The Vodacom United Rugby Championship log does not make pretty reading for South Africans but after the fifth round of competition at least all the local teams can feel that they are getting closer to that magical point when you can say the game is starting to work successfully.
A Super Saturday of #URC action 🤩@Vodacom #SHAvCON #DRAvOSP #MUNvSTO pic.twitter.com/2VjVjP9YvL
— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) November 18, 2023
Let’s not get too excited about the fact that three of the teams did at least manage a losing bonus point in a round that saw four defeats in four starts. The South African teams need more than just bonus points now to make any impression on a log which has Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Ulster, Connacht, Edinburgh, and Munster starting to surge at the top.
The Vodacom Bulls, who were the one team to end with nothing, have dropped from first to seventh while the DHL Stormers stay in the ninth position on the log that is their lowest since January 2022. The Lions are 13th, 11 points behind the leading duo of Leinster and Glasgow. The Hollywoodbets Sharks remain rooted in last position, four points behind the second last team, and with just two log points to their name after five games.
SOBERING READING
It does make for sobering reading for the World Cup champion nation, but it needs to be remembered that the top teams overseas are being strengthened by the return of their international players while the South Africans have had to go without due to the blanket rest given to the winning Bok squad.
Most of the games have been played overseas, which cues another horrible statistic - the South African sides have played 15 games on tour in this edition of the cross-hemisphere competition, and they have won just three of them. That’s easy to work out, it’s a 20 per cent success rate, and no teacher would deem that a good enough return from a pupil.
However, the Stormers and the Lions both turned in really good, competitive performances against teams they weren’t really expected to beat away from home. The Lions led at halftime against Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium, and the Stormers, after being 10-0 down to a try on the halftime hooter, put in a dominant second half forward performance that should have at least earned them a draw.
STORMERS SCRUM MADE A MASSIVE STATEMENT
In this process driven era of rugby and in a long competition where there will be a role reversal once the overseas teams arrive in South Africa, the Stormers can probably feel pleased about the questions that were answered in the tight game at a drenched Thomond Park.
Questions like is there life after Steven Kitshoff - who has now arrived in Ulster to start the next chapter of his rugby career - when it comes to the scrum. On the evidence of the destructive scrumming performance that on one occasion netted three scrum penalties in quick succession deep in Munster’s half and really should have elicited a warning from the referee if there was to be any consistency, there certainly is.
It was Sti Sithole’s first start since moving back to the Cape from the Lions and he showed in Limerick that he is likely to prove a shrewd buy for the Stormers. The rest of the Stormers pack was good too, and while the lineout remains a concern, Evan Roos spearheaded an effort that did appear to rock Munster for periods of the second half.
Coach John Dobson asked afterwards if there was any other team in the competition asides from maybe Leinster that would have given the champions such a headache on their home field and the answer to that is that he does have a point. The key now though for the Stormers is to eradicate the little errors that have a big impact on the quest to get over the line.
The Stormers have lost three games in succession for the first time in the competition and that will be a concern for Dobson but at the same time this was never a game that he expected to be targeting. It was against Benetton in Treviso the previous week that the Stormers really tripped up on tour, and the Limerick performance was a huge improvement.
COETZEE’S CARD CHANGED THE GAME FOR BULLS
The Bulls looked okay in their clash with Edinburgh at The Hive before their co-captain and talisman Marcell Coetzee was red carded for one of those tackle incidents that have become a blight on modern rugby. As is so often the case, there were questions of consistency, with Edinburgh No 8 Billy Mata appearing to execute the same shoulder to head upright tackle later in the game and he was just yellow carded.
The colour of the Mata card did not have any material effect on the result as it happened in the last 10 minutes, but if the Bulls director of rugby Jake White is incensed about the lack of consistency he’d be right to feel that way.
The Bulls were leading when two quick cards within a minute of each other - Coetzee’s red and a yellow for Cameron Hanekom - led to a dramatic momentum shift that saw the hosts take complete control of the game with two tries. Sean Everitt’s team led 28-13 so the Bulls did really well to come back to 28-13 with seven minutes to go, only to concede a late penalty that denied them a bonus point that would have been the least they deserved for their efforts.
The Bulls managed two wins in their four tour starts so they will come home to Loftus, where they really do have a big advantage over overseas opponents in particular because of the impact of altitude, feeling they are in a good space.
SHARKS MADE STATEMENT EVEN IN DEFEAT
They face a Connacht team next that will have felt they got out of jail against the Sharks at the weekend. Although the Sharks ended up losing by one point, and that was really confounding given how dominant they were, their first match of the season at Hollywoodbets Kings Park sent out a very clear message that the talk about the new game being scripted by John Plumtree amounts to much more than just talk.
This was a game that put the flesh onto the bones, and yet the Sharks still fell short. How was that? Well it’s quite simple really - the Sharks lacked the street smarts to close out the game late in the piece and also made mistakes that prevented them from rounding off the multitude of opportunities they had to get properly ahead on the scoreboard.
It may well all come down to the lack of an experienced spine to the team in the absence of the World Cup winning Boks and is a legacy of the poor recruitment that has pretty much been the signature of the Sharks since Plumtree’s previous era as coach ended 10 years ago.
Plumtree appeared to indicate during a media round table in the buildup to the Connacht game that he would be taking over the contracting from here, and if that is the case it is high time it happened. If you want to know why the second Plumtree era is taking time to bring results, it is because he inherited a squad that isn't the product of very astute recruitment.
NEEDS TO BE MORE ALIGNMENT IN RECRUITMENT
The lack of alignment between recruitment and what the coaches want has long been a problem area, and it particularly hurt Sean Everitt, who in the early stages of his stint with Edinburgh is busy overturning any misconceptions about his coaching abilities.
To refresh memories, Everitt was working on a succession plan and a game model tailored for the prodigiously talented group of young players who gave him age-group success before he took up the senior coaching job. However, there was a change of direction forced on him when the American equity partners came in and placed an emphasis on marquee players that did not necessarily suit his playing template or the existing culture.
There is a science to recruiting that the Sharks appeared to overlook and while they do have the most Boks on their books, they also have the worst depth in comparison to the other big three local URC franchises, the Stormers and the Bulls. Which shouldn’t make sense if you consider the Durban franchise’s financial muscle.
If the head coach, in this case Plumtree, can have more control of recruiting there is a good future beckoning for the Sharks who played with an attacking shape and intensity against Connacht that was light years better than anything we have seen from them for a long time.
What it needs is for the Sharks to get over the line for a win that will provide the needed confidence boost, but more than that Plumtree needs to be given the materials he needs for his game plan to be executed effectively. As he says, it will take time, but at least if he is in control of the contracting there is significant light at the end of the tunnel.
WEEKEND RESULTS
Edinburgh 31 Vodacom Bulls 23
Ulster 24 Emirates Lions 17
Zebre 22 Cardiff Rugby 22
Hollywoodbets Sharks 12 Connacht 13
Dragons 20 Ospreys 5
Munster 10 DHL Stormers 3
Glasgow Warriors 26 Benetton 12
Leinster 54 Scarlets 5