Stormers and Lions sitting pretty, Bulls and Sharks in danger as URC hits back end
· Citizen
The Stormers and Lions are looking good and well on course to secure their place in the United Rugby Championship (URC) playoffs, while the Bulls and Sharks have plenty of work to do as the competition hits the back end.
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Six rounds remain in the 18 game pool phase, and the Stormers currently rule the roost among the South African sides, sitting second overall, followed by the Lions in seventh, Bulls eighth and Sharks 11th.
They all now head into an important run of matches to decide their season, with four of the next six games played on home soil.
The Stormers and Lions both play their next four in a row at home, before finishing the pool stage with two away matches, while the Bulls and Sharks play two at home, two away and then finish off with two back at home.
The Stormers are in a huge tussle to secure a home playoff, and will thus need to try win their next four to build some breathing room and put some pressure on the table topping Glasgow Warriors.
Glasgow are four points ahead of them, while the Stormers are level on points with Ulster and Leinster, followed by fifth placed Cardiff one point back and sixth placed Munster two points adrift, on a stacked table.
Having ended a three match losing streak with an impressive bonus point win over the Bulls at Loftus over the past weekend, the Stormers will now want to back that up against Dragons, Edinburgh, Connacht and Glasgow over the next four rounds.
The Cape side then conclude their pool phase against two teams challenging them for a top four spot, Ulster in Ireland and Cardiff in Wales.
Rest of SA
The Lions, despite being in seventh, are in a tight top eight race, and have the Bulls and Connacht breathing down their necks three points behind them, followed by Ospreys in 10th a further point back.
They will thus likely need to beat Edinburgh, Dragons, Glasgow and Connacht over the next four rounds, to give them enough breathing room before heading to Ireland to face Leinster and Munster in their last two games.
The Bulls are just in the playoff places, and after their defeat to the Stormers will know how important their next two home matches against Cardiff and Munster are to secure their place, and if they can win both they will likely have made sure of a top eight finish.
Their last four matches of the pool stage are against the bottom four teams in the competition, as they travel to Wales to take on 14th placed Dragons and 15th placed Scarlets on consecutive weekends, before finishing at home against 16th placed Zebre and 13th placed Benetton.
For the Sharks they are currently six points off the playoff positions, so know their fate isn’t in their hands and also know that any loss from here on out could leave them too far off the pace.
They have massive clashes against Munster and Cardiff at home to overcome, before facing tricky away games against fellow top eight hopefuls Ospreys and Edinburgh away.
Their final two matches of the pool stage will be against Italian bottom feeders Zebre and Benetton, who they will be confident of beating back at home.
This weekend’s SA URC fixtures
Friday
Bulls v Cardiff at Loftus Versfeld: Kick-off 7pm
Saturday
Lions v Edinburgh at Ellis Park: Kick-off 2:45pm
Sharks v Munster at Kings Park: Kick-off 5pm
Sunday
Stormers v Dragons at the Cape Town Stadium: Kick-off 3pm