The Stormers remain the leading SA franchise in the URC this season, occupying second in the standings heading into week 14 of the tournament. Photo: Backpagepix
Image: Backpagepix
The four South African United Rugby Championship (URC) franchises showed determination and skill in equal measure at the weekend to register a full house of bonus-point victories at a crucial stage of the tournament.
In other words, out of a possible 20 points, the SA teams delivered 20 in the four home games.
Three of the four sides – the Stormers, Lions and Bulls – remain in the Top 8, while the Sharks kept their play-off dreams alive in a confidence-boosting weekend for the South African challenge.
In mark of how hotly the competition is contested, only the Stormers moved up a position (to second) while the Bulls (eighth), Lions (seventh), and Sharks (eleventh) held their positions. The big difference, though, is that the three teams vastly improved their points differentials.
This is important because the log jam in the Top 8 means points difference could well decide the order in which teams finish and which teams go through to the play-offs.
The Bulls sparked one of the best weekends in the competition for the SA teams on Friday as they thumped Cardiff 40-7 in Pretoria. On Saturday, the URC SA Shield winning Lions built on this with an impressive 54-17 victory against Edinburgh in Johannesburg, followed by a flawless 45-0 win by the Sharks against Munster in Durban.
The Stormers were not always at their best, but wrapped up the weekend on a high note on Sunday as they shut out the Dragons for a 29-21 win in Cape Town. They also walked away with five points from their match.
This weekend, there is good reason to believe the SA teams can pull off another clean sweep as the four overseas teams that lost last week move to different South African venues.
On Friday night, the Sharks host Cardiff at 7pm. The Welsh team have one of the best defences in the URC and were dismayed that they had conceded five tries by half-time against the Bulls. Cardiff could be in for another testing evening, given the seven sparkling tries the Sharks ran past Munster.
Munster, smarting from the humiliation of failing to score a point in Durban, travel to the Bulls (kick-off 2pm) on Saturday at Loftus Versfeld.
At 4.30pm on Saturday, the Lions host a Dragons team that made the Stormers work hard for their win in Cape Town. The Welsh side were tenacious on defence, and they will have to continue to be so if they are to contain a Lions team growing in confidence on attack.
In the final match on Saturday, Edinburgh travel to the Stormers (kick-off 7pm). Last week, the Scots had a tough afternoon at Ellis Park, and it could get tougher still because the Stormers know they were sloppy against the Dragons and will demand a better performance from themselves.
STOMRERS
Second | Played 13, Won 10, Drawn 0, Lost 3, Points Difference 120, Points 46
LIONS
Seventh | P13, W7, D1, L5, PD 20, Pts 38
BULLS
Eighth, P13, W7, D0, L6, PD 54, Pts 35
SHARKS
11th, P13, W5, D1, L7, PD -32, Pts 29