URC quarter-finals: Stormers dominant, but Bulls hitting form at right time

The Bulls will have to make history if they are to progress to the semi-finals as they have never beaten the Stormers in a United Rugby Championship match.

And the teams will meet in the one quarter-final in two weeks’ time — a repeat of last season’s final when the Stormers won 18-13 in Cape Town.

Stormers dominance

In last season’s league games, the Stormers won 19-17 at home and 30-26 at Loftus — all three victory margins of five points or less.

And this season, the Stormers have triumphed 37-27 at home and 23-19 at Loftus — again victory margins that will not make Stormers boss John Dobson all that confident ahead of their last-eight match on Saturday 6 May.

In fact, Bulls director of rugby Jake White may be the more confident man right now as his team, after a rocky few weeks, seem to have hit good form at just the right time.

In the Bulls’ penultimate round-robin game they smashed Zebre 78-12 and on Saturday they showed a ruthless streak not seen this season as they dispatched a weakened Leinster team 62-7, with several players in top form.

The Stormers bagged a final round 38-22 win against Benetton in Stellenbosch to finish third on the points table, their previous week’s loss to Munster costing them second place. The Bulls finished sixth.
That quarter-final match in Cape Town is set up to be a thriller, with White and Co desperate to end the run of five losses to the Stormers.

Sharks

The other South African team to qualify for the last eight are the Sharks, who finished eighth after their 22-all draw with Munster, and will take on Leinster, the top team, in Dublin, also on 6 May.

It’s a huge ask for Neil Powell’s men to have to go to Ireland for the match, especially with them now knowing they have missed out on a European Champions Cup place, making way for the Welsh shield winners, Cardiff Rugby.

Also, the Sharks will be without the injured Eben Etzebeth (knee), though the Bok lock is confident he will back in action at the beginning of July, while there are major concerns about Siya Kolisi (knee) and Curwin Bosch (ribs).

More will be known about the injuries suffered at the weekend by Kolisi and Bosch on Monday.

The Lions, meanwhile, who were out of the race for the quarter-finals before the weekend’s games, beat Zebre 50-35.

URC quarter-finals (ko times TBC)

Glasgow Warriors v Munster
Stormers v Bulls
Ulster v Connacht
Leinster v Sharks