Stormers power on, but Lions, Sharks and Bulls fall short in URC

The Stormers backed up their strong start to the United Rugby Championship (URC) with another big performance as they thrashed Scarlets 52-7 in their clash in Stellenbosch on Saturday afternoon to make it a perfect 10 points from their opening two games.

The Lions however slipped to a second tight defeat of the season with them edged 17-16 by Edinburgh in Scotland, while the Sharks were again comprehensively outplayed, this time 34-13 by Leinster in Dublin.

The Bulls, after a strong start in round one, were beaten 26-19 by Ulster in Belfast, Ireland late Sunday night.

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For former URC champs and last season’s runners-up the Stormers they will be thrilled to have gotten their season off to a top start, especially with them now joining the other three South African sides on the road from the coming weekend.

In the match the hosts did all the hard work in the first half as tries from Marcel Theunissen (2), Paul de Wet, Clayton Blommetjies and Ben Loader, along with three conversions from the boots of Blommetjies (2) and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, against one converted try to Scarlets, gave them a 31-7 lead.

In the second half further tries to De Wet, Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Courtnall Skosan, all converted by Feinberg-Mngomezulu, powered them to their massive win.

Lions slip again

The Lions for the second weekend in a row rued some lacklustre finishing as they lost to Edinburgh by a single point, after having lost their opening game of the season to the Stormers 35-33.

It could have been a completely different start to the season for the Lions if they had just taken their chances, but they will have to brush themselves off for the rest of their tour.’

In the match a converted try and penalty to the hosts, against two penalties from the boot of Jordan Hendrikse, saw Edinburgh take a 10-6 lead into halftime.

In the second half the teams traded converted tries, with Francke Horn dotting down for the Lions, while Hendrikse slotted a third penalty to make it a tight one point defeat in the end.

Sharks struggles continue

The Sharks will be bitterly disappointed as they fell to another poor defeat against Irish giants Leinster on their tough opening tour of the URC season.

They have played two of the toughest teams in the competition away in their opening two games, after going down to Glasgow Warriors last weekend, but the manner of both defeats will be disappointing for the Sharks as they never looked like winning either match.

The Sharks only points of the match came from two first half penalties to Curwin Bosch and a late second half try to Dylan Richardson, converted by Boeta Chamberlain, while Leinster ran rampant with five tries, three conversions and a penalty.

This leaves the Sharks with zero points from their opening two games and they will need to bounce back quickly.