Munster and Connacht have Irish eyes smiling in URC

Connacht have joined Munster on the charge up the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log and as it stands Ireland could well end up dominating the top eight that clinches playoff qualification.

While Munster racked up a half century en route to a massive record win over the previously resurgent Ospreys, Connacht also went beyond the 50 mark in securing a five point haul from their visit to Parma to play the bottom team, Zebre. Ulster’s defeat to Glasgow Warriors means their chances of pipping the DHL Stormers to second position overall are markedly diminished, but they are still comfortably in the top bracket and should still be backed for a top four position, although the race for home ground advantage in the first playoff game is a tight one.

It does make good reading for Irish eyes - Ireland are first, Ulster are third and Munster are fifth, meaning three of the five top five sides are currently Irish. Last season it ended with three South Africans and two Irish sides in the leading five. And Connacht are eighth, which means that as it stands they’d play Leinster in an away quarterfinal.

FOUR IRISH TEAMS IN TOP EIGHT

Also as it stands, Irish now have four teams in the top eight, meaning all their teams are in the top half. With the Cell C Sharks bringing up seventh to the Vodacom Bulls’ sixth, South Africa have three teams in the playoff bracket, with one Scottish team (Glasgow).

It is interesting to look at where the playoff games will be played, and between who, if the log was frozen now. If Leinster will be wary of having to play a derby at the start of the knock-out phase, so too will the Stormers if you consider their opponents will be the Sharks, who will have all their Springboks back at that point of proceedings.

Of course there’s plenty of water to still flow under the bridge and while the Stormers should now expect to hold onto second spot on the overall log, the Sharks will be hoping to finish higher than seventh. But it is nonetheless instructive to look at what the match-ups could potentially be. In the mythical scenario of the log being frozen now, the Bulls would travel to Ulster for their quarterfinal, while Munster would go to Glasgow.

THREATS TO SA AMBITIONS MULTIPLYING

While the Stormers got what they were hoping for when Glasgow Warriors pipped Ulster at Scotstoun at the start of what proved a decisive weekend, the threats to South African ambitions in the competition are multiplying.

Why the Stormers should be smiling is because the Glasgow win coupled with their own gutsy win over the Bulls the next day, has put them in a comfortable position on the two battlefronts that concern them. It will take a bizarre sequence of results for them to be unseated as South African conference leaders, which means they are set to retain the Shield, and second position is starting to look more probable than possible.

But the Bulls have now fallen out of the top four and apart from the top two, Leinster and the Stormers, they are now also behind Ulster, Glasgow and Munster. The last mentioned team, with a two game tour of South Africa set for the last rounds of the league phase of competition in April, has now joined Glasgow and Ulster in being a threat to the South African goal of repeating last season’s feat of getting two teams into the top four.

MUNSTER AND GLASGOW HAVE MOMENTUM

Like Glasgow, who continue to impress under the coaching of Franco Smith and are now proper dark horses for the trophy, Munster have picked up impressive momentum in the last two months. They’ve gone from at one stage being third last to fifth, and it has all happened in the relative blink of an eye as the Munster players start getting used to life under new coach Graham Rowntree, who replaced South African Johan van Graan in the off season.

With Cardiff dealing fairly comfortably with Benetton on Saturday, the Ospreys have now fallen behind in the Welsh Shield race. The five points Cardiff picked up against the zero managed by Ospreys when routed by Munster is now the difference between the teams, with Cardiff ninth overall and Ospreys 12th.

SCOTTISH SHIELD RACE ALSO LOOKS DECIDED

The Irish Shield race was pretty much done and dusted before the weekend, the South African one is now looking the same, and they are joined among the almost certain winners of a Shield trophy by Glasgow. Their nine point lead over second placed Benetton in the Scottish/Italian conference is a significant one if you consider the Scots have a game in hand and that there are only four rounds to play.

Edinburgh, who were still in contention at the start of the weekend, have dropped further off the pace following an unexpectedly heavy away defeat to Scarlets, who appear to be playing with renewed confidence subsequent to their recent win over the Bulls. The gap between Glasgow and Edinburgh is now 12 points, again with the Glaswegians having a game in hand.

That game in hand is next Saturday’s clash with the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg, which along with the Ulster game against the Sharks will have the other two local teams desperately hoping for South African wins. Losses for Ulster and Glasgow will certainly help the Bulls, who play their next game against the Lions at home in a fortnight from now.

WEEKEND VODACOM UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Glasgow Warriors 17 Ulster 11

Munster 58 Ospreys 3

Emirates Lions 7 Cell C Sharks 29

Vodacom Bulls 19 DHL Stormers 23

Zebre 34 Connacht 57

Cardiff Rugby 30 Benetton 13

Scarlets 42 Edinburgh 14

Leinster 43 Dragons 14

NEXT VODACOM URC FIXTURES

Cell C Sharks v Ulster (Durban, Saturday 14.00)

Emirates Lions v Glasgow Warriors (Johannesburg, Saturday 16.10)