Rugby Derby Days: What To Know About Each URC Rivalry Match In Round 8
Rugby Derby Days: What To Know About Each URC Rivalry Match In Round 8
Here's a deep dive into every rugby rivalry fixture in Round 8 of the United Rugby Championship.
It’s the most wonderful time of year, and not just because of the holiday season.
That’s right, it’s a derby round in the United Rugby Championship, and holiday cheers will be ringing across grounds all around the world from Friday to Boxing Day.
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Just five points separate fourth and 11th in the URC table as the competition returns to play following a two-week Champions/Challenge Cup siesta, and there’s no better way to get back underway than to have a Round 8 slate jam-packed with tantalizing rivalries and high-octane fixtures.
From the Aviva Stadium to the Kings Park Stadium and Hampden Park to Rodney Parade, every match on the docket has a storyline — and this guide to the round is here to tell you all about them.
Here’s a look at each match in Round 8 of the URC season, with all matches being streamed live, and exclusively, on FloRugby in the United States:
Munster At Ulster, 2:35 p.m. ET, Dec. 20
Holiday Hoodoo
Interpro fixtures essentially always are demanding, must-win matches, but Munster and Ulster both especially need derby pick-me-ups right now.
Ulster has an ongoing four-match losing streak in all competitions, as it was battered in back-to-back Champions Cup pool stage matches by Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles earlier this month, while domestically, the team is 10th in the URC table and out of the picture for the top 8.
Still, that’s one spot ahead of Munster, which already has gone through a coaching change, as Graham Rowntree left in late October.
Form has been so-so since, though, with Munster coming to derby weekend off of a Champions Cup defeat to Castres.
Conditions aren’t dire at either club right now, but both need confidence-building victories — and fast.
Zebre Parma At Benetton, 8 a.m. ET, Dec. 21
Creevy’s Derby Debut
The seemingly ageless hooker, Agustin Creevy, who will turn 40 in March and only retired from international rugby with Argentina this year after some brilliant send-off performances, joined Benetton in October and immediately made an impact in his club debut against Edinburgh in Round 7.
Though the Scottish club won in a 50-33 barnburner, Edinburgh was ahead by a lopsided 35-0 margin after 40 minutes, before Benetton — willed on by a second-half brace from Los Pumas’ all-time caps leader — made a game out of it.
They’ll be favored in their first derby clash of the season at home, but with wins over Munster and the Ospreys already in this URC season, Zebre Parma does not have the look of a slouch like past years.
Lions At Stormers, 8:45 a.m. ET, Dec. 21
A Prodigy’s Return?:
If you have never had the opportunity to watch Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu play a rugby match, you might be in luck, as one of the hottest young stars in world rugby today is set to make his return to play for the Stormers this weekend at just the right time.
Nominated for World Rugby’s Breakthrough Player of the Year, Feinberg-Mngomezulu was brilliant for South Africa in the Springboks’ mid-year tests, earning the start at fly-half against Australia (twice) and New Zealand.
A knee injury sidelined him for two months, before he was forced off early in his URC season debut against the Sharks in Round 7 due to a concussion, but it looks like all systems are go for Feinberg-Mngomezulu, as the sputtering Stormers — who are 13th with just two wins from six URC fixtures so far — need any type of boost that they can get against a high-scoring Lions side.
Vodacom Bulls At Hollywoodbets Sharks, 11 a.m. ET, Dec. 21
Righting The Ships
Though both participants in this always-tantalizing South African derby are in the top 6 of the URC table and solidly look like contenders on their best days, both are also hoping they can recover quickly from separate blastings in Europe over the past couple of weeks.
In Champions Cup play, the Sharks were annihilated 56-17 by the Leicester Tigers this past weekend, while the Bulls lost back-to-back fixtures to Saracens and the Northampton Saints to leave them both with some work to do in their pools when that competition returns next month.
Watch for Bulls talisman and World Cup-winning Springbok Canan Moodie to be a potential difference-maker in this one after he had a round-high 190 meters carried in Round 7 with four clean breaks.
Scarlets At Ospreys, 12:15 p.m. ET, Dec. 21
Home Cooking
Don’t let the Ospreys’ current standing near the bottom of the URC table fool you — they’ve actually been in great form at home lately, especially in local derbies.
They’ve won four in a row against Welsh opposition at Swansea.com Stadium (which they’re back to playing at after damage from Storm Darragh forced their Challenge Cup tie against the Lions to be moved to Parc y Scarlets) and also have mustered a solid record of seven wins and a draw from their past 11 fixtures at home.
That being said, Mark Jones now is in charge for in his first game with the Ospreys after coach Toby Booth was dismissed following a 59-15 thrashing by Montpellier in the Challenge Cup this past weekend, and for a ninth-placed Scarlets side trying to get back into the top half of the URC table, it could be an opportunity for the visitors to strike a disjointed opponent.
Connacht At Leinster, 12:30 p.m. ET, Dec. 21
Locked-In Leinster
Call it potentially jumping the gun a little bit, but after a near-perfect record through seven rounds of URC play (34 points) and two fixtures in its Champions Cup pool, is it time to pin table-topping Leinster as a threat to finish the entirety of the URC season unbeaten?
That may be famous last words, as it’s a long, grueling season and no interpro match is ever truly a given, but Leinster has been nothing short of spectacular since the European club rugby calendar kicked off in September. Coach Leo Cullen’s men have ripped through just about everyone that’s stood in their path.
Aviva Stadium should be rocking for the second meeting this season between Leinster and Connacht, of which the former won in Galway by a 33-12 margin in October after five Leinster players touched down for tries.
Edinburgh At Glasgow Warriors, 10 a.m. ET, Dec. 22
Havoc at Hampden
The biggest fixture in Scottish club rugby no longer can be contained at Scotstoun, the home of the Warriors, so Scotland’s national football stadium of Hampden Park will instead play host to the first fixture of this season’s 1872 Cup — the first time the Glasgow leg has ever been contested at Hampden and the first rugby match to be played on its pitch in two decades.
The venue, which can hold just under a shade of 52,000 people at its capacity, has been home to some legendary moments in Scotland’s sporting history and has the opportunity to provide another one this weekend as the URC- and 1872 Cup-holding Warriors hope to make a splash in what should be an electric derby environment.
Cardiff At Dragons, 12:15 p.m. ET, Dec. 26
Will Dragons Do It?
Badly in need of a spark, as they are at the bottom of the URC table and are the only club in the competition that has not won multiple matches, the Dragons could’ve had a massive victory against Cardiff in Round 7 in their bag before the European break.
Instead, the Newport-based club’s fight back into the match from what was at one point a 31-9 deficit was too little, too late, as their strong final third of the match came up for naught, as Cardiff got the full five points in a 31-23 victory.
Now time for the return fixture at Rodney Parade, the Dragons will be hoping that the rematch will go their way this time. The only problem with that is that Cardiff has completely dominated the series in its recent history, winning 19 in a row in the league against the Dragons, as they’ll now try to make it a festive 20 straight on Boxing Day.
URC Standings Table After Round 7
Rank | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | For | Against | Pts Diff | Bonus | Points |
1 | Leinster | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 212 | 92 | 120 | 6 | 34 |
2 | Glasgow Warriors | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 215 | 129 | 86 | 7 | 27 |
3 | Vodacom Bulls | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 165 | 108 | 57 | 4 | 24 |
4 | Cardiff Rugbby | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 161 | 178 | -17 | 5 | 21 |
5 | Emirates Lions | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 139 | 112 | 27 | 3 | 19 |
6 | Hollywoodbets Sharks | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 163 | 167 | -4 | 3 | 19 |
7 | Edinburgh | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 196 | 180 | 16 | 6 | 18 |
8 | Connacht | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 177 | 188 | -11 | 6 | 18 |
9 | Scarlets | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 151 | 134 | 17 | 3 | 17 |
10 | Ulster | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 170 | 188 | -18 | 5 | 17 |
11 | Munster | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 163 | 186 | -23 | 4 | 16 |
12 | Benetton | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 152 | 195 | -43 | 4 | 14 |
13 | Stormers | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 133 | 148 | -15 | 3 | 11 |
14 | Ospreys | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 128 | 170 | -42 | 3 | 11 |
15 | Zebre | 7 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 106 | 181 | -75 | 3 | 11 |
16 | Dragons RFC | 7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 129 | 204 | -75 | 3 | 7 |
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