Five things we’ve learned about SA playing in the URC

The four South African teams have all played nine games in the United Rugby Championship and after the latest rounds of action, the Stormers are best placed at seven in the 16-team standings.

The SA teams have a bye this weekend before playing a round of matches in Europe next week. After that they return home for a series of clashes against Europe-based opposition.

Here, The Citizen lists five take-aways of the SA teams’ showing so far in the competition.

South African teams mean business

After the first four rounds of fixtures in the URC it was all doom and gloom for SA teams, with them having only managed a combined four wins, one draw and 11 losses in those 16 games. All four SA sides were languishing in the bottom six on the URC log and many people were wondering if they knew what they were getting into.

However, five rounds later and all of the teams have shown moments of brilliance and getting to grips in the tournament. Despite all of those rounds being battled out between the SA teams, many of them showed plenty of improvement while also showing a different edge being back to full strength after a number of players were unavailable in the earlier rounds due to being on Springbok duty.

Old is gold for SA URC teams

Over the past four weeks of local URC action, a number of players in the twilight of their careers have stood out with impressive performances, showing that old is still gold.

For the Stormers, 36-year-old prop Brok Harris and 35-year-old flank Deon Fourie were superb, putting in big shifts in helping their side become the form team in the country.

For the Bulls, Morne Steyn and Bismarck du Plessis, both at the ripe old age of 37, showed that they could still cut it at the top level.

Jannie du Plessis, the oldest statesman still playing in an SA URC team at 39-years-old, came on for the Lions in their most recent match against the Stormers.

Coastal sides are form SA teams

The coastal teams are the form teams in SA at the moment, with the Stormers leading the way and the Sharks just behind them.

Over the four weeks of local derbies it was the Stormers who went unbeaten with three wins and a draw against the Sharks in Durban, while the Sharks had to settle for wins over the Lions and Bulls.

While the Stormers have looked as though they are almost back to their best, the Sharks haven’t looked as good, but managing away wins on the Highveld is still an impressive task and with the star power in their ranks thanks to a host of Bok players, once they hit their straps they will be a terrifying prospect to deal with.

Highveld teams set to get big boost

The Highveld teams are set to get a big boost over the coming two months of URC action, with the Bulls set to cash in with some big performances. After a difficult start to the URC the Bulls have slowly started to regain the form that saw them as the dominant SA team over the past two seasons.

Despite the Bulls only managing two wins over the Lions in their four local derbies over the last month, they are set to host overseas opposition now over the next two months, and will be eyeing some big wins at Loftus.

The Lions, who are unfortunately the out of form team in SA, will have home ground advantage in their favour against overseas opposition, and they are set to be a different beast.

Whereas the coastal SA teams are used to playing on the Highveld and know what to expect, the overseas teams will have many players who have never experienced it.

Boks set to benefit from SA teams’ form

The Springboks are set to benefit from the upturn in form of the SA URC teams and if they can make a big statement by picking up some impressive wins over the foreign URC teams, it will only bode well for the Boks as they look to build to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.

The current Bok squad members in the various teams need top class opposition, while it is also exciting to see a number of impressive youngsters staking a claim for national honours.

The Bok management will be closely monitoring the coming home URC matches and will be eager to see where SA’s top sides stand against the best of the UK.