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It was a fairly solid showing for most of South Africa's franchises as three of them reached the URC knockouts, and kept their final appearance run going.
The Bulls go over for a try during the URC final against Leinster at Croke Park in Dublin over the past weekend. Picture: Seb Daly/Gallo Images
The fourth edition of the United Rugby Championship (URC) came to its conclusion last weekend when Irish giants, Leinster, outplayed Highveld juggernauts, the Bulls, in the Grand Final at Croke Park in Dublin, to lift the trophy for the first time.
It has been a relatively successful four seasons in the URC for South African teams, with them being represented in every single final, while the Stormers won the inaugural edition, but the Bulls will be distraught having now lost in three finals.
Overall it was a decent past campaign for the South African sides, with three making the competition knockouts, two making it to the semis and the Bulls playing in the final.
Here is our report card on each team:
Bulls: 8 out of 10
It was an impressive season for the Bulls, with them undoubtedly the strongest SA team in the competition. A superb pool phase saw them finish second on the log with 14 wins and four losses, while they only lost once against foreign opposition in pool play, by a solitary point away against Scarlets in Wales.
Their one blip was their struggles against local sides, losing twice, home and away, to the Sharks while they were also beaten by the Stormers in Pretoria, and escaped from Cape Town with a single point win thanks to a late missed conversion from the hosts. But they bounced back from that by clinching a solid semifinal win over the Sharks to reach the final.
The Bulls could have received a 9 out of 10 if it wasn’t for their effort in the final, as their poor mistake-riddled performance, particularly in the first half, was very unfortunate and allowed the hosts to cruise to the title without much trouble.
Sharks: 6.5 out of 10
It is hard not to feel underwhelmed when you look at the talent that the Sharks have at their disposal and compare it to their results. Even with a plethora of Springbok World Cup winners in the mix, it was not a surprise when they were unable to make the final. On paper they should arguably only be second to Leinster in the URC.
Obviously due to international commitments and resting protocols the Sharks do have to do without their star players at various stages of the season, but it is when those star players are available and they still underperform that it becomes disappointing. Despite all of that the Sharks did still enjoy their best season in the URC to date.
They finished third on the log with 13 wins and five losses, hosted a quarterfinal for the first time, which they won in an historic and dramatic penalty shootout, and made it to their first ever URC semifinal. But with the star power in their ranks, which they continue to bolster every season, it is hard to not expect more from them.
Stormers: 6 out of 10
It was another tough season for the Stormers as they struggled with injuries and depth, while stalwart Steven Kitshoff was forced into an early retirement. It was also a Jekyll and Hyde campaign, with the Cape side starting off poorly, but finishing off strongly, although they saved arguably their worst game of the season for the playoffs.
After 11 games the Stormers were languishing in the bottom half of the log, with four wins against seven losses, putting them in a massive scrap for the top eight. But a superb finish to the pool phase, which saw them win six of their last seven games, lifted them up the table to finish comfortably fifth and send them over to Glasgow for a second consecutive season for their quarterfinal.
Despite them being full of confidence due to their top form and Glasgow going into the quarterfinal off the back of three straight pool defeats it was the defending champions and hosts who turned up for the knockout game and powered to an impressive win, which ended the Stormers’ season on a very low note.
Lions: 2 out of 10
It isn’t unfair to call the Lions season an unmitigated disaster, after they failed to reach the competition knockouts for the fourth consecutive season. Although they don’t have the depth or star power of the other South African franchises, the Lions had a solid mix of exciting youngsters and experienced veterans in their ranks and were expected to qualify for the playoffs.
In fact Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen was so confident of his team’s ability that he made the bold declaration that his team were targeting a place in the URC top four come the end of the season. And that might have been the problem. Instead of trying to break into the top eight, which they had never managed to do before, they were arguably aiming too high.
The Lions did start brilliantly though, winning their opening four matches of the competition which saw them sitting pretty near the top of the log, but that was as good as it got for them as just four wins against 10 losses in their next 14 games tells the story of their season.
Late season home defeats against Benetton and Scarlets, with their season and playoff hopes on the line, were hugely disappointing.
