URC wrap: Lions surprise, Stormers win, but Bulls and Sharks thumped

The Bulls and Sharks became the first South African teams in this season’s United Rugby Championship to lose against foreign opposition as they went down to Glasgow Warriors and Leinster respectively on Saturday evening.

This was after the Lions produced a heroic performance to beat Edinburgh on Friday night, followed by the Stormers comfortably beating Zebre Parma on Saturday afternoon.

All four SA sides were in action away from home, and it was expected to be a weekend where at least two of the teams lost, however it ended up being the Bulls who went down, while the Lions surprised many to upset an international laden Edinburgh team.

ALSO READ: Lions confound critics to clinch perfect URC tour

In the Friday night match the Lions just refused to give up, despite Edinburgh scoring three times to take the lead, the Lions hit back each time through Andries Coetzee, Henco van Wyk and Francke Horn.

This gave Gianni Lombard, who had a cold night with the boot but managed to kick two conversions along the way, the chance to win the match with a late penalty which he duly did to send the players wild and give the Lions a famous win and unbeaten tour to head back to SA with.

Junior Springbok captain Sacha Mngomezulu then showed his burgeoning talent by impressing on his first start for the Stormers, as he was given the kicking duties ahead of flyhalf Manie Libbok and went on to produce a flawless night with the boot.

Playing at inside centre, Mngomezulu slotted all seven of his kicks at goal, four conversions and three penalties, while he also scored a try and assisted one, for a personal haul of 22 points as the Stormers cruised to a 37-20 win.

 Zebre only really threatened the Stormers when they scored back to back tries at the end of the first half and start of the second to bring themselves to within three points, however the Stormers soon re-established a solid lead and pulled away in the closing moments to get their tour off to a good start.

Sharks and Bulls lose

For the Sharks it was a disappointing, but not unexpected end to their three match European tour, as they went down 54-34 against Irish powerhouse Leinster in a high scoring clash in Ireland.

Without their Boks the Sharks were always expected to struggle against Leinster on their home turf, however the SA team will be happy with their attack, but disappointed with their defence, after they kept in touch for most of the game before falling away at the end.

The Bulls will then need to go back to the drawing board after being thoroughly outplayed by Glasgow, in a game that they were expected to win in Scotland.

The Bulls were never in the match after Glasgow took a comfortable 28-7 lead into the halftime break, before moving 35-7 up after just 47 minutes, with the Bulls then responding with two tries in the final 20 minutes to make the final scoreline look a bit better at 35-21.