URC WRAP: Final day confusion a great advert for the competition ...

Phew! Have we got it right now? That was some final round of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, with the narrative of the season of it all hanging in the balance being sustained to the final minutes of league play.

There was confusion too, something which we can write off as an advertisement to the greater competitiveness of the competition this season. It had been assumed by just about everyone that 10th placed Connacht were the cut off point between teams in contention for top eight places going into round 18, so when the Emirates Lions managed to get a losing bonus point against the DHL Stormers those of us in the press box in Cape Town assumed the Lions had made it into the playoffs.

With Edinburgh condemned to a big defeat in Treviso in a game that kicked off 15 minutes later than the one at DHL Stadium, and therefore staying on 49 points, it looked like the Lions by moving from 49 to 50 were going to end eighth. It took Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen when we congratulated him as he arrived at the press conference room to tell us otherwise - the Ospreys were still in it.

So what we thought was a weekend of just two dead rubber games turned out to be a weekend of just one, with that being the Welsh derby between the Scarlets and the Ospreys. The other Welsh derby, with Ospreys visiting Cardiff, had been turned into a game that counted by the games that were played earlier in the weekend.

The Ospreys would have been out of it had the Lions won in Cape Town, which they very nearly did, had Connacht picked up full points against Leinster (always highly unlikely) or had the loser in the game in Treviso lost by seven or less (quite possible). They must have been delighted when all those results conspired in their favour, but they still had to go out and do the business against Cardiff.

Which they did, but it was a result that was in the balance deep into the game, and would have had the Lions sweating in hope if they were following it. Their four try bonus point win wasn’t enough to get the Ospreys into the Investec Champions Cup, the Hollywoodbets Sharks triumph in the EPCR Challenge Cup put paid to the eighth placed team getting that prize, but they are still alive in the competition and go to Munster to play their semifinal.

SEASON NARRATIVE OF JEOPARDY CARRIED INTO PLAYOFFS

And while Munster will start as overwhelming favourites, as will the Vodacom Bulls against Benetton in Pretoria, you can’t write the Welsh team off. For they went to Cape Town and won not that long ago. If you can do that, surely you can win anywhere on your day? They don’t have to travel across the equator like the Lions would have, so they might just have an outside sniff.

That’s been the joy of this edition of the URC. There’s been plenty of jeopardy and none of the predictability that made Super Rugby in the days that South African teams were playing in that competition such a procession after a certain stage of the season.

Yes, there are teams you expect to see get beaten, but it isn’t with the complete certainty that was the case when New Zealand and Australian teams played trans-Tasman games from around 2016 to 2019. And the sides you expect to get beaten are really only Zebre and the bottom two Welsh teams. The Sharks are a much better team than their 14th placed finish and even though they were “knackered”, the words of their coach, they were well in their game against the second placed Bulls at a stage of the second half.

And even last placed Zebre came close to confounding the “certain big win” some of us predicted for the eventually fourth placed Glasgow Warriors. The home team at the Scotstoun were chasing points differential but until deep into their game on Friday they were struggling just to win it. That will give the Stormers considerable hope as they prepare for their quarterfinal visit there on Saturday.

BULLS EARNED BEST SA CHANCE OF SUCCESS

The Bulls though start the playoffs with the best chances of success as they should be favoured to beat Benetton in their quarterfinal and then play their semifinal at Loftus. That is something Jake White’s men thoroughly deserve and earned through the improvements they have made this season that see them jump from last year’s sixth placed finish to second.

As it turns out though, the Bulls/Leinster final that many may have dreamed about won’t be happening, with the results of the final round of league play putting them on a collision path in the semifinal instead.

Leinster need to win the competition after failing again at the final hurdle in the Champions Cup and they showed no signs of any hangover when they thumped Connacht at the start of the final weekend. They will go into the Finals Series feeling both determined and confident, and one thing we can be almost certain of is that Leinster will send their full strength team to Loftus this time.

The chances of the Bulls playing a final at home, which this time around would not mean Fortress Loftus but FNB Stadium (read Brenden Nel’s report on this), sustained a blow when Munster recovered from a rare first half misfire, where they trailed by 10 points, to beat Ulster in a thrilling and high quality game at Thomond Park in Limerick.

But a home final for the Bulls is still possible given the unpredictability of the competition, which could remain so into the playoffs. It just needs Munster to be knocked over, possibly by the Stormers if they make it through Saturday’s game in Glasgow as winners.

STORMERS SHOWED THEIR PEDIGREE

The Stormers weren’t at their best against the Lions but they were playing against a team that was playing for so much more than they were and yet they still showed their pedigree to come through to win it after trailing with six minutes to go by scoring a try when they were 14 men against 15.

The Lions sadly can look back at a season where they made massive improvements but just fell short. In some ways, their final game was a microcosm of their season - they really looked like they had the bit between their teeth, particularly during the first half, but lost the big moments.

As it turned out, even had they opted to go for the try rather than kick for posts in that clutch moment six minutes from time and then scored another try to pick up full points from the game, it would not have been enough for the Lions to make the Champions Cup. The losing Ulster bonus point in the later game would have knocked them from seventh to eighth.

But those last minutes when the Stormers controlled the game did cost them a place in the playoffs. That is how close it was this season, that is how close it was on the final weekend. Inches separated the Lions from a try before that penalty, inches separated so many of the protagonists from success and failure. It is an old cliche, but it is still apt - no script writer could have scripted it better.

Final round Vodacom URC results

Leinster 33 Connacht 7

Glasgow Warriors 38 Zebre 26

DHL Stormers 29 Emirates Lions 24

Benetton 31 Edinburgh 6

Scarlets 32 Dragons 15

Hollywoodbets Sharks 14 Vodacom Bulls 26

Munster 29 Ulster 24

Cardiff 29 Ospreys 33

Finishing order and points in 2023/24 season.

1. Munster 68, 2. Vodacom Bulls 66, 3. Leinster 65, 4 Glasgow Warriors 65, 5 DHL Stormers 59, 6. Ulster 54, 7. Benetton 54, 8. Ospreys 50, 9. Lions 50, 10. Edinburgh 49, 11. Connacht 49, 12. Cardiff 32, 13. Scarlets 27, 14. Hollywoodbets Sharks 25, 15. Dragons 16, 16. Zebre 15

Quarterfinals

QF1: Munster (1) v Ospreys (8) (Thomond Park, Limerick - Friday 20.35)