Sharks hope to win SA shield for first time, Lions fight for pride

It has all come down to the wire in the 12th and final United Rugby Championship (URC) local derby in South Africa, as the Sharks hope to finish top of the SA shield for the first time and the Lions aim to prevent a third finish at the bottom of the pile.

The teams play their second local derby at Kings Park Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 2pm) after the Lions secured a convincing bonus-point 38–14 win in Johannesburg last weekend.

Some South African rugby fans are understandably growing bored after so many local derbies in the Euro competition, especially as seven were played in a row within a month due to earlier postponements and the timing of the Six Nations.

But the South African shield within the URC acts as a tournament within a tournament. While it has no bearing on Champions Cup qualification like the overall log does, its home and away games offer a fair reflection of the strength of SA sides.

Lions hope to turn tables on Sharks

After 11 local derbies, the Stormers are top, having supplanted the Bulls with their 19–16 win at Loftus last weekend.

The Sharks, in third, have a chance to overtake the Stormers and win the shield for the first time since SA teams joined the competition in the 2021/22 season.

The Lions will be trying to win with a bonus point to ensure they do not finish last in the conference for a third time out of four seasons. If they secure a winning bonus point, and the Sharks do not score a losing bonus point, the Lions could overtake the Sharks, who would then finish bottom of the pile.

If that were to happen we would see an interesting occurrence of all four teams winning three of their six games against each other. Perhaps that would be a fair reflection though, as no South African side has truly been dominant against the others this season.

Historically, the Sharks have finished second, fourth and third in the shield, but never first. The Lions have finished fourth twice in the tournament but were third last year.

Sharks and Lions both aim for strong starts

“As the Sharks union we haven’t won the shield, so there is motivation coming from that,” Sharks winger Yaw Penxe told media this week.

“Hopefully we will get the win and lift the shield for the first time.”

He said they were aiming to get off to a strong start against the Lions, just as their opponents did against them last week. The Lions scored two tries to go 14–0 up in the first 15 minutes.

“If you lose that first 20 [minutes] it gets into the player’s head. The team loses confidence. We really would like to get a better start than we did last week.”

Lions assistant coach Ricardo Loubscher spoke along the same lines this week.

It is all about the first 20 minutes. They are going to be extremely physical, and we have to be ready for that,” he said.