URC Round 15

Heading towards the final few rounds and the competition for top 8 and top 4 really hotting up now.

All times UK and Ireland time. All fixtures shown on Premier Sports, SuperSport and URC TV.

Friday 1st April 2022

Cell C Sharks vs Dragons- Hollywoodbets Kings Park- 18:30- BBC Wales
Glasgow Warriors vs Zebre Parma- Scotstoun Stadium- 19:35- Mediaset

Saturday 2nd April 2022

Benetton vs Connacht- Stadio Monigo- 12:00- Mediaset- RTE 2
Vodacom Bulls vs Ulster- Loftus Versfeld- 13:00
Emirates Lions vs Edinburgh- Emirates Airline Park- 15:05
DHl Stormers vs Ospreys- DHL Stadium- 17:15- S4C
Munster vs Leinster- Thomond Park- 19:00- RTE 2
Scarlets vs Cardiff- Parc y Scarlets- 19:35

That could be one of the strongest saturday fixture lists in the URC in a long time.  Every game up for grabs and competitive.... maybe?

Pity this isn't under the club rugby section.

Bulls: Arendse, Moodie, Hendricks, Vorster, Tambwe, Smith, Burger; G Steenkamp, Grobbelaar, Smith, W Steenkamp Nortje, Coetzee (capt), Brink, Louw.
Replacements: Van Zyl, Matanzima, Hunt, Ludwig, Botha, Johannes, Steyn, Mapoe.

Ulster: Lowry, Moxham, Hume, Marshall, McIlroy, Madigan, Doak; Warwick, Roberts, M Moore, Treadwell, Henderson (capt), Murphy, Timoney, Vermeulen.
Replacements: Stewart, O'Sullivan, O'Toole, Kearney, Rea, Cooney, Rea, S Moore.

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 Rugby v Munster (appearances in brackets):

15. Hugo Keenan (38)
14. Jimmy O’Brien (45)
13. Garry Ringrose CAPTAIN (94)
12. Robbie Henshaw (60)
11. James Lowe (59)
10. Ross Byrne (120)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (108)

1. Ed Byrne (80)
2. James Tracy (139)
3. Michael Ala’alatoa (16)
4. Devin Toner (276)
5. Jack Dunne (17)
6. Caelan Doris (47)
7. Josh van der Flier (106)
8. Jack Conan (109)

Replacements:

16. Dan Sheehan (21)
17. Cian Healy (241)
18. Tadhg Furlong (119)
19. Ross Molony (131)
20. Josh Murphy (55)
21. Luke McGrath (167)
22. Ciarán Frawley (47)
23. Max Deegan (80)

Whoops didn’t realise I put this on wrong place, am I able to move it? Maybe one of the mods can?

I think Ulster will hope to never see another Italian ref south african TMO again in their lives after some the decisions in the last 2 weeks

I think the SA teams had very little advantage during the URC thus far, if anything they should be the ones that should be complimented for not blaming referees this season, they took their medicine, had sessions with some of the European referees and adapted.

Sorry. Didn’t see this until today. Moved now.

Thanks for setting it up again.

Old Man wrote:I think the SA teams had very little advantage during the URC thus far, if anything they should be the ones that should be complimented for not blaming referees this season, they took their medicine, had sessions with some of the European referees and adapted.

The SA fans haven’t stopped about refs tbh. More importantly, we need a global season so that we can see the best from each hemisphere.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Old Man wrote:I think the SA teams had very little advantage during the URC thus far, if anything they should be the ones that should be complimented for not blaming referees this season, they took their medicine, had sessions with some of the European referees and adapted.

The SA fans haven’t stopped about refs tbh. More importantly, we need a global season so that we can see the best from each hemisphere.

Rugby fans in general complain about referees, not exclusive to SA rugby fans

Yeah, that’s true!

neilthom7 wrote:I think Ulster will hope to never see another Italian ref south african TMO again in their lives after some the decisions in the last 2 weeks

What was the problem with today's match?

Brave win by the Lions, Edinburgh threw the kitchen sink at them in the last 20

Mr Fishpaste wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:I think Ulster will hope to never see another Italian ref south african TMO again in their lives after some the decisions in the last 2 weeks

What was the problem with today's match?

The Treadwell yellow was never a yellow, even the former South Africa player in the studio thought it was a joke (Bob Skinstad, just rememebred his name).

Also in the lead up to one of trys before that yellow there was a decision about a knock on, I didn't actually see that but came back in the room just in time to hear the commentator say it was compeltely the wrong call, moments later from that decision the Bulls scored.

However, even with all that the Bulls deserved a win but theres no doubt those 2 decisions helped change the game.

On the refereeing front, I expect refs to get decisions wrong that doesn't annoy me, I mean if you look at any ruck there is arguably 5 penalties you could give in them but what annoys me is when the ref and TMO have a chance to actually look at a big decision and still get it wrong, theres no excuse for that.

RiscaGame wrote:Sorry. Didn’t see this until today. Moved now.

Thanks for setting it up again.

Many Thanks Risca, I wasn't paying attention properly in the first place lol

Great win for the Lions, showed some real steel under pressure. South African teams do look to be well set for future seasons, there certainly aren't any Zebres like teams in the 4 teams.

This year has been tough for them but I really think they will kick on as things start to get back to more 'normal' conditions.

Beware anyone who has to go there in the playoffs

neilthom7 wrote:

Mr Fishpaste wrote:

neilthom7 wrote:I think Ulster will hope to never see another Italian ref south african TMO again in their lives after some the decisions in the last 2 weeks

What was the problem with today's match?

The Treadwell yellow was never a yellow, even the former South Africa player in the studio thought it was a joke.

Also in the lead up to one of trys before that yellow there was a decision about a knock on, I didn't actually see that but came back in the room just in time to hear the commentator say it was compeltely the wrong call, moments later from that decision the Bulls scored.

However, even with all that the Bulls deserved a win but theres no doubt those 2 decisions helped change the game.

On the refereeing front, I expect refs to get decisions wrong that doesn't annoy me, I mean if you look at any ruck there is arguably 5 penalties you could give in them but what annoys me is when the ref and TMO have a chance to actually look at a big decision and still get it wrong, theres no excuse for that.

Bulls recieved a yellow for pretty much a carbon copy tackle

Coetzees tackle was directly to the head, it was fair enough as a yellow, there was dip because of the tackle which mitigated it.

Treadwells didn't just have that it also had that his shot was against the ball first which then rose up to the head as a result. It shouldn't have been more than a penalty.

You're splitting hairs there mate

Agree to disagree then I guess, comfortable win for Stormers there, that hurts Ospreys chances of top 8

Another good weekend for the SA teams, looking much better, but still doubt any will make the top 4

Happy for the Lions though, their season could have been a complete disaster

If any of them can make the top 4 and get a home quarter final then that will be a real tough trip for a team, South African teams have looked almost unbeatable at home so far.

Leinster have taken firm control of the league with that win. They have their South Africa trip after the Champions Cup games so that should be an interesting one to see.

Leinster have built up their buffer but the last 3 URC games are away to Sharks, away to Stormer and home (lansdowne rd) to Munster. They could come out of those 3 games with 3 points? And a pair of European fixtures to distract them also. They are either playing inter-provincial derbies or are away in SA. The easy run of fixtures ended back on the 5th March. It will be interesting how Cullen/Lancaster/Felipe approach the coming weeks.