Mixed Fortunes On The Road For SA Teams In Vodacom URC
It was a weekend of mixed emotions for South Africa’s four franchises in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, with the Vodacom Bulls and Emirates Lions providing rays of light in their opening tour games, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks and DHL Stormers fell short in their final games on the road.
The Vodacom Bulls had to overcome a nightmare second half, in which they finished the match with 12 players, to defeat the Ospreys 29-19 in Wales on Saturday, while the Emirates Lions snatched a morale boosting 23-19 victory against the Dragons in Newport on Sunday.
It was, however, a round of bitter disappointment for the Hollywoodbets Sharks who went down 38-10 against Benetton in Italy, and the DHL Stormers who suffered a 38-7 defeat against Edinburgh in Scotland in their final tour matches.
These results saw the unbeaten Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls (both on 14 log points) finish the fourth round in third and fourth place on the table respectively, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks (six pts) and DHL Stormers (five pts) are currently languishing in 14th and 16th place respectively.
Irish giants Leinster – the only other unbeaten team in the league leading the standings on 20 points – beat arch-rivals Munster by 26-12 in front of a crowd of 80,468 at Croke Park in Dublin – the biggest ever in league history.
Glasgow Warriors, the defending champions who beat Zebre by 33-3 on Friday night, are second on 16 points from their four games, one more than the two Gauteng-based teams.
Benetton dashes Hollywoodbets Sharks’ hopes of a strong tour finish
Benetton delivered a strong performance spurred on by hard running and good finishing to outplay the Hollywoodbets Sharks 38-10 at Stadio Monigo in Treviso on Saturday after building up an encouraging 24-3 halftime lead in their Vodacom URC clash.
The hosts outscored the KwaZulu-Natalians by five tries to one – the single one by the visitors being in the dying stages while the Italians were reduced to 14 men due to a yellow card – as they took advantage of the unorganised Hollywoodbets Sharks defence at vital times.
That said, the Durbanites will rue several missed opportunities after creating numerous try-scoring chances on attack throughout the game, which they were unable to capitalise on.
Benetton opened the scoring early on with a penalty goal and then proceeded to add three tries within 14 minutes, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks had only a penalty goal to show for their efforts in the half, leaving them trailing by 24-3.
The visitors showed their fighting spirit in the second half and did well to make their way within striking range of the tryline a few times in the third quarter, but their hopes of a dramatic fightback were dashed as Rhyno Smith scored his brace in the 68th minute, which the team followed up by another try with five minutes to play.
Unfortunately for the hosts, they received a yellow card two minutes from the final hooter and the Durbanites took full advantage of this with Springbok prop Ntuthuko Mchunu darting over the chalk, and the successful conversion pushed their score into double figures, going down 38-10.
This left them with only one win out of three on tour, although there was a ray of light in that they secured six log points abroad.
