The local Vodacom United Rugby Championship teams failed to put the icing on the cake for South Africa on a weekend dominated by the Springbok World Cup triumph but there were nonetheless signs of encouragement.
The new season is still at an embryonic stage so no one will be getting too excited about log position, but it is the DHL Stormers who head the table after two rounds as all the other favoured teams have now either lost or drawn or have failed to pick up bonus points they may have been chasing.
Of course, the Stormers were the only South African team playing at home this weekend, and their big win over the Scarlets in Stellenbosch was expected after the Vodacom Bulls hammered the Welsh team at Loftus in the first round. The Emirates Lions came close against an Edinburgh team that was playing under new coach Sean Everitt, formerly of the Sharks, at home for the first time, while the Vodacom Bulls came back strongly to only just be denied by Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium on Sunday night.
Nick Timoney 🆚 Johan Goosen... Insane Cover-Tackle Inbound 😍@Vodacom #URC | #ULSvBUL pic.twitter.com/4CfpcH6bvM
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 29, 2023
The Sharks, after showing some promise in their opening game against Munster in Limerick last weekend, were unfortunate to run into a Leinster team that was in a mean mood after their shock opening loss to Glasgow Warriors and they failed to land a shot at the RDS Arena as the reality of the task faced by new coach John Plumtree struck home for the Durbanites.
Sam Prendergast practicing his golf swing... ⛳️ A sparkling @LeinsterRugby cross-field kick 🏉✨@Vodacom #URC | #LEIvSHA pic.twitter.com/q8cz02xQ3C
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 28, 2023
The Sharks have lost both their opening games and have failed to pick up any bonus points, and the Lions have just the losing bonus points from their first two games plus the four-try bonus picked up through their late rally against the Stormers on the opening weekend to their name.
EARLY UPSETS
However, the early rounds of the competition have suggested this will be a year of upsets, with two semifinalists from last season, Glasgow Warriors and the eventual champions Munster, both failing to win this past weekend.
The Warriors, coached by former Springbok player and assistant coach Franco Smith, scored the big shock of the first round when they comprehensively outplayed Leinster at home. But they were reminded in the second round that visiting Galway and the Sportsground to play against Connacht can be a perilous proposition.
Connacht came close to completing a fairytale similar to that of eventual winners Munster last year, but they started the season slowly and could thank momentum picked up in the second half of the season for making the playoffs.
This time around they are doing things a little differently, and have picked up nine log points from their first two games to lie second behind the Stormers, who are the only team to have picked up full points from their two games. It is early days, but Connacht are in a very different position to the corresponding stage of last season’s campaign.
DURBAN WILL PROVIDE LITMUS TEST FOR CONNACHT
Then again, they did start on the road in 2022/23, losing two games in South Africa first up. They head to South Africa in a couple of weeks, with a clash with a Sharks team at Kings Park that should be welcoming some of their World Cup-winning Springboks back first on their list, and that will be a litmus test for them.
For now though Connacht are styling, whereas their victims this past weekend will feel they suffered an unwanted setback after the good win over Leinster that got their season off to a rollicking start. Franco Smith’s men did pick up a four-try bonus point but would have wanted more as they prepare for what could be a tough game against the Stormers at the Scotstoun on Friday night.
The Stormers have started the season well, controlling the game for most of the way against the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg in their opening fixture before altitude inevitably caught up with them to put a false gloss on the scoreboard for the losers, and then scoring a big win over Scarlets in Stellenbosch.
HONEYMOON NOW OVER FOR STORMERS
However, their coach, John Dobson, will know full well that playing the first two games in South Africa represented a bit of a honeymoon period for his men. Glasgow was one of the venues where they lost in the league phase last season and after that they are heading to three other venues where they have yet to win in the URC - Cardiff, Treviso and Munster.
That last-mentioned game is an eagerly awaited one as it is a replay of last year’s URC final in Cape Town, and the Stormers do have a score to settle against their Irish rivals. But Munster’s own experience away to Benetton this weekend proved that the Stormers shouldn’t be looking too far ahead as their visit to Treviso the week after next is no gimme either.
Munster had to dig deep in a game they trailed in the whole way before they scored a try at the death to level the scores and escape with a draw.
Munster were the only Irish team to drop points this past weekend, with Leinster and Ulster joining Connacht on the winning trail by completing a double over South African teams. Leinster bounced back from their chastening first-round defeat to score a comfortable win over the Sharks, while Ulster did well to hold off the determined Bulls, who came back at them strongly towards the end, in a Sunday evening game at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
Ulster are formidable opponents on their home ground so the Bulls, the beaten finalists in the inaugural season of the URC, won’t be too unhappy to have left Belfast with a losing bonus point. Yet with just a little bit more accuracy to their game, they could have scored a shock win to really boost their confidence.
Although pressed towards the end, Ulster were in control for most of the way and do look likely to continue what they did last season, where they fought hard to clinch second place ahead of the Stormers but then blew it by losing unexpectedly to Connacht in the quarterfinal round.
LEINSTER REMAIN FORMIDABLE
With their comfortable win, Leinster served notice that they will again be challenging strongly for the pole position they have hogged in the first two seasons of the URC and let's not forget that they will shortly be acquiring the services of a World Cup-winning coach in the form of Springbok mentor Jacques Nienaber.
Talking of coaches, Everitt has got his new challenge at the helm of Edinburgh off to a positive start. His team won in Wales in the first week and then followed that up with a narrow but exciting win over the Lions in his first home game in charge. The Lions have now lost two games by a narrow margin but showed plenty of promise.
Promise might not be the word to apply to the Welsh challenge at this point, with Scarlets being well beaten in South Africa and the Ospreys only just getting the better of Zebre, but Cardiff did serve notice that they won’t be giving up the Welsh Shield in a hurry as they scored a tight win over Dragons in their derby in Newport.
WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
Ospreys 34 Zebre 31
Connacht 34 Glasgow Warriors 26
DHL Stormers 52 Scarlets 7
Leinster 34 Hollywoodbets Sharks 13
Edinburgh 17 Emirates Lions 16
Benetton 13 Munster 13
Dragons 9 Cardiff Rugby 16
Ulster 26 Vodacom Bulls 19
.@UlsterRugby put in a huge shift to defend their home ground 😮💨#BKTURC #URC | #ULSvBUL pic.twitter.com/IjabdlHzpT
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 29, 2023