The Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks could deliver a serious dent to the hopes of their 14th round Vodacom URC opponents of making the top four - but they should be warned that not only will Cardiff and Munster be desperate, they should also be stronger.
Both of the teams currently in fifth and sixth positions on the log, in other words currently on the outside of the coveted top four looking in, suffered severe setbacks last weekend in their first game of their two match tours of South Africa. Cardiff weren’t at the races when they were thrashed 40-7 by the Bulls in Pretoria on the Friday, while proud Munster suffered the ignominy of being whitewashed 45-0 in Durban the next day.
This weekend those two opponents will be reversed for the SA sides, with the Sharks starting the weekend with a Friday night clash with Cardiff before the Bulls host Munster the next day. Both visiting teams have hurt their respective opponents in the past.
Indeed, from memory it was after a big loss at home to Cardiff that Sean Everitt’s time as coach of the Sharks was unceremoniously ended. And Munster won at Loftus the last time they visited there for a league game.
VISITORS WILL BE STRENGTHENED
Okay, so you are probably thinking that if those teams were so comprehensively outplayed last week, they will be going into their games as rank underdogs and with little chance of winning. The Bulls, surely, will put themselves in a position to draw level or even overtake Munster on the log, with the gap currently at just four points, given that Munster were so humiliated by the Sharks.
But here’s the thing - teams coming to SA often target a particular game to go all out for the win at full strength, and in both the Cardiff and Munster cases they won’t only have the level of urgency that their defeats a few days ago and their log position urges, they should also be significantly reinforced by returning international players.
Last week’s round was a week after the end of the Guinness Six Nations, and the standard approach of teams that have players involved in the northern hemisphere international competition is that players who played in three games get rested by their clubs on that first post-tournament weekend.
CROWLEY MAKES BIG DIFFERENCE TO MUNSTER
Munster did not have their Ireland internationals against the Sharks and confirmed at the start of the week that they will have at least three of them available to face the Bulls - Craig Casey, Jeremy Loughman and the Ireland starting flyhalf Jack Crowley. Crowley’s return will be particularly welcomed by the visitors as it was he who inspired Munster’s 27-22 win the last time they visited Loftus.
And Munster defence coach Denis Leamy hasn’t wasted time in noting the difference that Crowley makes to the Munster group, who were understood to have had an exhaustive and introspective review session which saw the squad split into five groups to go through the nitty gritty of why they lost to the Sharks.
“Jack’s in great form. He had a brilliant finish to the Six Nations and he’s come in with good energy and brought his voice and his knowledge,” Leamy told the Irish media. “We are a much better group with him in it.”
They probably will be and Bulls coach Johan Ackermann will probably point out to his players that although Munster lost so comprehensively, there wasn’t really as much as that between the two teams in Durban, with the Sharks conflating their margin of victory by scoring a flurry of tries in the final minutes when the game was done as a contest.
What Munster will need to do considering they are playing the Bulls is sort out the scrum problems they suffered in Durban. There will be no way into the game at Loftus for them if they are dominated again in the first phase battle.
If Munster win, they will stay in top four contention as they are currently just two points behind their fourth placed countrymen, but defeat will leave them as many as seven behind as Leinster and Ulster (currently third) should win this weekend.
Ulster, with their internationals back and no doubt smarting from their unexpected loss last week, will be expected to beat Zebre in Parma, while a fully loaded Leinster should easily see off Scarlets.
SHARKS NEED CONNACHT TO TRIP UP
The Sharks will be hoping that Connacht, the team who knocked over Ulster last week, will trip up against Ospreys as the Irish team could prove a nuisance to the Sharks’ hopes of cutting down the six-point gap between themselves and the top eight. The Bulls are eighth, but Connacht have the same number of points as them.
Cardiff, like Munster, should have their internationals back in Durban, although you’d probably still make the Sharks strong favourites to get the win that will keep their hopes of URC playoff and Investec Champions Cup qualification alive.
The DHL Stormers meanwhile won’t be reading too much into the one-sided loss Edinburgh suffered to the Fidelity SureDrive Lions as the visitors should be strengthened by the talismanic presence of some Scotland internationals, among them the South African born prop Pierre Schoeman.
LIONS CAN GO AS HIGH AS FOURTH
The Lions host the Dragons and have the carrot of moving to as high as fifth on the log (even fourth if Ulster or Leinster lose) if they beat the current second last placed team. The Dragons did show a lot of fight in losing to the Stormers in the closest of the games played in SA last weekend.
If the results go according to expectation, it could be a moving round for the SA sides as the Bulls will join the Lions in jumping into the top six if Munster and Cardiff lose. There’s a lot to play for, but that is the case for their opponents too.
ROUND 14 VODACOM URC FIXTURES
Hollywoodbets Sharks v Cardiff (Durban, Friday 7pm)
Glasgow Warriors v Benetton (Glasgow, Friday 9:45pm)
Leinster v Scarlets (Dublin, Friday 9:45pm)
Vodacom Bulls v Munster (Pretoria, Saturday 2pm)
Connacht v Ospreys (Galway, Saturday 4:15pm)
Fidelity SureDrive Lions v Dragons (Johannesburg, Saturday 4:30pm)
DHL Stormers v Edinburgh (Cape Town, Saturday 7pm)
Zebre v Ulster (Parma, Saturday 9:45pm)
LOG STANDINGS AFTER 13 GAMES: 1. Glasgow Warriors 50; 2. DHL Stormers 46; 3. Ulster 42; 4. Leinster 41; 5. Cardiff 40; 6. Munster 39; 7. Fidelity SureDrive Lions 38; 8. Vodacom Bulls 35; 9. Connacht 35; 10. Ospreys 29; 11. Hollywoodbets Sharks 29; 12. Benetton 28; 13. Edinburgh 23; 14. Scarlets 21; 15. Dragons 20; 16. Zebre 12.