New week, new challenges await SA teams in URC

After the wake-up call of the first week the sharp learning curve the South African teams are on in the United Rugby Championship will steepen even further as the second round looks set to throw several of the varied challenges at them that make the new competition unique.

The Sharks will be the first South African team to play a URC game on a synthetic pitch as they travel to Glasgow to face the Glasgow Warriors on the Scotstoun 4G artificial surface on Saturday.

On Friday night the Bulls, if the weather forecasts have it correct, are going to get a foretaste of what to expect later in the competition during the northern winter when they play in Galway (against Connacht), and it is going to be even tougher for the Stormers (against Munster) in Limerick 24 hours later.

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Winds of 30 kilometres per hour and rain are expected for the Bulls game, while there is an 80% chance of rain and winds occasionally gusting beyond 65km/hour at the time of the Thomond Park clash of the Stormers.

So there will have to be a game adjustment for those teams in addition to whatever else they absorbed and have internalised from their defeats in the opening round of competition.

And for the one successful South African team from the opening round, the Lions, there’s going to be a necessary tweak to game strategy as they move from Italy to the different challenge they will face playing in Wales as they face up to Scarlets on Friday night.

Wing Yaw Penxe has played on the 4G surface before when he played PRO14 for the Southern Kings and says that he and his teammates are heading for a different experience to what they are used to when they play in Glasgow.

“The ball does travel quite a bit faster, and if it goes to ground won’t stick like on grass,” said Penxe.

“Us as players will have to run a bit more and the game will be a bit faster as well. The ball really races when you let it bounce.”

Weekend fixtures

Scarlets v Lions (Llanelli, Friday 8.35pm)

Connacht v Bulls (Galway, Friday 8.35pm)

Benetton v Edinburgh (Treviso, Saturday 2pm)

Glasgow Warriors v Sharks (Glasgow, Saturday 4pm)

Zebre v Ulster (Parma, Saturday 6.15pm)

Munster v Stormers (Limerick, Saturday 8.35pm)

Ospreys v Cardiff Blues (Swansea, Saturday 8.35pm)

Dragons v Leinster (Newport, Sunday 3pm)