SA sides will improve - Van der Walt

South African sides may not have gotten off to the best start in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, but it is too early to write them off yet.

That’s the view of Edinburgh utility back Jaco van der Walt, who warned other teams that the SA sides will learn quickly and improve.

The Scottish international reckons that while SA teams have only had one win out of eight in the two rounds of the competition thus far, they will improve as time goes on.

“It hasn’t been good for them so far, but you can’t underestimate the South African teams,” he said after his team were beaten by a late drop goal in Treviso.

 “They’re good teams with good individual players. They’re just getting used to a new tournament and to the weather as well - obviously, in South Africa, they get better weather and play expansive rugby. So it’s difficult for them to adjust to this weather to begin with, but it won’t take them long to get used to it and then we’ll see the best of them.”

Leonardo Marin split the posts in the last minutes to deny Edinburgh but Van der Walt was pragmatic, saying the team would pick themselves up for the next game.

“We made too many mistakes and we can’t afford to do that again,” he said.

“It would have been nice to have kicked the winning goal, but unfortunately it didn’t go my way or the team’s way. We’ll be better next week.”

While most of the focus had been on the performance of the South African sides, the real drama came as Dragons almost shocked Leinster in their Sunday game, going down by a solitary point to the four-time Pro14 champions.

Afterwards Dragons coach Dean Ryan lamented his side’s loss.

"It hurts more than when we lose by 30 or 40 points.

"To get this close to Leinster... we've been close before but didn't really feel we'd have pinched it but to actually feel that we've got something in this game, that hurts more and we've got to go through that."

Zebre’s struggles continued as Ulster thrashed them 36-3 as coach Dan McFarland sounded pretty chuffed with the result.

“What do you want me to say? Can we get better? Of course, we can. Did I think some of those great fellows put in a great shift against a team that scored 26 points last week in the space of 40 minutes and we held them to no tries? I'm really pleased with that.

"Second game of the year. Was there some disjointed stuff? If you want that answer, yes."

Leinster will have the going slightly easier this week against Zebre, while Ulster move on to face the giant-killing Benetton in Belfast. The Dragons will have a tough trip to Galway to face another big performing Irish side in Connacht.