Improved Irish pose threat to SA teams in new URC season

The inaugural SA campaign in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) finished with a flourish in the Cape Town final, but there has been a dramatic shake-up of the global rugby order since the Stormers became the first champions in June.

Ireland’s 2-1 come-from-behind series win in New Zealand has been the seismic event of the 2022 southern hemisphere international season so far, indeed perhaps anywhere in the world this year. Not only did the Ireland team make history by beating the All Blacks on their home soil, but they also leapfrogged SA and France to assume the international team World Rugby No 1 ranking.

The new URC season starts this weekend with Ireland at top of the international pile and SA at third. That certainly adds both prestige and interest to the competition, which was new to South Africans and also had detractors overseas when it first started out around this time last year.

There should not be too many doubting the South African decision to leave Super Rugby for the URC now though, and there also will not be too many doubters in Ireland, where the greater exposure to SA appears to already be paying off.

The way the Irish dealt with the Kiwis, particularly at forward, was an advert for the positive impact the SA entry into the URC may already be having on rugby in Ireland.

The last time some of those Ireland players played club rugby, it was when they were physically overpowered by the Bulls when they wore the colours of Leinster in the semifinal at the RDS Arena. And yet those same players looked strong and at times nigh unstoppable against the All Blacks.

The All Blacks, helped by the tough games against Ireland and then SA, have started to recover and their big win over Argentina last time out suggested they have learnt plenty and reset. But in the initial stages of the southern hemisphere international season, the advantages of the URC were writ large, both in terms of what South Africans get from being aligned with the north and what Ireland get from the SA contact.

Though their teams struggled in last year’s URC, the Welsh too might have benefited already from the SA involvement, as evidenced by their strong showing on tour here in July, particularly their big efforts at altitude in Pretoria and Bloemfontein.

Watching to see if the Welsh can recover and put in a better challenge for top eight places and therefore playoff qualification is going to be one of many interesting side features of the coming season. It is thought that now they have a better idea of what to expect from the SA opposition in particular the Welsh might be more competitive this time.

They will need to be, for their failure last season saw an early end to their interest in the competition and that could not have been good for either the confidence or the economics of rugby in the Principality.

But the big interest point of the 2022/2023 edition of the Championship and second season of the competition will be the long battle for ascendancy expected between the SA and Irish teams.

The Irish teams should be smarting after seeing two SA sides contest the inaugural final, but on the plus side, this season will be different to last, and indeed to many that preceded it when the competition was known as the Pro14, due to Leinster’s dominance no longer being assumed.

But one defeat did not destroy Leinster. The Bulls win in Dublin back in June was against a Leinster side that was still shell-shocked by the last-gasp defeat they suffered in the Champions Cup final in Marseille. That Leinster have challenged so strongly and consistently for European honours underlines just how strong they are and the depth that has been created is the envy of all.

They will be back as strong contenders this year and maybe even marginal favourites to regain their former hegemony, but the SA teams will have other ideas and the Bulls did make a significant statement with the manner with which they knocked them out of the 2021/2022 competition.

The SA teams will find it tougher this time around though due to their inclusion in the Champions Cup, which means they will be busier, there will be fewer breaks in the season and they will need greater squad depth. That last point might count against the Stormers, who will start as champions but might struggle with squad management in comparison to the Bulls and Sharks, both of whom at this point are still better off financially than the Cape franchise.

The Stormers and Sharks will sit out the opening weekend as they start with a bye, with the Lions hosting the Bulls in the first local derby of the season at Emirates Airlines Park on Saturday.

Leinster start their campaign by travelling to Parma to face Zebre, while Munster start life without Johann van Graan, who has left for Bath, by visiting Cardiff on Saturday. Former England prop and scrum coach Graham Rowntree is the new Munster coach.

Franco Smith, former Italy coach as well as Cheetahs Currie Cup winning coach, is now with Glasgow Warriors and with Mike Blair determined to carry on where he left off last season with the progress of Edinburgh’s running game, both Scottish teams should be braced to play attacking rugby. The Warriors start the competition by visiting Benetton on Friday evening.

Fixtures: Benetton v Glasgow Warriors (Treviso, Friday 18.30), Zebre vs Leinster (Parma, Saturday 14.00), Cardiff v Munster (Cardiff, Saturday 16.05), Lions vs Bulls (Johannesburg, Saturday 16.05), Scarlets vs Ospreys (Llanelli, Saturday 18.15), Edinburgh vs Dragons (Edinburgh, Saturday 20.35), Ulster vs Connacht (Belfast, Saturday 20.35) — SuperSport.com