United Rugby Championship Round 5: One Big Thing To Know About Each Match
United Rugby Championship Round 5: One Big Thing To Know About Each Match
Can anyone stop Leinster Rugby? Can the Springboks change the fortunes for the South African rugby teams? Here's one big thing to know about each match.
One month of United Rugby Championship competition is down, but there are many more pulsating weeks are to go.
Round 4 most definitely was a fitting way to cap off the first four weeks of play, too.
A record crowd watched one of the biggest rivalries in the sport, and with Round 5 on the horizon, there is plenty of momentum as the URC begins to enter the midseason swing.
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There’s no further need for dancing around all the action that’s coming in Round 5, so let’s get right into it, shall we?
Here’s one big thing you need to know about every Round 5 match in the United Rugby Championship this weekend, streamed live, and exclusively, in the United States on FloRugby:
Ospreys At Ulster Rugby
Ulster Back In Form
Though it has a defense that has some serious problems defending others’ attacks, as its 128 points and 19 tries allowed are the highest numbers in the URC through four rounds, Ulster is finding ways to pick up points and stay within the top half of the table.
Case in point: Even after a combined six tries each way in last weekend’s interpro showdown between Ulster and Connacht, Ulster was able to squeeze just enough out of its attack to emerge with a 32-27 victory and get the try-scoring bonus point in the meantime.
How long such a trend can continue is up for debate, but regardless, Ulster has a chance to make it two in a row against the Ospreys, who dropped a game to the visiting Bulls in at the Swansea.com Stadium in Round 4.
Vodacom Bulls At Scarlets
When Down, Scarlets Aren’t Out
Coming off one of the wildest wins of Round 4, the Scarlets will try to be the first team this season to take down a Bulls side loaded to the teeth with Springboks and other high-level talents.
Even after the Welsh club was down to 13 men for an eight-minute stretch late in the match on the road in a derby clash against Cardiff, the Scarlets showed resolve and held on to pick up a relieving victory after they previously had missed out on two wins elsewhere this season — an opening-round draw against Benetton and a one-point defeat to Connacht.
The Bulls already took down one Wales-based club away from home this past weekend (via a 29-19 victory over the Ospreys) and will try to make it 2 of 2 in their ongoing European tour, and 4 from 4 overall on the season thus far, with the electric Kurt-Lee Arendse coming off of a first-half brace in Swansea.
Emirates Lions At Zebre Parma
More For Maxwane?
Though three players across the competition are tied for the most tries scored, only one of those players has scored his tries across just three matches played.
Lions winger Rabz Maxwane erupted onto the scene in Round 3 with a hat trick in the South African side’s 55-21 dismantling of Edinburgh, and though he was unable to stretch his try-scoring streak to three straight matches in the Lions’ victory over the Dragons this past weekend, there is a big chance for him to get back into form against a leaky Zebre Parma defense.
Only Ulster has given up more points and tries than Zebre — which has allowed 124 and 18, respectively — this season, and the luster from the Italians’ epic Round 2 stunner against Munster is starting to wear off.
Watch out for Maxwane as a potential player of the weekend-type of performance is on the cards.
Glasgow Warriors At Hollywoodbets Sharks
Will Sharks Find Bite?
You don’t want to be trying to break a slump against the second-place team in the URC table — and the side that just won the competition last year — but that’s the situation the Sharks find themselves in going into Round 5.
Completely run off the park by previously winless Benetton, the Sharks were a last-minute try away from being without a try completely in a performance unlike the club’s first two matches, in which it broke the 30-point mark against Connacht and the Dragons.
The Warriors are having no such problems finding the try line, as evidenced when they cruised to a 33-3 victory over Zebre Parma in Round 4 with the help of a brace from Huw Jones.
It’s never easy for a European side to pick up a win on South African soil, but if the Warriors want to make a statement with a thumping away from the continent, this could be the week to do it.
Munster Rugby At DHL Stormers
Stormers Need Spark
Like their South African compatriots, the Stormers have played one fewer match than everyone else in the URC, but that hasn’t excused the Cape Town-based side’s sputtering start to their URC campaign.
Anchored to the bottom of the table on five points, the Stormers were walloped by Edinburgh (38-7) in Round 4, a week after the Scottish club was down by 48 points at the half to another South African club in the Lions, and no club in the URC has scored fewer tries to date than the Stormers’ seven.
It’s not good enough for a club that has plenty of Springboks-experienced firepower, such as Damian Willemse and Manie Libbok, and it won’t be good enough (even in the comfort of the Cape Town Stadium) against a hungry Munster side that already is experienced with big matches in intimidating environments, having lost a derby match in Round 4 to Leinster at Dublin’s Croke Park.
Cardiff Rugby At Edinburgh Rugby
Capital Clash
Edinburgh was challenged to respond from both the shellacking it received at the hands of the Lions in Round 3, where the Scottish club lost 55-21 and was down a URC-record 48-0 at the half, and a winless start to the URC season through three matches.
Its response upon its return to the Hive Stadium this past weekend was loud and clear.
Edinburgh looked like a team reborn in a bonus-point rout of the visiting Stormers, shipping five tries past the South Africans. Ben Muncaster had two of them, and the club finally broke its losing run.
The team now will stay in the Scottish capital for Round 5, where visiting Cardiff awaits; the Welsh side is winless since a Round 1 victory over Zebre Parma, dropping a pair of derby matches to the Scarlets, plus one to the URC’s other Scottish club (and the competition’s defending champion), the Glasgow Warriors.
Leinster Rugby At Connacht Rugby
Who’s Stopping Leinster?
Leinster couldn’t have dreamed up a better start to its 2024-2025 campaign, and it’s in more ways than just its flawless record through four matches with bonus points in all of the club’s victories.
In its opening skirmish against interpro rival Munster in the first edition of the year of one of the most intense rivalries in club rugby, Leinster stamped its foot down with a 26-12 victory in front of a URC-record 80,468 fans who crammed into a raucous Croke Park and continued its table-topping form as the only club in the competition unbeaten with a maximum of four matches played.
Scoring three times inside 15 minutes and nabbing the try-scoring bonus point before the half, Leinster is absolutely ruthless, but keep in mind for this weekend that it’ll have to go to the Dexcom Stadium and face a Connacht side that is fifth in the URC table and already competing in its third interpro match of the season.
Benetton Rugby At Dragons RFC
Rampaging Rhyno
Benetton finally picked up its first victory of the season this past round in a 38-10 triumph over the slumping Sharks, and they had an ex-Shark to heavily thank.
Named the URC’s Player of the Week, Benetton fullback (and native South African) Rhyno Smith had an electric two-try display against his former club, part of a five-try, bonus-point performance that was a much-needed boost for the Italian side after two defeats and a draw to start its 2024-2025 campaign.
A spot in the top 8 could be up for grabs for Benetton this weekend at Rodney Parade against a Dragons side looking for a similar type of bounce-back performance; they’ve lost three in a row after an opening-weekend derby win over the Ospreys, though they did get a bonus point in a 23-19 loss to the Lions this past weekend.
URC Standings Table After Round 4
Rank | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | For | Against | Pts Diff | Bonus | Points |
1 | Leinster Rugby | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 128 | 54 | 74 | 4 | 20 |
2 | Glasgow Warriors | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 146 | 69 | 77 | 4 | 16 |
3 | Emirates Lions | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 113 | 62 | 51 | 2 | 14 |
4 | Vodacom Bulls | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 56 | 42 | 2 | 14 |
5 | Connacht Rugby | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 120 | 120 | 0 | 5 | 13 |
6 | Cardiff Rugby | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 101 | 109 | -8 | 4 | 12 |
7 | Munster Rugby | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 103 | 101 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
8 | Ulster Rugby | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 95 | 128 | -33 | 2 | 10 |
9 | Edinburgh Rugby | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 106 | 117 | -11 | 4 | 8 |
10 | Scarlets | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 83 | 87 | -4 | 1 | 7 |
11 | Dragons RFC | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 78 | 111 | -33 | 3 | 7 |
12 | Benetton Rugby | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 73 | 107 | -34 | 1 | 7 |
13 | Ospreys | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 77 | 99 | -22 | 2 | 6 |
14 | Hollywoodbets Sharks | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 73 | 104 | -31 | 2 | 6 |
15 | Zebre Parma | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 67 | 124 | -57 | 2 | 6 |
16 | DHL Stormers | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 67 | 80 | -13 | 1 | 5 |
URC Rugby Schedule For Round 5 Fixtures
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URC Rugby Fixtures Friday, Oct. 18
URC Rugby Fixtures Saturday, Oct. 19
- 7:30 a.m. ET - Zebre Parma vs Lions
- 9:45 a.m. ET - Sharks vs Glasgow Warriors
- 12:00 p.m. ET - DHL Stormers vs Munster
- 12:15 p.m. ET - Edinburgh vs Cardiff
- 2:35 p.m. ET - Dragons vs Benetton
- 2:35 p.m. ET - Connacht vs Leinster
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