URC SCENE-SETTER: Injuries impact SA hopes as much hinges on Dublin finale
The Vodacom Bulls will be the one South African team heading to the Vodacom United Rugby Championship playoffs who will not be in an anxious mood when Leinster host Glasgow Warriors in the final league game of the season.
Jake White’s team effectively played themselves into a position where their fate was swinging into their hands when they beat the reigning champions in Glasgow a few weeks ago. A tour that saw wins over both of the most recent champions was as big a statement as you can get from the Pretoria team.
They say you make your own luck and maybe the Bulls did that as they really did become commanders of their own fate when Benetton shocked Glasgow in Treviso in the penultimate round. So
provided they beat the Dragons in Pretoria on Saturday, the Bulls won’t be worrying about the Dublin finale to the league season. They’re already in the position they have coveted for most of the season, and can only relinquish it if they lose and Glasgow win.
HOSTING STORMERS A PERILOUS PROSPECT
For the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the DHL Stormers it’s a bit different. Normally you wouldn’t imagine there’s much difference between ending third or fourth on the log. Both positions clinch you a home quarterfinal but deny you an automatic home semifinal should you get that far. And there’s also not that much difference between fifth and sixth. Both are just outside of the placings for a home playoff to start the Finals Series.
But this year those things may well
matter. Apart from giving them a better chance of playing a home semi if there is an upset in another game, a third placed finish will enable the Sharks to avoid the potentially perilous prospect of having to face their in form countrymen from Cape Town, the DHL Stormers, in their quarterfinal.
It is obvious why they would prefer to play an overseas team. The travel obstacles, particularly when it gets to the knock-out phase of the competition and the opposing team has to travel from the other side of the equator, are well documented. For the Stormers it would be a two hour flight to a venue where
they have boasted a decent record in recent years. For a team like Munster it is a much bigger undertaking.
So a Sharks win coupled with a Glasgow defeat to Leinster, meaning the Durbanites finish third, has huge benefits. It also means that if they win their quarterfinal and the Bulls win theirs, they go to Pretoria and not overseas for their semifinal. Again, obvious benefits which are quite apart from the fact that with three bonus point wins in succession and with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu playing like a wizard at flyhalf the Stormers have momentum and confidence.
So there are no prizes for guessing who the Sharks will be supporting in the Dublin league finale – provided they themselves have won their final game against Scarlets, they will be desperate for Leinster to win so that they can pass Glasgow and go into third.
The catch though is that if the Stormers lose to what will be a supremely motivated Cardiff on Friday night in a game that the visitors have clearly targeted as they went in without some top players against the Bulls last week, then the Stormers may drop to sixth – which would put the two coastal teams back on a collision path as it is 3rd plays 6th in the quarters.
