Munster boss Van Graan: ‘SA teams will still have big say in URC’

Although the South African sides have yet to make waves in the current United Rugby Championship table, Munster coach Johan van Graan believes they will have a massive say in the way the table shapes over the coming weeks and could even move into playoff contention.

While all four SA sides head north for games against URC opposition this weekend, upon their return they will host a number of games against overseas teams as they look to finally get some cross-continental action that was denied in December because of the outbreak of the Omicron variant.

Some of the fixtures are rescheduled fixtures from the two weeks in December while others are regularly scheduled games. Either way it gives the teams a decent run of home games to look forward to and if, as expected, they do well, their positions in the log are bound to rise and give the playoff race some extra spice.

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The opening tours weren’t a success for the South African teams but there is a sense now, knowing what they are to face in Europe that the teams are better prepared and there is a a sense of excited anticipation among local players and coaches.

The feeling is that playing in South African conditions is an opportunity to rack up a string of victories. One coach who sees this happening is South Africa-born Van Graan, who told Irish media this week that the log will be determined by what teams do in South Africa and that the local teams will very much have a say in the outcomes of the first URC season.

“Everyone has still to go down there and it is going to be a massive challenge for the teams from the northern hemisphere to learn what it takes to play at Loftus and Ellis Park and Cape Town Stadium and in Durban. That is a massive challenge,” Van Graan said.

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First though, the South African sides need to negotiate the one-off games against foreign opposition, and with Leinster hosting the Lions and the Bulls facing Zebre in Parma on Friday night, and the Sharks facing Benetton and Stormers Connacht on Saturday, there are some mouth-watering games happening.

While they are widely expected to be favourites at the RDS Arena, where on Saturday they easily dispatched Ospreys, Leinster coach Leo Cullen is preparing for an abrasive assault by the Lions forwards.

“It was important to get a bonus point over the Ospreys in this sequence of matches,” Cullen said after his side’s win over the Welsh side.

“The Lions are very big and physical and abrasive around the contact area. We have done our homework on them so we know there are plenty of threats.”

Either way the end of the derbies and the arrival of cross-border games will be welcomed all round. And in the end, the playoffs will be determined by games in the Republic, and the four South African teams’ response to the arrival of the invasion on their home turf.