The four victories recorded by the South African teams in the latest round of Vodacom United Rugby Championship has set the scene for what could prove a decisive double round of derbies over the festive week.
Rugby will be played in this country over the Christmas and New Year period for the first time, with the two coastal venues hosting games immediately prior to Christmas and then, of all times and dates, in the evening of New Year’s Eve.
A particular appetising fixture will be the Vodacom Bulls’ visit to Cape Town on 23 December for a repeat of last season’s URC final. Appetising because it is both a top of the South African Shield fixture, as well as close to a top of the general log fixture too. After both teams picked up a full house of log points at the weekend, the Bulls are nominally ahead of the Stormers when the log is placed on paper on the basis that they have won one more game.
STORMERS GAME IN HAND IS CRUCIAL
Both teams are effectively tied in second place, but the important fact that needs to be taken into account is that the Stormers have a game in hand. The Bulls have now reached the halfway point of the league phase of the season and have 34 points after nine games, while the Stormers have the same number of points after eight. Together they are nine points behind the log leading Leinster, but the Stormers have a game on the Irish team too, so are effectively just one win behind.
What makes the 23 December showdown potentially decisive is what it could mean to the South African Shield battle, particularly should the Stormers win. If the Stormers do prevail in their home derby, they will then be ahead of the Bulls and still have a game in hand, while the Bulls will be travelling to Durban next to face what should by then be a full strength Cell C Sharks team.
NOT THE ROLLICKING START SHARKS HOPED FOR
Of the four South African teams, only the Sharks, who didn’t make the rollicking start to the new era that might have been hoped by their new coach Neil Powell, failed to score the four try bonus point. The Emirates Lions left it relatively late in their game against the Scarlets on Sunday, but they managed it six minutes from the end and it has propelled them into fifth on the log.
Cash van Rooyen’s team have now won two in a row at home and will be hoping they can manage at least one win when they do what people from Gauteng tend to do over the festive season by heading to the coast.
They play the Sharks on 23 December before facing the Stormers on New Year’s Eve, and those two games will give them a better idea of their chances of going better than the inaugural season by qualifying for the European Champions Cup as well as the URC play-offs. They’d have to finish in the top eight as a minimum, for both of those, which at the moment they’d feel confident about as they are one point ahead of sixth placed Edinburgh and have a game in hand on the Scottish team.
EDINBURGH SUFFER BLOW
Edinburgh were shocked by Munster at the weekend in one of a few absorbing games overseas. Munster came back from a big deficit early in the game to win with something to spare on Friday, while the following night it looked really bleak for Leinster at home to Ulster in a pulsating Irish derby.
Ulster were leading 22-3 shortly before halftime and Leinster were down to 14 men for the rest of the game thanks to a red card. At that point, it appeared the weekend would end with the Stormers and Bulls within touching distance of the top team on the table.
However, Leinster chose that moment to make a massive statement, and they stormed back into the game in the third quarter before taking it by the scruff of the neck in the final quarter. Ulster scored the last try of the game to secure a consolation bonus point, but their defeat means that the two South African teams move ahead of them on the log.
Munster’s recent resurgence has seen them move from 14th on the log to joint 7th in the space of just two matches, which is both an indication of the momentum they are starting to pick up as well as what a logjam there is in the middle part of the table. Cardiff have the same number of points as Munster and weren’t helped by their failure to pick up a bonus point in their big defeat to the Bulls.
GOOSEN’S PERFORMANCE WAS A STATEMENT
The Stormers were nothing short of brilliant in their first half against the Dragons in Gqeberha but their second half fade meant it was the Bulls who were the local team that made the biggest statement this weekend. That statement revolves around Johan Goosen and the impact he could have on the Bulls game in the important fixtures that lie ahead.
The flyhalf featured in a creative role in both the two tries scored by the Springbok duo of Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse that broke the back of the Cardiff challenge shortly before halftime at Loftus. He then scored a try himself on a night where his potential to bring a different dynamic to an already formidable Bulls team was writ large.
As coach White said afterwards, the Bulls looked dangerous every time they got the ball, and Goosen’s playmaking abilities had much to do with that. As White said, when you see Goosen play like that you wonder how it is he hasn’t played 50 tests for this country. We know why that is, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less tragic. The former Free Stater certainly has the talent.
The teams take a break from the URC over the next two weekends but it will be far from a break for them, as the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks will be heading into the Champions Cup for the first time. The Lions will be joined by the Toyota Cheetahs in making their Challenge Cup debut. Weekend Vodacom Rugby Championship results
Cell C Sharks 25 Ospreys 10
Edinburgh 17 Munster 38
DHL Stormers 34 Dragons 26
Zebre 17 Glasgow Warriors 45
Connacht 38 Benetton 19
Vodacom Bulls 45 Cardiff Rugby 9
Leinster 38 Ulster 29
Emirates Lions 32 Scarlets 15
Festive period Vodacom URC derbies
23 December – DHL Stormers v Vodacom Bulls (Cape Town)
23 December – Cell C Sharks v Emirates Lions (Durban)
31 December – Cell C Sharks v Vodacom Bulls (Durban)
31 December – DHL Stormers v Emirates Lions (Cape Town)