Three Storylines For Round 14 Of The United Rugby Championship
Three Storylines For Round 14 Of The United Rugby Championship
Connacht faces Munster at MacHale Park in a historic BKT URC Irish derby, while the Sharks take on Leinster in a top-4 showdown. Watch on FloRugby!
Breaking new ground in Round 14, the BKT URC will see a historic Irish derby clash between Connacht and Munster at the iconic MacHale Park.
Staging a rugby match at the home of Mayo GAA is a momentous occasion for the western Irish province. The occasion also is special for the URC, as the venue becomes the 56th ground to be used in the league’s history.
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Elsewhere, there will be a top-4 showdown between the Hollywoodbets Sharks and Leinster in Durban.
The league pacesetters have sent several big-name players home to prepare for their upcoming Round of 16 Investec Champions Cup clash with Harlequins.
Nevertheless, Leo Cullen’s young squad remains stacked with quality operators and future stars.
The Sharks conversely have named a strong outfit with an abundance of Springbok stars in a bid to hand Leinster a second loss on its South African tour.
Away from these two standout fixtures, there are cracking clashes across the board. In full, this week’s schedule is as follows:
Friday, March 28
Edinburgh Rugby vs. Dragons - 3:35 p.m. ET
Ulster Rugby vs. DHL Stormers - 3:35 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 29
Vodacom Bulls vs. Zebre Parma - 8:45 a.m. ET
Connacht Rugby vs. Munster Rugby - 10:30 a.m. ET
Scarlets vs. Ospreys - 11 a.m. ET
Hollywoodbets Sharks vs. Leinster Rugby - 3:15 p.m. ET
Benetton Rugby vs. Cardiff Rugby - 3:35 p.m. ET
Glasgow Warriors vs. Emirates Lions - 3:35 p.m. ET
Ahead of kickoff, here are three key storylines to track in Round 14 of the BKT United Rugby Championship.
All matches will be live and on demand on FloRugby for North American audiences.
Breathing Space
Separated by just eight log points, positions 5-15 remain firmly in play for knockout rugby this season.
Currently sitting atop the pile of teams outside the top 4, fifth-place Cardiff Rugby travels to Italy to face 10th-ranked Benetton.
A win for the Welsh outfit is a must, given its exceptionally challenging schedule, which includes clashes with Munster and the Ospreys, before a two-match tour of South Africa, where they will face the Bulls and Stormers.
Benetton, too, has an exceptionally difficult final month and will board a jet plane to take on the Lions and Stormers, before welcoming reigning champion Glasgow to town.
Closing out the campaign on the road against Munster in Round 18 is another daunting task for the Italian side.
In short, both sides need a full five points in Round 14, with the very real prospect of picking up five or fewer points in the remaining fixtures.
Elsewhere, ninth-place Ulster welcomes the resurgent DHL Stormers to town, with the Cape Townians just one spot ahead of them on the league table.
Similar to the previous two sides we just discussed, Ulster has a brutally tough run in to the end of the season, with away trips to Leinster, Munster and Edinburgh, and a lone home clash against the Sharks, who will be jostling for a top playoff seeding.
The Stormers, on the other hand, will finish their last month of the season at home with four matches in which they will expect to bag the full 20 log points.
Thus, a win in Belfast, while not a complete necessity, does keep alive a potential surge into the top four places, thus locking in a home quarterfinal berth.
Touching on the aforementioned Irish derby clash between Connacht and Munster, a win is a complete necessity for both sides.
For Connacht, a loss will put a real anchor on its journey to the knockout stages, with a trip to South Africa looming.
Munster, on the flipside, has four clashes, while not complete gimmes, are ones it will expect to win.
Should Munster do so, it will only heighten the frustration of its past two rounds, which included blowing golden opportunities to pick up much-needed wins against fellow playoff contenders Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Of the other playoff contenders, the Ospreys face a tricky away trip to the Scarlets, the Lions have the daunting task of traveling to Glasgow, while Edinburgh hosts the Dragons for a clash in which it should emerge with five log points.
Thus, should Munster and the DHL Stormers, in particular, pick up victories, then the league should see a clear split between the top six sides and the rest for the remainder of the season.
A Touch Of Class
Turning the corner and hitting the home straight certainly has focused the minds of the league’s ‘big clubs,’ with all of the top contenders filtering back in their international stars.
Recalling some of the biggest names in the sport, the URC sides once again have reminded professional rugby why it is a truly elite league.
Scanning the team sheets, every squad has a sprinkling of international class, adding to the already hyper-competitive nature of the league.
Several of these players are featured on our FloRugby Top 100 players list, while others no doubt will be on our next list later this year.
Of the top head-to-heads this week, Leinster Rugby’s prop pair of Cian Healy and Thomas Clarkson facing off with World Cup winners Ox Nche and Vincent Koch is true food for the soul of front rowers everywhere.
In the halfbacks of that fixture, Ciaran Frawley returns to the site of his famous pair of drop goals, which saw Ireland past the Springboks last July. He will face off against Springboks playmaker Jordan Hendrikse, who partners his Bok brother Jaden in the halfbacks.
Elsewhere, the return of Tadhg Beirne, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash to the Munster starting lineup, with Conor Murray on the bench, makes the former champs a formidable proposition.
Facing them, Connacht has brought back four of its Irish International standouts in Cian Prendergast, Finlay Bealham, Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen for the occasion.
Another spicy encounter sees the top Welsh rugby talent return to the fray, with Jac Morgan skippering the Ospreys, while the Scarlets flaunt a lethal back three of Blair Murray, Ellis Mee and Macs Page.
We could continue, as every clash has mouth-watering head-to-head matchups for fans to sink their teeth into.
A League Wide Storm
Form is temporary; class is permanent, as the old adage goes.
This feels particularly pertinent to the case of the 2024-2025 DHL Stormers who have firmly entered their berserker era.
Gathering momentum while welcoming back a host of Springbok talents, John Dobson’s side might just be the most dangerous side in this year’s competition.
Recovering from a disastrous early season run, the men from Cape Town are the side nobody wants to meet in the playoffs.
Should they push right up to the top 4, then a win in Belfast against Ulster is non-negotiable.
More importantly, this week’s fixture feels like a potential catalyst for a magic carpet ride run all three of the former champions (the Stormers included) enjoyed in their unlikely runs to the title.
In Season 1, the Stormers got hot at just the right time with a run of hot form in the final six weeks of the season, catapulting them to the title.
In Season 2 and Season 3, Munster and Glasgow, respectively, enjoyed similar runs, with key wins over other contenders filling them with confidence before the knockout stages.
In Season 4, the Stormers appear to be timing their run perfectly once again; Round 14 will be a key test of their championship credentials.
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