The Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks provided a ray of light for South Africa’s teams in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in a round of mixed fortunes.
The team from Pretoria registered a hard-fought win against Benetton in Italy, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks made it two out of two at home after outplaying Munster in Durban.
The Vodacom Bulls scored a late try in a challenging clash against Benetton in Treviso to sneak through for a 17-15 victory on Friday, while a flashy start by the KwaZulu-Natalians earned them a comprehensive 41-24 win against Munster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday.
The DHL Stormers, meanwhile, went down 28-17 against defending champions, the Glasgow Warriors, in Stellenbosch, while the Emirates Lions suffered their first defeat of the competition, going down 24-6 in a table-topping clash against Leinster in Dublin.
These results saw the Vodacom Bulls finish round six in third position on the standings with 19 points (10 behind log-leaders Leinster), while the Emirates Lions dropped to fourth position on 18 points (tied with the fifth placed Connacht), while the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ victory nudged them into ninth place with 15 points.
The DHL Stormers, meanwhile, continue to languish on the lower end of the table in 13th position on 10 points after recording two victories in their five matches. The teams will have a well-deserved break until the end of November with the international season coming into play over the next few weeks.
Vodacom Bulls pip Benetton to finish tour on high note
Two second half tries – the last of which was in the dying minutes – saw the Vodacom Bulls finish their three-match Vodacom URC tour on a winning note, as they staged a dramatic and patient second-half comeback against Benetton at Stadio Monigo in Treviso for a morale boosting 17-15 victory.
The first half was a tight scramble as both teams defended with intent, which saw both being limited to only penalty goals in the first stanza, with the Italians slotting three to only one by the men from Pretoria for a 9-3 half-time lead.
The Vodacom Bulls – who were disrupted due to illness hours before kick-off – had two good opportunities to score tries in the first quarter, but knock-ons close to the tryline denied them from crossing the chalk, while Benetton only looked close to scoring only once in the half, but the visitors’ strong defence forced their hosts to make a crucial error, which denied them in return.
The team from Pretoria continued to apply pressure on the Benetton in the second half, and despite losing out on a few more possible chances to score early on and being denied a try in the 57th minute due to a knock on, they finally found their rhythm on attack to score two unanswered tries by Rynhardt Ludwig in the in the 72nd minute and Akker van der Merwe minutes from the final hooter respectively, with the successful conversion handing them a 17-15 lead for the first time in the game and the valuable victory.
The South Africans backed up their solid attacking display with great defence, limiting the hosts to only two penalty goals after the break, which saw them inflate their score to 15 points.
Strong-finishing Glasgow topple DHL Stormers in Stellenbosch
A strong second half display saw the Glasgow Warriors shut out the DHL Stormers for a vital 28-17 bonus-point victory at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch in a humdinger of a Vodacom URC match on Saturday.
The encounter was a hard grind from the outset as both teams threw everything at one another for the full 80 minutes in an entertaining spectacle, in which the teams entered the break level on 7-7 after each touching down once in the closing 10 minutes of the first stanza, with Bok Damian Willemse crossing the chalk for the hosts.
The second half also proved to be a scramble as both teams threw everything at one another, but the defending champions showed their fighting spirit in the final quarter to claw their way into the lead after trailing 17-14 in the 63rd minute after Bok flyhalf Manie Libbok eased the pressure on the home side with a penalty goal.
The visitors, however, applied waves of pressure on attack, and this paid off with two crucial tries in the closing minutes, which saw them seal the bonus point win after both teams added a try early in the second half which saw the scores tied at 14-14 in the 54th minute.
The DHL Stormers, however, will rue missed opportunities after creating realistic try-scoring chances on a few occasions, which they struggled to capitalise on.
