, 11. Ospreys 28 points after 12 games, 12. DHL Stormers 28 points after 12 games, 13. Benetton 28 points after 12 games, 14. Ulster 27 points after 12 games, 15. Zebre 25 points after 12 games, 16. Dragons 8 points after 8 games.