URC back with a bang as SA teams target playoffs

The United Rugby Championship (URC) is back with a bang this coming weekend and is ready to hurtle towards the finish line over the coming three months.

After a very fractured period during the Six Nations competition, which has seen frequent breaks in play over the past two months, teams will now be in constant action until the end of the season.

If any team manages to progress to the final of the Champions Cup or Challenge Cup, as well as the URC final, they will play every weekend until the penultimate weekend of June.

The Bulls, Stormers, Lions and Sharks will thus all be eager to impress over the coming weeks to give themselves the best opportunity of progressing as far as they can in their respective competitions.

Bulls and Stormers

The Bulls and Stormers both have realistic hopes of going deep into the URC knockouts, while they will also be targeting a strong run in the Champions Cup.

On the Bulls front they have a great chance of continuing their top recent form and will be aiming to get a full house of points on the road when they take on Dragons at Rodney Parade in Newport on Saturday night.

With a massive top-of-the-table clash against Leinster to follow at the RDS Arena in Dublin, the Bulls will likely look to use the Dragons game to build some good momentum into next weekend’s monster encounter.

For the Stormers they have a tricky challenge in hosting high-flying Edinburgh, who are currently fourth on the URC log, but the ninth-placed Cape side will know a good win over their Scottish foes will put them right into the playoff mix.

They follow that game up with another tough home encounter against Irish giants Ulster, so they will also be aware of the need to head into that game off a positive result.

Lions and Sharks

The Lions have an outside chance of making it into the URC top eight, but that will hinge on them walking away from their two-game European tour with at least one win, as well as a bonus point or two.

They face a big task in taking on Irish side Connacht on Saturday, but they may be lucky if they decide to rest their Six Nations stars, which could open the door for an upset win.

But the Lions may have to target their next match against Ospreys in Wales for a win, although they lost to them at home in the Challenge Cup recently, so nothing is guaranteed.

The Sharks are well out of the URC running, lying bottom of the log, and will thus be targeting the Challenge Cup as possible salvation.

They will still want to improve, however, on their dismal record of one win in 10 games in the URC so far, and a win over Ulster in Durban on Saturday would be a massive statement of intent from their side.