Winning weekend: Four things we learned from the latest URC action

It was a brilliant weekend for the South African teams in the United Rugby Championship as they made a clean sweep of their overseas opposition in their first appearances in the country.

Here are five things we learned from the weekend’s action.

SA teams are a different beast at home

South African sides are simply better in home conditions and they proved that with four victories against overseas opposition.

Although a number of visiting teams were missing international players, who were on Six Nations duty, the SA teams also had to play without their Boks at the start of the competition.

But four wins from four, three of them with bonus points, showed the SA sides are likely to make their own moves up the URC table over the coming weeks.

Bulls show you need to play for 80 minutes

The Bulls almost threw away a sure-fire win when they incredibly let Munster fight back from a 26-point deficit to almost sneak a win at the death, with the hosts eventually emerging 29-24 to the good in their clash on Saturday.

ALSO READ: Bulls will take lessons from narrow URC victory, says White

After a superb first half where they ran in three tries and held a 26-3 lead at the break, it was then a complete reversal in the second half as three tries from the visitors saw them win the half 21-3.

It was very unexpected as Munster were playing at altitude and were expected to suffer more as the match wore on, but they showed that altitude may not play as big a role as many thought, meaning SA teams will need to be at the top of their game for the full 80 minutes.

Lions and Sharks need to keep improving

The Lions showed they can play proper rugby when they have confidence as they claimed a 37-20 bonus-point win over the Cardiff Blues.

They were pushed all the way, with the bonus coming after the full-time hooter, so they must build on this performance and keep improving.

ALSO READ: Lions end losing streak with vital URC win over Cardiff

Likewise, the Sharks, also 37-20 victors over Scarlets, have to improve but for a different reason.

South Africa’s best team on paper, the Sharks have a number of Springboks in their side, and despite their positive results, they are not playing at the level expected of them. Their comfortable win over Scarlets was lucky and not reflective of the entire game, and they will need to improve drastically if they are to reach their potential.

Stormers continue to be SA’s form team

The Stormers again showed their class with a thumping 55-7 win over Zebre on Sunday, moving them into the top half of the table.

ALSO READ: URC result: Stormers beat Zebre – Four takeaways

After losing their previous match against Connacht, it was important that they bounced back emphatically, and that they did with a nine-try-to-one romp against the competition’s weakest side.

It was the perfect response and the Stormers will be confident of building on that result when they face the Cardiff Blues this weekend.