In 1998 the Springboks edged out the Wallabies 14-13 at the Subiaco Oval in Perth in a thoroughly forgettable wet weather game, which was high on errors and low on quality and the South African team’s coach Nick Mallett gave them the hairdryer treatment afterwards.
At the Monday review session he told the team in no uncertain terms what he thought of their performance. He spared no-one in his assessment. He told the players they had been poor and were lucky to win. But then, at the end of the session, he is said to have changed tack, “By the way guys, you are the first Springbok team to have won an away Tri-Nations test. Well done! That’s something to be proud of.”
There might have been many South Africans who felt like Mallett felt then when watching the SA sides play in the latest round of the Vodacom URC. The Fidelity SureDrive Lions delivered arguably the best performance of all four but even they were behind against the second last placed team in the competition at a stage of the second half.
The Fidelity SecureDrive Lions are one step closer to securing their #VURC playoff spot 🦁🔝 pic.twitter.com/gwo0HF72Vg
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 28, 2026
Performance is the key word. There was a lot of imperfection in performance over the four games. The Vodacom Bulls still look a bit flaky and prone to letting teams back into games and still at times not completely sure of the template they should be following, and ditto the DHL Stormers, who produced a litany of errors that was mind-boggling.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks were equally off with their execution in Durban in the first game of the weekend.
IN AMONG THE ERRORS LOTS TO BE POSITIVE ABOUT
And yet, like the Boks in Perth back in 1998, there was something to be proud of and positive about. All the teams went back-to-back from the week before in terms of getting a positive result. Only the Sharks failed to register a four try bonus point. And across the eight games played since the return to URC action after the conclusion of the Guinness Six Nations, SA sides accumulated 39 log points out of a possible 40.
If anything, the fact they were so imperfect and still won their games must be a sign of improvement and promise. Mallett’s team went on from their narrow squeak in Perth in 1998 to beat the All Blacks in Wellington seven days later and in doing so pretty much set up the country’s first ever Tri-Nations (now Rugby Championship) trophy.
Will one of the SA teams emulate that and win the URC? It is still the Stormers who are best placed to do that, and you had to sympathise with their head coach John Dobson when he said after the game that he found it weird that his team was being so criticised when they had accumulated 51 points from their 14 games so far.
That is an impressive stat and 15 points from the last three games somewhat erases the impact of their three successive losses in derby games.
The DHL Stormers pick up maximum points at home 🏠🌩️#VURC | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/1t5rqWSruv
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 28, 2026
But Dobson was also honest enough to admit to Schalk Burger, who was interviewing him, that the performance was “dire”. And for most of the match it was, mostly because of errors that at times were more comical than mind-boggling.
Or would have been if it weren’t for the fact that it made the Stormers supporters more nervy than they should have been given the clear dominance their team enjoyed but just couldn’t convert.
NO DENYING THE IMPROVEMENT NEEDED TO CHALLENGE FOR THE TITLE
They did convert in the end, and three tries in the last quarter gave them a 33-14 win that had looked unlikely after 66 minutes but which was an adequate summation of their overall superiority on the day.
It wasn’t that Edinburgh played particularly well, it was just that their opponents gifted them oxygen by allowing them to stay in the game, and the 14-point swing intercept try that turned what should have been a deserved likely Stormers lead into 7-all at halftime was the biggest gift of all.
Edinburgh may be on the lower rungs of the URC log but they had their international players back and a 19 point win over them is not to be scoffed at. From a performance viewpoint, however, Dobson will know his team needs a big improvement if they are to challenge for the title, and the Bulls’ Johan Ackermann will surely say the same.
His team should have won by more than three points. They did well to overcome a strong and determined start from a Munster team that was hurt by being whitewashed by the Sharks the week before and with a few minutes to go, leading by eight points, the prospect of another score to take them beyond the more than 13 predicted winning margin was on.
But a ball was spilt at the restart, the Bulls found themselves with a defensive scrum, and one of the best Munster scrums of an afternoon where they mostly came second in that phase set up a try that secured Munster two bonus points that lifted the visitors back above the Bulls on the log and could prove significant at the season’s end.
BULLS LET MUNSTER GET SOME CONSOLATION
It was in a way an error that was so similar to those made by the Stormers not only against Edinburgh but also in the three games they lost - getting the initiative by scoring and then surrendering it almost immediately by conceding points. In the end, Munster were left to reflect on what might have been, and yet it was a game where it felt like the Bulls did their best to help them regain their self-respect.
The Vodacom Bulls are victorious at Loftus 🐂🔥#SSRugby | #VURC pic.twitter.com/HIGXg28JoW
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 28, 2026
The Dragons carried their plucky attitude of the previous Sunday’s game against the Stormers into their clash with the Lions and were full value for being just four points down at halftime and then three points ahead early in the second half. But while a previous Lions team may have spat the dummy, the current crop are made of sterner stuff and their last half hour was exemplary Lions rugby.
They have an advantage when it comes to the URC that the other teams competing for playoff spots in that competition don’t have - because they were knocked out of the EPCR Challenge Cup in the pool phase, they don’t have any commitments until they host Glasgow Warriors on 18 April. That’s enough time for them to refresh and prepare for what will be a difficult finish to the league phase that can still see them drop out of the top eight.
SHARKS ARE UP AGAINST IT
Right now though they thoroughly deserve their fifth spot, and it is the Sharks, seven points adrift of the top eight, who look the most vulnerable to missing playoff and Champions Cup qualification.
It's back-to-back home wins for JP Pietersen and the Hollywoodbets Sharks 🦈🏉#VURC | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/OiGVCMpnTF
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 27, 2026
Seven points wasn’t a lot a few games ago, but it is becoming a lot now that the window is narrowing, and that the gap widened by one point when they failed to get a try scoring bonus point. They only have four games to make up that gap and apart from being near perfect in their remaining games the teams they are chasing are going to have to lose two of their remaining four.
Weekend Vodacom URC results (round 14)
Hollywoodbets Sharks 21 Cardiff 15
Glasgow Warriors 31 Benetton 10
Leinster 36 Scarlets 19
Vodacom Bulls 34 Munster 31
Connacht 21 Ospreys 14
Fidelity SureDrive Lions 42 Dragons 26
DHL Stormers 33 Edinburgh 14
Zebre 12 Ulster 28
Log positions after 14 games: 1. Glasgow Warriors 55 points; 2. DHL Stormers 51; Ulster 47; 4. Leinster 46; 5. Fidelity SureDrive Lions 43; 6. Cardiff 41; 7. Munster 41; 8. Vodacom Bulls 40; 9. Connacht 39; 10. Hollywoodbets Sharks 33; 11. Ospreys 30; 12. Benetton 28; 13. Edinburgh 23; 14. Scarlets 21; 15. Dragons 21; 16. Zebre 12.