Official United Rugby Championship thread

[OomStruisbaai]

The URC is getting exciting. Every logpoint is important. Much better then Superrugby.

[OomStruisbaai]

I’ve seen weaker Scotland teams than this.

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Sibahle Maxwane, 13 Wandisile Simelane, 12 Manuel Rass, 11 Edwill van der Merwe, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Emmanuel Tshituka, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 Francke Horn, 5 Reinhard Nothnagel (captain), 4 Ruben Schoeman, 3 Carlu Sadie, 2 Pieter Botha, 1 Jean-Pierre Smith.
Replacements: 16 Morne Brandon, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 Sibusiso Sangweni, 21 Andre Warner, 22 Henco van Wyk, 23 Tiaan Swanepoel.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Venue: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Kick-off: 16.05 (15.05 Ireland & UK, 14.05 GMT)
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Morné Ferreira (South Africa), Paul Mente (South Africa)
TMO: Ben Crouse (South Africa)

Covid force some changes at the Lions.

[OomStruisbaai]

Glad to see JP Smith perform for the Lions. He and his twin broer Ruaan has travel through the Australian teams. However WP will give him a hard time in the scrums.

The scrums are going to be a battle royal. Sadie real test against Schoeman.

[OomStruisbaai]

Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Madosh Tambwe, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Joe van Zyl, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Anro Botha, 21 Keagen Johannes, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Lionel Mapoe.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Venue: Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
Kick-off: 14.00 ( 13.00 Ireland & UK time; 12.00 GMT)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italian)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South African) & Griffon Colby (South African)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South African)

[OomStruisbaai]

Komaan Tjarks
Kom ons wys wie is baas
Op ons eie plaas!

Die vuur brand hoog,
Curwin skop soos n pyl en boog!

[OomStruisbaai]

Stormers – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Rikus Pretorius, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Paul de Wet, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Junior Pokomela, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Chad Solomon, 1 Steven Kitshoff (c)
Subs: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Ali Vermaak, 18 Neethling Fouche, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Deon Fourie, 21 Ben-Jason Dixon, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Sergeal Petersen.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Venue: Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
Kick-off: 18.15 (17.15 Ireland & UK time; 16.15 GMT)
Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Dylen November (South Africa)
TMO: Quinton Immelman (South Africa)

Ospreys – 15 Dan Evans, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Michael Collins, 12 Owen Watkin, 11 Keelan Giles, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Rhys Webb (c), 8 Morgan Morris, 7 Jac Morgan, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Dewi Lake, 1 Gareth Thomas.
Subs: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Rhys Davies, 20 Ethan Roots, 21 Harri Deaves, 22 Reuben Morgan Williams, 23 Max Nagy

[OomStruisbaai]

Saturday, 7pm in Thomond Park
Rte 2 and Premier Sports 2

Munster: Matt Gallagher; Calvin Nash, Chris Farrell, Damian de Allende, Shane Daly; Joey Carbery, Conor Murray; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Jason Jenkins, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony (C), Chris Cloete, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Josh Wycherley, John Ryan, Thomas Ahern, Alex Kendellen, Craig Casey, Ben Healy, Keith Earls.

Leinster: H Keenan; J O’Brien, G Ringrose (C), R Henshaw, J Lowe; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park; E Byrne, J Tracy, M Ala’alatoa; D Toner, J Dunne; C Doris, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: D Sheehan, C Healy, T Furlong, R Molony, J Murphy, L McGrath, C Frawley, M Deegan

Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU, competition debut)

Assistant referees: Chris Busby & Peter Martin (both IRFU)

TMO: Craig Maxwell Keys (RFU)

[OomStruisbaai]

Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Madosh Tambwe, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Joe van Zyl, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Anro Botha, 21 Keagen Johannes, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Lionel Mapoe.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Venue: Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
Kick-off: 14.00 ( 13.00 Ireland & UK time; 12.00 GMT)
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italian)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South African) & Griffon Colby (South African)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South African)

Ulster: Mike Lowry, Ben Moxham, James Hume, Luke Marshall, Ethan McIlroy, Ian Madigan, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, Brad Roberts, Marty Moore, Kieran Treadwell, Iain Henderson (captain), Jordi Murphy, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: Tom Stewart, Eric O’Sullivan, Tom O’Toole, Mick Kearney, Matty Rea, John Cooney, Marcus Rea, Stewart Moore.

[Sards]

Been a rushed evening to get here. But here we are on the couch.
Cmaan Sharks. Let's see something

[Chilli]

It's not raining. The $harks are in with a shout.

[Sards]

That Sharks scrum is a thing of beauty.....

[Chilli]

That Sharks scrum is a thing of beauty.....

With Ox & Thomas on yes.

[Sards]

Sharks have a tough crowd .
Don't perform, don't support

[OomStruisbaai]

Dragons have the right idea with phases but then a vokker kick it

[Sards]

These knock ons......eisch

[Sards]

Jayden impressive. Just needed time

[Sards]

Completely different team tonight. The rain is obviously their weakness

[Sards]

That looked ouch

[Sards]

Power rugby. Eben will fit right into this team

[Sards]

The boys are just having fun now

[OomStruisbaai]

SA ref helping the home team

[Sards]

SA ref helping the home team

Blake my dis kak om Julie ster spelers by die Sharks te sien

[Sards]

Curwin skop soos n pyl en boog!

This has been one of his best performances

[Sards]

I MO Kok has been the best 7s convert to 15. Absolutely class

[OomStruisbaai]

Glasgow 14-0 after 11 mins.

[OomStruisbaai]

TMO make a massive mistake favoring the Sharks

[Chilli]

$harks 9's and 10 are dog shit.

[Chilli]

Good win in the dry conditions

[Slick]

I fear a bit for Welsh rugby. The regions are as average as ever and I suspect the international team are not going to be punching above their weight for the next few years

[OomStruisbaai]

45-5 Glasgow

[OomStruisbaai]

I fear a bit for Welsh rugby. The regions are as average as ever and I suspect the international team are not going to be punching above their weight for the next few years

Surely not all their top players are playing for the regions?

[Slick]

I fear a bit for Welsh rugby. The regions are as average as ever and I suspect the international team are not going to be punching above their weight for the next few years

Surely not all their top players are playing for the regions?

The vast majority are - I think they have a minimum cap to play outside Wales and still get picked thing.

[fishfoodie]

I fear a bit for Welsh rugby. The regions are as average as ever and I suspect the international team are not going to be punching above their weight for the next few years

I can't remember it looking this grim.

There's a real danger that they'll have to cut a team to maintain the remaining three.

[ia801310]

I fear a bit for Welsh rugby. The regions are as average as ever and I suspect the international team are not going to be punching above their weight for the next few years

I can't remember it looking this grim.

There's a real danger that they'll have to cut a team to maintain the remaining three.

They will never do that, the politics won't allow it

[Tichtheid]

Don't the WRU own the Dragons outright, and the others have partial private ownership?

From a Scottish perspective, if the Welsh Union can weather the current storm and get all four teams up to scratch then that is the best thing for them, going to fewer teams is easier financially short term, but it has hurt Scotland long term - but we had other issues at play

[OomStruisbaai]

Sad to hear this. How is Wales schoolboy structures? I have huge respect for Wales rugby culture. Visited Cardiff in 99 WC.

[assfly]

Nice result in the end. The 14 points from penalty tries distorts the scoreline a bit, as I felt we still struggled to string the phases together. But missing quite a few key players so can't complain too much.

But great to see the backline stretch their legs a bit. I really like Kok, brings a lot to the team and glad he scored such a cracking try.

Ox Nche just continues to get better and better. And probably the best game from Pepsi I've seen.

Let's hope it's another clean sweep for the SA teams.

[bok_viking]

Going to the Bulls game today, Looking forward to the bigger crowd there. Looking at the ticket website they will not get the targeted 25k but seems like there will be somewhere between 15k-20k. Will be nice to be out there in a more sizable crowd. And the temperature will be a nice balmy 32 deg this afternoon.

[Slick]

Sad to hear this. How is Wales schoolboy structures? I have huge respect for Wales rugby culture. Visited Cardiff in 99 WC.

I believe they are losing more youngsters than ever to football.

And I agree, much as I hate losing to them, world rugby without a half decent Wales is not the same.

[Sards]

Going to the Bulls game today, Looking forward to the bigger crowd there. Looking at the ticket website they will not get the targeted 25k but seems like there will be somewhere between 15k-20k. Will be nice to be out there in a more sizable crowd. And the temperature will be a nice balmy 32 deg this afternoon.

Hoping to catch the games today. Already been 1 hour into a 40 over cicket match for my kid. Late start so touch and go.