URC state of play favours South Africa
The league standings don’t reflect it but South Africa’s challenge for the United Rugby Championship play-offs will be strong because of home ground advantage in the next few months, writes Mark Keohane.
Jake White’s Bulls have been the best of South Africa’s quartet in the opening two months of the league, having won five of their seven matches. Two of the Bulls wins have been up north, against Zebra and Cardiff, and they got a losing bonus point against Ulster in Belfast. They are unbeaten at home, with three from three, have hammered every opponent played at Loftus this season.
The Lions are also unbeaten at home and are two from two and the Stormers, having played their first two home matches at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch, are also two from two. It is only the Sharks, who have dropped a home match, losing 13-12 to Ireland’s Connacht. John Plumtree’s team are one from two at home, but zero from five on the road, including four defeats on their tour up north.
The opening month of the season saw South African teams struggle with weakened squads (no World Cup winning squad members played URC in those first four weeks), while weather conditions and 4G playing surfaces also contributed to South Africa’s difficulty in converting competitive performances into wins.
The South African quartet won three from 16 matches, but on average they lost 22-18 in that period. The contrast for the northern teams travelling to South Africa is massive, with Connacht’s one point win in Durban the only northern success in eight starts in the Republic. The average score also favours the South Africans 49-17.
The URC breaks for a fortnight as South Africa’s participating quartet and the Cheetahs play in Europe’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, with the Cheetahs, Sharks and Lions in the latter tournament and the Stormers and Bulls leading the charge in Europe’s most coveted knockout competition, the Champions Cup.
The Stormers travel to Leicester this week with a young squad, with the more experienced players remaining in Cape Town to prepare for the December 16th home match against the defending champions La Rochelle. The Bulls host English Premiership giants Saracens.
The Stormers will resume URC duties against the Bulls in the traditional South African north versus south derby on 23rd December in what will be the team’s first URC match at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium this season. A week later, on the 30th of December, the Stormers complete their year in Cape Town against the Sharks, also at the DHL Stadium.
Victories in those two home matches will immediately impact the league and propel the Stormers back into the top four, having dropped to 10th after losing all four tour matches up north.
The Cape side scored a morale-boosting bonus point win against Zebra last week to halt the losing sequence and are three wins from seven matches, but with five of those matches having been away from home. They have also collected six bonus points this season.
