The South African teams finally began to flex their muscles in round three of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship but that is likely to only add to the challenge faced in what has become an important final round of tour games.
With just one win from the four local teams in eight starts, the first two rounds delivered results that might have just taken some of the edge off the anticipation of teams that would have had little idea of what to expect from the South Africans. Teams from this country were part of the competition in its previous incarnation as the PRO14, but the Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings were not considered to be on the same level as the four premier franchises.
Cardiff Blues, after dominating the first half, were the first team to feel the proper wrath of South Africa’s champion franchise, the Vodacom Bulls, when the Pretoria team scored 26 points in the second half to turn around a 13 point halftime deficit and win by 10.
Judging from what Cardiff captain Josh Turnbull has had to say at the start of the build-up to Saturday night’s clash with the Cell C Sharks, the Bulls performance provided the sort of wake-up call to his men that their overseas opponents had delivered to the South Africans in the first two rounds.
“We knew what they were going to bring, which is physicality. We probably had the upper hand on them in the first half but in the second half they got a bit of a rocket,” said Turnbull to the Welsh media.
“They came out firing after halftime and our mentality was that whoever got the first score in the second half would get the upper hand. It was pretty tight and it was them who did. We have to look at that through the week and move on because it won’t get any easier against the Sharks next week.”
The Sharks sent out their own ominous warning to Cardiff by beating their fellow Welsh team, the Ospreys, comfortably last weekend and will go to the Welsh capital feeling confident that they can make it two wins on the trot. Most South African coaches were realistic enough ahead of their first away forays into the new competition to admit that two wins in four games would be a fair result from the tour.
So the Sharks are on target if they win on Saturday, and the same can be said for the Bulls and the Emirates Lions. Even the Stormers have a chance of getting what they came for if things really go well for them in Friday night’s game against the Dragons in Newport.
“We’ve had a draw and we got a losing bonus point against Benetton so if we can get a full house of five points against the Dragons then we will have managed eight points from the tour, which would be the equivalent of two wins and break even point for us,” said Dobson.
“Obviously we are putting a lot of pressure on ourselves but we do need to go all out for a good win to end the tour and put ourselves in a fair position as we head into the six week break before the home leg starts (at the end of November).”
It won’t be easy for the Stormers to hit their target of winning and scoring four tries as the Dragons won comfortably away against Connacht at the weekend. Connacht were the team that comprehensively beat the Bulls in Galways in the second round. However, the Stormers can draw encouragement from the way they forced Edinburgh to move away from their ball in hand approach with their excellent defensive effort last weekend, while there has been a lot of promise shown by the Cape team on attack.
Had they shown just a little more patience when in the Edinburgh 22, the Stormers would probably have registered their first victory in the competition. They have lineout issues to sort out, but their scrummaging was solid, with veteran Brok Harris, back in Stormers colours after a long sojourn in Europe, proving a galvanising influence on the forward unit.
Scrumming has tended to be a strong suit of the South Africans in the competition so far, and the Lions certainly had Glasgow Warriors on the rack on occasions in their game at The Scotstoun. However, it is the Lions who could most pay for the relative success and marked allround improvement of the South African teams last week as they come up against a strong Ulster team on Friday that looks set to have all hands on deck in their attempt to thwart the challenge.
You wouldn’t say so if you look at their results so far, but Ulster have struggled with injuries in the early part of the season and are getting ready to welcome back five key players for the Lions’ visit to Belfast’s Kingspan Stadium.
The five players are Kieran Treadwell, Rob Lyttle, Eric Sullivan, Robert Baloucoune and David O’Connor. There is no sign as yet of Ulster’s biggest new star, the recently recruited Springbok and former Bulls and Stormers No8 Duane Vermeulen.
“It’s awesome. You feel for the boys when they are injured, they play the game to play games, they don’t play it to be injured,” said Ulster defence coach Jared Payne.
“So it’s class to get them back onto the pitch and get them running around and bringing their own excitement. Getting them out of the gym is great to see. It gives everyone a bit of a lift.”
Fourth Round Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixtures
Ulster v Emirates Lions (Belfast, Friday 20.35)
Dragons v DHL Stormers (Newport, Friday 20.35)
Zebre v Glasgow Warriors (Parma, Saturday 14.00)
Benetton v Ospreys (Treviso, Saturday 16.00)
Edinburgh v Vodacom Bulls (Edinburgh, Saturday 18.15)
Leinster v Scarlets (Dublin, Saturday 18.15)
Cardiff Blues v Cell C Sharks (Cardiff, Saturday 20.35)
Munster v Connacht (Limerick, Saturday 20.35)