All four South African teams have a point to prove in the United Rugby Championship (URC) derbies over the next two months.
These begin with a north-south match between the Stormers and Bulls in Cape Town on Saturday. Both will target log points rather than provincial bragging rights as the championship enters a key phase.
The Bulls, Sharks and Stormers failed to qualify for the knockout phase of the Champions Cup for the first time. The Bulls and Sharks will have another crack at a European title, the second-tier Challenge Cup, in April (along with the Lions), while the struggling Stormers won’t feature in either tournament.
As a result of those failures, the URC has taken on extra importance. A week after the conclusion of the Champions Cup pool phase, the Bulls beat the Lions at Ellis Park and moved to third place in the URC standings. The Sharks bounced back with a victory in Cardiff to finish fourth.
If the URC playoffs were staged this weekend, the Bulls and Sharks would host knockout matches, while the Stormers (in 12th place) and the Lions (13th) would miss out. The URC’s top eight qualify for the Champions Cup — the pre-eminent club tournament that provides financial and commercial benefits.
There’s a lot to be gained by finishing in the top half of the URC, and a dear price for falling short.
The 2024/2025 URC is only halfway, and a lot can happen before the qualifiers are finalised on May 17. All four South African teams have work to do, and the outcome of the coming derbies could determine whether they finish in the top four or miss the playoffs.
The Bulls are best placed to come out of the local matches with the most log points. While they play four matches in as many weeks, form suggests they are starting to hit their stride.
Coach Jake White’s team beat Stade Français in the final round of the Champions Cup, and went on to score four tries against the Lions in Joburg. They will go into the match against the Stormers with all the momentum — whereas the injury-hit Cape side will be searching for a spark, having lost to Racing 92 in Paris and to Leinster in Dublin last month.
There’s been no love lost between White and Stormers coach John Dobson and there should be an extra edge to the matches. That said, the Bulls may take a broader view and target three from four wins over the next four weeks.
While wins in Cape Town have been few and far between for the Bulls, White and company may focus on the subsequent three matches (against the Sharks, Lions and Stormers), all to be played at Loftus Versfeld. The Bulls have lost only one match at home this season — against Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup pool phase — and will expect to prevail against local opponents in Pretoria.
The Stormers are in a desperate situation. Some might suggest that the European exit is a blessing because they will have more time to focus on the URC while the other South African teams travel to Europe for the Challenge Cup playoffs in April and May. But if the Stormers fail to secure sufficient log points over the next few weeks, they will fall further down the standings and leave themselves with too much to do at the end of the league phase.
With this in mind, the Stormers may be the more desperate of the two sides in the coming north-south derby. To avoid falling in the log, they need to win in Cape Town and to follow that up with a victory against the Lions in Joburg. Dobson’s team will finish this series of local matches with a visit to Loftus on March 1 and, at that stage, will have cause for trepidation.
Like the Bulls, the Sharks will view the coming matches as an opportunity to consolidate. No team has more Springboks on its books — though it remains to be seen how many will feature, given that there is an agreement to rest some of them during this stage of the season.
The Sharks may fancy their chances of a win over the Bulls at Loftus next week, given that they beat them in December. Win or lose, they will have an extra week to lick their wounds, before gearing up for a double-header against the Lions.
The Lions don’t have the same depth as the other teams and have failed to qualify for the URC quarterfinals since the start of the tournament in 2021.
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