THE DHL Stormers have booked their spot in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarter-finals alongside the Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks after a good penultimate weekend of league action for the three South African teams.
Unfortunately for the Emirates Lions, their hopes of sneaking into the top eight through the back door were dashed completely as they went down against the Scarlets in Johannesburg on Sunday, leaving them to play purely for pride in the final pool round next weekend.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks started off round 17 on a high note on Friday as they defeated the Ospreys 29-10 in Durban; and the Vodacom Bulls and DHL Stormers followed suit on Saturday as they beat Cardiff 45-21 in Pretoria and the Dragons 48-12 in Cape Town respectively.
All three teams finished the round in the top eight, with the Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks assured of home quarter-finals.
In stark contrast, the Emirates Lions saw their faint hopes of a quarter-final spot fall through their fingers as they succumbed to a disappointing 32-19 defeat against the Scarlets in Johannesburg.
These results, combined with the Glasgow Warriors’ surprising 33-7 defeat against to Benetton, saw the Vodacom Bulls finish the round in second place (63 points) behind Leinster (72), the Hollywoodbets Sharks in fourth place (58 points) and the DHL Stormers one place behind (50 points). The Emirates Lions are languishing in 13th position (35 points).
All four teams have home games next weekend as the league stages come to a close, but the Hollywoodbets Sharks will hope that Glasgow go down against Leinster and they win their match against the Scarlets to move up to third place, while the DHL Stormers will want to beat Cardiff to finish the pool stages in favourable fifth position.
Scarlets (48), Benetton (46), Munster (46), Cardiff (46), and Edinburgh (44) are still in the Race to the Eight, but Munster face Benetton in the final round, which may cost one of these two teams a spot in the quarter-finals.
Hollywoodbets Sharks deliver the goods to secure a home quarter-final
The Hollywoodbets Sharks cemented their home quarter-final in the Vodacom URC as they registered a 29-10 bonus point victory against the Ospreys at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in a competitive encounter on Friday night.
The defeat for the Welsh outfit, however, crushed their hopes of a playoff spot completely with one match remaining against the Emirates Lions next weekend.
While the victory certainly satisfied Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree, their performance was not quite at the standard they would have hoped for, and there is no doubt the coaches will emphasise the need to lift their quality of play with the playoff stages around the corner.
The team will also be holding thumbs that the loss of their captain Eben Etzebeth to a knee injury in the second quarter is not too serious with the knock-out stages in sight.
Ospreys, who were playing for survival, did their utmost to disrupt the KwaZulu-Natalians in the contact areas and showed fight throughout the match, but the hosts dominated possession and territory, and carried the ball more often than the visitors, while they were also more disciplined on the day.
Ospreys earned the first points of the match compliments of a penalty goal in the first minute, but this was cancelled out soon after as Jason Jenkins crossed the whitewash for the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the 10th minute, with Siya Masuku adding the extras to push them 7-3 up.
They added their second try compliments of Rugby World Cup winning Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen in the 33rd minute, and this time his national team-mate Aphelele Fassi slotted the conversion to nudge them into a 14-3 lead at the break.
It took them 10 minutes after play resumed to score again with Ethan Hooker crossing this time, and after a few personnel changes, the Ospreys finally earned their first and only try of the match on the stroke of the fourth quarter to reduce their deficit to 21-10.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks continued to hunt their bonus-point try, and this determination paid off as Phepsi Buthelezi dotted down, with the team wrapping up the win with a penalty goal by Masuku on the stroke of full-time to secure the 29-10 victory.
Scorers:
Hollywood Sharks 29 (14) – Tries: Jason Jenkins, Andre Esterhuizen, Ethan Hooker, Phepsi Buthelezi. Conversions: Siya Masuku (2), Aphelele Fassi. Penalty goal: Masuku.
Ospreys 10 (3) – Try: Sam Parry. Conversion: Dan Edwards. Penalty goal: Edwards.
Strong first half sees Vodacom Bulls outplay Cardiff
The Vodacom Bulls delivered a sterling first-half performance against Cardiff at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday to build up a commanding 31-0 lead, which not only earned them a bonus point, it also paved the way for a rewarding 45-21 Vodacom URC victory which, by the end of the round, was enough to see them overtake defending champions, the Glasgow Warriors, into second place on the standings.
They will, however, be disappointed with their defensive effort in the second half, in which they leaked three converted tries – two of which were scored in four minutes late in the game – but fortunately for the men from Pretoria, they did enough in the opening stanza to remain in a comfortable lead throughout the match, adding two second-half tries to their four in the first half, to add to an early penalty goal by Johan Goosen.
The Vodacom Bulls will be particularly pleased with their scrummaging and the strong running by their backs as they look forward to a home quarter-final and possibly home semi-final over the next few weeks.
Goosen kicked the first points of the match in the third minute, and they built on this with a strong showing throughout the half in which Harold Vorster and the Springbok trio of Wilco Louw, Canan Moodie, and Cameron Hanekom scored tries to steer them to a 31-0 lead going into the sheds.
They wasted no time stamping their authority in the second half with Sebastian de Klerk adding their fifth try in the 42nd minute to nudge them into a 38-0 lead, but they conceded their first try only three minutes later.
De Klerk secured his brace in the 51st minute, which Keagan Johannes converted after taking over the reins from Goosen, who was forced to leave the field in the 11th minute with a knee injury.
But Cardiff went down fighting as Teddy Williams and Gabriel Hamer-Webb crossed the chalk in the last 10 minutes to inflate their score to 21 points.
While defence will be a key focus area for the Vodacom Bulls as the playoffs approach, Jake White and his charges took enough positives from the encounter to know that if they play to their potential for the full 80 minutes in their remaining matches, they could work their way to a second successive Grand Final.
Image ( DHL Stormers have booked their spot in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarter-finals).
