The three South African teams that have advanced this far will head into the business end of the Vodacom United Rugby season looking to put the jigsaw pieces in place that will give them a perfect picture heading into the first knock-out weekend.
The Vodacom Bulls, DHL Stormers, and Hollywoodbets Sharks will start off this buildup week with what should have been a healthy reminder of what the real aim should ultimately be.
The Cardiff finale to the Investec Champions Cup season produced a fitting climax to a competition that is usually criticised in the early weeks over issues relating to formatting, and perhaps rightly so, but then tends to gather impressive steam in the deciding weeks when only the best teams and the most committed teams are still involved.
After watching the passion and emotion that went in from both winners Bordeaux-Begles and the valiant losers Northampton Saints, the local trio of teams should want to be among the best so that they can challenge for the ultimate club silverware going forward and reprise what Bordeaux would have felt when they lifted the trophy.
BREAD AND BUTTER COMPETITION
At the moment that is just a pipe-dream, with all the local teams having exited the top competition at the end of the Pool phase.
However, this is a time when squads are still being developed for the double challenge of trying to win the URC and the Champions Cup, so it was a positive that the focus on the URC, the so-called bread and butter competition, paid off.
Three teams in the top five is impressive, and given the Sharks are third this time whereas in the inaugural season, which was the previous time SA had three in the top five, they were fifth to the Bulls’ fourth and the Stormers were second whereas it now reads 2, 3 and 5, this last league campaign was the best yet.
And going a step further by winning what is effectively the main league competition they participate in will be a significant step for the SA sides.
The Stormers of course have already done it once, while the Bulls have been the losing team in two close finals. The Sharks have yet to advance past the quarterfinal phase, with the last gasp Chris Smith drop-goal that sunk them in Pretoria in 2022 being the closest they have come to getting into the last four.
The Bulls and Stormers have been among the most consistent teams in the competition over the first four seasons, with the Stormers never ending lower than fifth while the Bulls have finished second twice. But it is the winning of silverware that would best inspire growth through confidence so that the advance on the EPCR competitions can begin in earnest next season.
Certainly the sharp end of the Champions Cup is where the local teams should want to be, and the fight put up by the underdogs Northampton showed how much it meant to them and in turn the way Bordeaux players appeared incapable of bottling their celebrations even though they were still on the field playing when the game became safe was an indicator of how much it meant to them.
It is the club competition that matters most to the widest audience.
BULLS QUESTION FOCUSES ON GOOSEN
However, the URC is a big competition too, and the teams will want to get it right this weekend, particularly the Bulls who stand to host a lucrative semifinal if they get past Edinburgh in Saturday’s quarterfinal. The Hollywoodbets Sharks may well be the visitors as they go in against a Munster team they beat comprehensively in league play last October.
It goes without saying though that the Sharks require a massive improvement on recent performances as Munster won the competition by travelling two years ago and are well versed in winning key away knockout games.
The jigsaw piece the Sharks need to put in place is their attacking game, and they will be hopeful that they can get a lift from some returning personnel in the form of scrumhalf Grant Williams, who is a better attacking option that Jaden Hendrikse, as well as Springbok World Cup winner Lukhanyo Am.
Both players have missed the recent games where the Sharks have come out as winners but struggled to bring a cutting edge to their attacking game. There was some doubt over Siya Masuku after he limped off against the Scarlets in the last league game so a return to fitness for flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse would be timely for the Sharks too.
Flyhalf is the main area of concern for Jake White ahead of his team’s clash with Edinburgh, who have picked up some momentum in the latter part of the season, where one of their wins was against the Bulls in the Challenge Cup, and therefore should not be taken lightly.
White will remind his players of how underdogs Benetton pushed them all the way in last year’s quarterfinal.
The man down at No 10 is Johan Goosen, which admittedly has been the case for quite a bit of the season so it isn’t as if the Bulls are completely caught out. However, using Keagan Johannes or Willie Engelbrecht there, or even Boeta Chamberlain if White feels he needs a specialist, is very different in a playoff game to a league game.
There haven’t been many updates on Goosen’s status so most people are in the dark over his chances of playing on Saturday. Bulls fans should be hoping he is ready to be in the selection mix.
There are a few other Bulls players who may be slated to come back at this point and together they could make a big difference to their team’s chances of going to another final, which they should be backed to do given that by finishing second they have secured home ground advantage until the decider.
WITHOUT DAMIAN IT WILL BE TOUGH FOR STORMERS
The local team with the toughest ask by some distance this weekend in the Stormers. Their coach John Dobson was looking forward to playing the Sharks in Durban in the quarterfinal and on current form you’d have to say that even though it would still have been an away game for the Cape team they would have stood a good chance.
The same can be said of their chances playing against the Glasgow team that appeared to be going through a bit of a confidence crisis post their 52-0 thrashing at the hands of Leinster in the Champions Cup.
However, last time out Glasgow appeared to have corrected with the return of some key players, among them centres Sione Tuipoluto and Huw Jones, and will be as formidable as they were in the corresponding game last year, which the Stormers lost.
The Stormers’ big question mark doesn’t revolve around injured players but how to react to the suspension incurred by Damian Willemse after being red-carded midway through the second half of the Stormers’ last league game against Cardiff.
With Willemse there the Stormers would still have had a good chance at the Scotstoun as a backline reading (10) Manie Libbok, (12) Sacha-Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and (13) Willemse would have real star quality to it.
Assuming he’s prepared to play Feinberg-Mngomezulu as an inside centre, Dobson still does have plenty of attacking X-factor to call on if you add Warrick Gelant to the mix. The fullback was one of the players rested against Cardiff.
Suleiman Hartzenberg has also been in great attacking form in recent weeks and toyed with the Cardiff defence last time out.
VODACOM URC QUARTERFINAL LINEUP
Glasgow Warriors v DHL Stormers (Glasgow, Friday 30 May, 8:35pm)
Vodacom Bulls v Edinburgh (Pretoria, Saturday 31 May, 1:30pm)
Leinster v Scarlets (Dublin, Saturday 31 May, 4pm)
Hollywoodbets Sharks v Munster, Saturday 31 May, 6:30pm)