The wins for Leinster and Ulster in their respective EPCR semifinals this past weekend should have been welcomed by the South African teams competing for top four spots in the Vodacom URC.
Not only did Leinster’s win in their Investec Champions Cup semifinal against Toulon, thus advancing them to their fourth final in the space of five seasons, keep the URC flag flying in the elite European competition, it also ensured that the current fourth placed team on the URC will continue to be committed on two fronts.
Leinster host the SecureDrive Lions on Saturday night in their penultimate league game and it will be interesting to see how their coach Leo Cullen goes about selecting his team given that his men are now within sight of the prize they covet most.
They will be in Bilbao two weeks later for the European grand final and it is hard to imagine that much focus will now be directed to the decider as Leinster go out to end a period of heartbreak that has seen them fall tantalisingly short at the last hurdle on three separate occasions.
Leinster have changed their approach this year, with the practice of sending out under-strength teams in URC games that fall close to Champions Cup knock-out ties being discontinued.
But will that be the case now that they have made the final and the trip to Spain is so close? It wasn’t a coincidence that the only time Leinster won the URC, indeed advanced beyond the semifinal stage, in the era since the South African teams joined to make it a stronger competition was last year. For that also happened to be the only year they haven’t been in the European final.
A DILEMMA FOR CULLEN
Now that they are in the final again will Cullen send out his strongest team in both the remaining weeks of the URC regular season or will he turn to a second string combination to give his frontline players a rest? There is risk in both approaches, but if the Champions Cup is the main focus, it might be more of a risk to continue pushing the energy sapped first choice players into action.
The Lions could benefit from that when they play Leinster on Saturday. Leinster will still start as favourites at home regardless of what team they put in the field, but it does give the Lions a window of opportunity to exploit as they go all out for the win that will pretty much make sure of an unprecedented top four finish for the Johannesburg-based team.
LIONS CAN HELP THEMSELVES AND THE STORMERS
At the same time a win for the Lions will help the Stormers’ quest for top spot, as Leinster do remain a threat. The Ulster team the Stormers will face at Ravenshill on Friday night is subject to the same questions as those revolving around Leinster now that they have advanced to the EPCR Challenge Cup final, where they will face Montpellier the night before the Champions Cup final.
Ulster showed they were prioritising the EPCR competition when they went under-strength in their last URC game against Munster, but they do face a tricky dilemma. The loss to Munster has seen them slip to eighth, where they are now being strongly challenged by Connacht.
Winning the Challenge Cup will give them automatic entry into next season’s Champions Cup, so much could hinge on what chance Ulster feel they have of winning the URC given that a finish in the bottom part of the top eight will mean they have to travel for the knock-outs.
Ulster booked a place in the Challenge Cup Final after a thrilling 29-12 semifinal victory over Exeter Chiefs at Affidea Stadium 🏟️
— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) May 2, 2026
Match Report ➡️ https://t.co/3L3kLUFL1M pic.twitter.com/eePdjXZsxR
Ulster haven’t won any trophy in 20 years so it would be understandable if they looked at the Challenge Cup as the most likely avenue to break that drought. While South Africans, knowing that the Challenge Cup is the secondary of the two EPCR competitions, don’t put that much value on the competition, on the evidence of the emotion around Ulster’s win over Exeter Chiefs that is not the case in Ireland.
INJURY TOLL MOUNTING FOR STORMERS’ OPPONENTS
Further boosting the Stormers’ chances of getting the win they need to be almost sure of a top two finish even before they head to Cardiff for their final game a week later is the toll that the Ulster win over the Chiefs may have taken out of them. Jacob Stockdale was concussed in an incident that saw him carded and there have been reports that Stuart McCloskey, so important to the Ulster game, was also injured in the semifinal.
Not that the Stormers will be under any illusions of how difficult it will be to beat Ulster on a Friday night on their home ground, with this being a game that the Stormers coach John Dobson saw as a massive hurdle for his team long ago.
BULLS STILL IN FRAME FOR TOP FOUR FINISH
The Vodacom are the other team in contention for a top four finish as they finish off with two games at home that they should win against the Italian teams - Zebre this week followed by Benetton the week after. If they can get a maximum of 10 points out of the two games it will lift them to 59, which will put them in the top four if they are helped out by their fellow South African teams.
Good Food 🍕🇮🇹
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) April 28, 2026
Good Rugby 🇿🇦🇮🇹
Good Company👨👩👧👦
Experience it all at Loftus this May for just R60.
🆚Zebre | 9 May | 13:45
🆚Benetton | 16 May | 16:00
🎟️TICKETS: https://t.co/9eZxO6xGZq@Vodacom #urc | @URCOfficial_RSA pic.twitter.com/TlGPsOCI2h
They could also go past both the Lions and the Stormers should those two teams lose both their remaining games. It makes for an exciting and tense final two rounds of the competition for the three SA teams, with the only local team with nothing to play for being the Hollywoodbets Sharks.
The Durbanites finish off a disappointing season by hosting the two Italian teams and they should win those but they have nothing other than pride to play for as a top eight finish is now beyond them.
Vodacom URC Round 17
Glasgow v Cardiff (Glasgow, Friday 8:45pm)
Ulster v DHL Stormers (Belfast, Friday 8:45pm)
Vodacom Bulls v Zebre (Pretoria, Saturday 1:45pm)
Hollywoodbets Sharks v Benetton (Durban, Saturday 4pm)
Ospreys v Scarlets (Swansea, Saturday 6:30pm)
Leinster v Fidelity SecureDrive Lions (Dublin, Saturday 6:30pm)
Dragons v Edinburgh (Newport, Saturday 8:45pm)
Connacht v Munster (Galway, Saturday 8:45pm)
Log positions after 16 games: 1. Stormers 56; 2. Glasgow Warriors 55; 3. Fidelity SecureDrive Lions 53; 4. Leinster 53; 5. Munster 51; 6. Cardiff 50; 7. Vodacom Bulls 49; 8. Ulster 47; 9. Connacht 44; 10: Hollywoodbets Sharks 36; 11. Ospreys 35; 12. Edinburgh 33; 13. Benetton 33; 14. Dragons 25; 15. Scarlets 24; 16. Zebre 15.