Euro stars on Six Nations duty: Time to cash in for SA’s URC teams

A good weekend of results is on the cards for South Africa’s United Rugby Championship teams as they return to action after taking the past weekend off following a tough four week run of local derbies.

All four SA teams have travelled overseas for the coming round of four fixtures taking place in Ireland and Italy on Friday and Saturday, and it should see them return to SA next week with at least three wins from the four games.

Bulls

The Bulls have the easiest match of the weekend as they take on URC whipping boys Zebre at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma on Friday night and have a golden opportunity to walk away with a full house of points.

Despite the fact they only won two of their four local derbies, the Bulls pushed both the high flying Stormers and Sharks all the way and they should have no problem dispatching a poor Zebre outfit.

Zebre have lost all seven of their URC matches so far and picked up only one point in the competition, so the Bulls should have too much firepower and should walk away from the match with a bonus point win.

Lions

The Lions are the unfortunate SA team as they face the toughest challenge of the weekend against Leinster at the RDS Arena, also on Friday night.

Leinster are the most successful team in the history of the competition and are once again the form team this season, sitting second on the log five points behind leaders Ulster, but with two games in hand on them.

The Lions by comparison are languishing third from bottom of the log, having won just two out of nine games and lost all four of their recent local derbies of which three were at home.

It is a dreadful run of form that the Lions find themselves in and it is unfortunate they are paired up against the competition’s strongest side.

The only glimmer of hope for the visitors is that the hosts will be without a slew of Irish internationals who are all on Six Nations duty, however with the depth they have they should be able to see off the Lions at home.

Stormers

SA’s in-form team the Stormers will fancy picking up a bonus point win themselves against Connacht at the Sportsground in Galway on Saturday afternoon.

Connacht are in seventh, one place and one point above the Stormers on the URC log, however having played two games more.

It will be a tricky encounter, but with Connacht under strength due to the ongoing Six Nations and if the Stormers play like they did during their unbeaten run in their four local derbies, they should be confident of coming away with a full house of points.

Sharks

The Sharks then take on Benetton Rugby at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo in Treviso on Saturday evening.

Benetton are in ninth on the log, one place and two points above the Sharks and are a solid team at home, but with them missing a large number of players on Six Nations duty the Sharks will start as strong favourites.

Getting a bonus point win could be touch and go, but if the Springbok laden Sharks play to the best of their abilities they should have no trouble picking up five points from the match.

In all it should be a very productive weekend for SA teams in the URC.