The Hollywoodbets Sharks take a break from knockout rugby this weekend but the same can’t be said for the other three South African teams who all need to win their round 16 Vodacom United Rugby Championship matches if they want to achieve their goals.
Of course, the goals vary. The Vodacom Bulls will still be in the top four and on course for a home quarterfinal if they lose to the Glasgow Warriors on Saturday afternoon. But their chance of finishing top of the log will be gone if Franco Smith’s men get the better of a team coached by a man in Jake White who was part of Nick Mallett’s coaching team when Smith was a Springbok player.
It’s arguably more desperate for the DHL Stormers and the Emirates Lions, but only a bit more.
For the Stormers the knockout aspect centres around their top four pretensions. Their skipper Salmaan Moerat says his team still aims for a top-four finish and a home quarterfinal. That chance is gone if they lose to the Dragons at the Rodney Parade on Friday night.
Defeat won’t knock the Stormers out of the battle for a top-eight spot and qualification for next season’s Investec Champions Cup, but it will make their position more tenuous. So yes, it is a knock-out game in just about every sense.
And definitely ditto the Emirates Lions, who can’t afford to lose to Cardiff if they hope to remain in contention for a top-eight finish. They will be going to Cape Town for their last league game on 1 June with nothing to play for if they lose now.
Not that the three South African sides with URC ambitions are alone in going into this weekend’s fixtures on a playoff footing. Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh will feel the same when they face Zebre on Friday night, the Ospreys are in their last chance saloon at the RDS Arena against Leinster on Saturday, and neither Connacht nor Ulster can afford to lose in this round if they want to keep their ships properly afloat.
It all starts with Edinburgh and the Stormers in action at the same time on Friday night. Edinburgh will fancy their chances as they host Zebre, who are bottom of the log. Edinburgh are ninth currently, one point out of the top eight placings, but a five point haul from this could propel them to as high as fifth. They are more sure of doing that on their home field than some of the other teams that face greater jeopardy in this round.
The chances of one of those teams being the Stormers may have been minimised by how seriously they are taking the Dragons game. With the exception of Damian Willemse, who stayed in Cape Town to attend to a personal matter this week, John Dobson has selected his strongest team, with Sti Sithole’s return to the starting team at loosehead prop and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s appearance on the bench being the headline changes to the group that beat Leinster last time out.
The Bulls' clash with Glasgow, pitting the fourth-ranked team against the first, is arguably the big game of the round, rivalled by the Irish derby between Munster and Connacht in Limerick later in the day. The Bulls are always strong favourites at Loftus, with their altitude advantage, no matter who they play, but their experience against Munster, where they lost unexpectedly, did introduce a question mark that the Bulls need to sweep away with a win over these tough opponents.
While the Sharks have nothing to gain from a URC viewpoint in their game against Benetton at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, Benetton does. Their two-match tour of South Africa, which will be completed next week in Pretoria, is every bit as make or break, if not more so, than the Stormers’ trip to the UK and Ireland. Benetton are currently eighth and close enough to the top four to be in contention for a home playoff game, but they will drop well out of the top eighth if they lose both games.
The Sharks will be motivated by their stated quest to win all their remaining three URC games, which are all at home in front of a fan base that has remained loyal during tough times. There is also the not-insignificant matter of the Sharks needing to retain winning momentum as they head towards the EPCR Challenge Cup final against Gloucester two weeks from now.
Ulster are one of three teams locked together in positions six to eight on the log, one point behind the fifth-placed Stormers, and cannot afford to lose away at Parc Y Scarlets if they want to remain in contention, particularly given that they travel to Leinster next week. The Lions have yet to play in the Champions Cup or the URC playoffs and that will elude them for another season if they lose so there is no other way but to win for them against Cardiff at Emirates Airlines Park.
Even Leinster, who have for so long exerted a hegemonic control of the URC log, are under pressure this week. They host an Ospreys team that boosted their confidence by winning in Cape Town two days ago as they search for the turnaround from their recent travails in the URC - they lost both games in South Africa. A win might regain the top spot, but a loss will significantly strengthen the chances of Glasgow, Munster or the Bulls usurping them.
10 May 2024
United Rugby Championship
20:35 Dragons RFC v DHL Stormers
20:35 Edinburgh v Zebre Parma
11 May 2024
United Rugby Championship
14:00 Vodacom Bulls v Glasgow Warriors
16:05 Cell C Sharks v Benetton
16:05 Scarlets v Ulster
18:15 Emirates Lions v Cardiff Rugby
18:15 Munster v Connacht
20:35 Leinster v Ospreys