Four from four yet again, with 19 log points out of a possible 20 tell the story of yet another amazing weekend of rugby for the four South African teams in the third round of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.
Like last weekend, all four SA teams were on the winning side over the last few days and as a result, the Vodacom Bulls (second on 14 points from three games), DHL Stormers (fourth on 10 points from two games), Cell C Sharks (fifth on nine points from two games) and the Emirates Lions (seventh on nine points from three games) all occupy spots in the top-eight on the standings.
It was only the Cell C Sharks that failed to get a four-try bonus point this weekend after they were made to work very hard in Wales on Saturday evening.
Only four teams are still unbeaten with Leinster the only non-South-African unbeaten side. The Vodacom Bulls (2), DHL Stormers (4) and Cell C Sharks (5) are the South African unbeaten teams with the Emirates Lions currently placed 7th on the log after their two victories on the road.
Vodacom Bulls 28-14 Connacht
The Vodacom Bulls recorded their third win in as many weeks of the new Vodacom United Rugby Championship season when they defeated Irish visitors Connacht by 28-14 at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday evening.
The men in blue managed to score a well-deserved bonus-point victory on home soil, with Zak Burger grabbing two five-pointers in the process, while the defeat was a second successive loss for the Irish province following last weekend’s loss to DHL Stormers in Stellenbosch.
Last season's runners up scored three converted tries to open up a comfortable 21-0 halftime advantage and they added a fourth converted try early in the second half, while Connacht pulled back two tries in the last quarter of the game.
Ulster 12-20 Leinster
A dominant first half helped Leinster triumph 20-13 and go three wins from three in a top-of-the-table Irish derby clash with Ulster at a rain-swept Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
Tries from Ryan Baird and Dan Sheehan, along with two conversions and two penalties from Ross Byrne, brought Leinster the four points on an evening when Ireland skipper Johnny Sexton made his first appearance of the season off the bench.
After trailing 17-3 at the break, Ulster battled back through a John Andrew try which was supplemented by two penalties and a conversion from John Cooney to claim the losing bonus point.
Cardiff 18-31 Emirates Lions
The Emirates Lions completed a magnificent Welsh double with bonus point victory 31-18 (halftime 10-13) over Cardiff Rugby in a Vodacom United Rugby Championship match at the Cardiff Arms Park on Friday night.
They followed up last week’s 28-27 victory over the Ospreys with a dominant second half performance – scoring 21 points to 5 – in windy and sometimes wet conditions to set their VURC II campaign on fire.
A powerful maul and scrum, determined defence and some hard running by their backs had Cardiff punch drunk and ready to throw in the towel by the time Quan Horn on the left wing claimed the bonus point try with two minutes remaining, winning the race to a kick ahead and touching down.
DHL Stormers 34-18 Edinburgh
The DHL Stormers, defending champions in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, survived a strong start by Edinburgh to secure their second victory in as many matches in the competition with a 34-18 bonus-point win at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon.
The first half was hard-fought as Edinburgh dominated the first 30 minutes, but they were only able to cross the tryline once with SA-born Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman diving over from a pick and go to add to an early penalty goal by flyhalf Blair Kinghorn.
A strong fightback by the DHL Stormers in the last 10 minutes of the half, however, saw Springbok utility forward Deon Fourie cross the chalk on the stroke of halftime from a rolling maul, and the successful conversion left them trailing by only 10-7 at the break.
The hosts broke away in the second half with Joseph Dweba (hooker) scoring before Suleiman Hartzenberg (wing) crossed for a brace tries to add to two penalty goals by Manie Libbok (flyhalf), while they limited the visitors to another try and penalty goal for the well-deserved win.
Ospreys 32-17 Glasgow Warriors
Keelan Giles scored a pair of tries as the Ospreys registered a 32-17 bonus-point victory over Glasgow in Swansea, their first win of the season.
The speedy winger had another ruled out by the TMO for a knock-on but still took his try tally this season to four to give Wales head coach Wayne Pivac a nudge ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.
Both sides were forced into making changes to their back rows in the opening 12 minutes as the Ospreys lost Ethan Roots to a head knock and the Warriors saw their own number eight, Jack Dempsey, leave with a rib problem.
Munster 21-05 Zebre Parma
Munster’s superior maul delivered their opening win of the season as they overcame Zebre Parma 21-5 at Musgrave Park.
Ben Healy converted tries from Niall Scannell (2) and Keynan Knox to give Graham Rowntree’s side a 21-0 half-time lead. Zebre suffered a couple of injury blows and had lock Gabriele Venditti sin-binned.
Replacement Lorenzo Pani’s opportunist 44th-minute effort got the Italians off the mark, but a sloppy closing half an hour saw Munster miss out on the bonus point.
Benetton 34-23 Scarlets
Benetton held off a second-half Scarlets fightback to claim a 34-23 victory from their clash in Treviso.
Dwayne Peel’s men trailed 26-9 heading into the final quarter but rallied with tries from Sione Kalamafoni and Johnny Williams, while the returning Leigh Halfpenny contributed nine points and Rhys Patchell four to the Scarlets’ cause.
However, fly-half Tomas Albornoz had laid a strong foundation for the home side, scoring their first 19 points, including a try on the half-hour mark. Edoardo Padovani and Tommaso Menoncello also went over after the break.
Rhyno Smith took on kicking duties from Albornoz late on and added five points as Benetton claimed a first win over the Scarlets since 2019.
Dragons 19-20 Cell C Sharks
The Cell C Sharks clinched their second win in as many matches when they defeated the Dragons 20-19 in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match at Rodney Parade in Newport on Saturday night.
However, it wasn't easy and the Cell C Sharks had to fight back with two converted tries in the last 18 minutes to come away with the win in Wales.
The home side, coming from an away win against a strong Munster side last weekend, showed their intent by winning the first lineout on a Cell C Sharks throw-in and had the best of the first 40 minutes.
