It was a dark weekend for the South African Clubs in Round 12 of the 2022/2023 United Rugby Championship with only the Vodacom Bulls winning their match.
Despite their loss against the Glasgow Warriors the DHL Stormers remained in second place in the United Rugby Championship with 45 log points after playing 11 matches. The Vodacom Bulls' brilliant win against the Dragons RFC moved to third on the log with 39 log points. The Vodacom Bulls have played 12 matches while Ulster with 38 points is in 4th place but Ulster has played 11 matches.
The loss of the Cell C Sharks Union Bordeaux-Bègles saw them plummet to the 9th place with 29 points after 10 matches played. The Emirates Lions dropped to the 12th place with 24 log points after a disappointing loss against Munster.
A last-gasp try by Glasgow Warriors wing Sebastian Cancelliere, his second of the match, condemned the DHL Stormers to a heart-breaking 24-17 defeat in a thrilling Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash at Scotstoun Stadium on Sunday.
The first half was played at a frenetic pace with both teams looking dangerous and putting on a show. Both sides scored twice with Manie Libbok’s boot proving to be the difference as the Capetonians took a slender 12-10 lead into the break.
However, the usually reliable DHL Stormers flyhalf missed three kicks at goal in the second half, leaving the highly entertaining and high-quality encounter on a knife edge with the scores tied at 17-all before a brilliant piece of vision by Sione Tuipulotu, a grubber in behind the defending champions’ defence, saw Cancelliere score the winner in the final play of the game.
Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship assignment in gusty Galway proved mountainous for a much-changed Cell C Sharks side as they suffered a 24-12 defeat to Connacht.
The Durban franchise sent a drastically overhauled team, under the guidance of Currie Cup head coach Joey Mongalo, to Ireland with Director of Rugby Neil Powell and his Springbok stars staying behind to prepare for next week’s big Heineken Champions Cup clash against Union Bordeaux-Bègles.
Mongalo’s men, captained by Reniel Hugo, were pinned in their half for most of the first 40 in which the game was stuck in first gear. The only success they had was in the scrums but that came to nought as a lack of cohesion and soft penalties put them back in their half, with Connacht dominating the lineouts and Cameron Wright’s kicking from the base in the swirling wind not accurate enough to be effective.
The Cell C Sharks failed to fire a shot whereas the hosts scored four answered tries for a commanding 24-0 lead. The impressive Rohan Janse van Rensburg finally opened their account on the hour-mark, with replacement prop Dian Bleuler scoring a second consolation try at the death.
The Emirates Lions slipped to a third straight defeat in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship as they went down 33-3 (half-time 12-3) to a resurgent Munster side in Cork on Friday night.
The Irish powerhouse, who had a slow start to the season, surged into the top eight with a five-try to-zero victory in atrocious conditions at Musgrave Park, where the visitors from South Africa struggled for most of the match.
The men from Johannesburg had less than 40% of the possession and territorial advantage, which meant they could never really get going in the tricky conditions, while they also missed too many tackles as Munster made the most of their opportunities.
The Vodacom Bulls started and finished strong to score a 29-14 bonus-point win over the Dragons in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture at Rodney Parade in Newport on Friday night.
With this convincing bonus-point win, the men from Pretoria put two derby defeats behind them to restart their Vodacom URC campaign. The victory was built on the power of their scrum and pack which dominated proceedings and a toiling but over-matched Dragons team apart from a disjointed second quarter.
The visitors had to make a late change with flyhalf Chris Smith forced to withdraw through illness. Johan Goosen took over the No 10 jersey from Smith, who remained at the team hotel along with Director of Rugby, Jake White, who’s also recovering from a cold.
