URC

The United Rugby Championship reaches the business end this weekend with the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers reaching the quarter-final.

The Sharks have a big scrum,” he said. The Bulls and Sharks are set for a tough struggle at Loftus with home side leaders in offloads (217) indicating that their blueprint is slightly different to the perception about them. “The Bulls have really got into their stride the last few games, but I think we’ve been bearing it up from day one,” Sharks captain Thomas du Toit said. And the major reason it has been so well received is that the four South African participants — the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers — have been competitive. South Africa’s leading teams have been almost unbeatable at home with 22 wins and only two losses between the four franchises. In some cases, they have been dominant and that has raised the standard of the competition.

The north and south battle continues this weekend as the knockout stages of the United Rugby Championship get underway. The Bulls host the Sharks at Loftus ...

“It has been a good week of preparation, and everyone is excited about what should be a memorable day. Fit again scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, returns to the starting line-up, while centre Rikus Pretorius, comes in the place of Damien Willemse, who is yet to recover from an arm injury sustained from the Scarlet clash. The north and south battle continues this weekend as the knockout stages of the United Rugby Championship get underway.

Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair has made just one change to his starting XV for United Rugby Championship play-off clash versus Stormers.

“We’ve approached tomorrow night’s match in the same way we have all season. Five South African teams to play in ‘Europe’ next season They love playing for each other and representing this club.

Edinburgh flank Hamish Watson knows their win against the Sharks in Durban has no bearing on their quarter-final against the Stormers in Cape Town.

“But we have got to control the game, play in the right areas. “The summer stuff doesn’t really apply because when we played those clubs they were without all their internationals. We controlled the game really well,” Watson said.

The Stormers tackle Edinburgh on Saturday in a quarterfinal of the United Rugby Championship at Cape Town stadium. The Stormers ended their inaugural URC ...

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From Dublin to Table Mountain, Magnus Bradbury has experienced domestic trauma, controversy and joy across his Edinburgh career.

I pride myself on the attritional side of my game and I want to challenge myself in the most physical league in the world. We’re the first and one of the only teams to win out here this season. That’s my driver, to create a last couple of special memories with the boys I’ve played with for nine years.” “If my dad is working in the office, my mum is out in the garden. The Premiership is relentless and being exposed to that – not to say the physicality isn’t here in the URC – excites me. Bradbury has always responded well to the tossing down of a gauntlet. For all players talk of fresh stimuli and new environments, now seems an odd time to leave Edinburgh. Bradbury will swap Champions for Challenge Cup rugby, and a team on the up for one whose progress has stalled. He hurt his head on a night out, tried to conceal the incident from his coach, was investigated, suspended, and had the captaincy revoked. I remember the tail end of that season incredibly fondly because I was playing some good rugby, we were in a play-off for the first time. Now, we’ve taken the good stuff from how we were back then – the hard pack, the directness – and built on that with calling what we see and being ourselves, rather than having one job to do and doing it the whole game. Look at anyone else who has been revitalised this season, it’s all down to the way we are training and being supported off the field.” It is a shame for Edinburgh to be losing – or, depending on whom you listen to, letting go of – the back-row after his finest campaign yet.

Former Ireland back-row Alan Quinlan joined Adrian and Johnny on #OTBAM to look ahead to this weekend's United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

They'll hope that Leinster beat Glasgow, because if the Scots claim the title then there'll be no Champions Cup rugby at Thomond Park next year. It's unlikely ...

It was a brilliant score and reflected Ulster’s superiority with ball in hand. Ulster punished them with yet more slick interplay. Ulster, meanwhile, will find out today if they’re off to face Edinburgh or the Stormers next week. A campaign that at times promised much, ended with a whimper. They’ll hope that Leinster beat Glasgow, because if the Scots claim the title then there’ll be no Champions Cup rugby at Thomond Park next year. So, another year passes without a trophy and three-quarters of the coaching ticket and a chunk of the squad head for the exits with nothing tangible to show for their time in red.

Ulster are the first side through to this season's United Rugby Championship semi-finals.

The other sees DHL Stormers take on Edinburgh. After last week’s Heineken Champions Cup disappointment, Leinster return to action on Saturday at the RDS where they face Glasgow Warriors. Defeat means the Johann van Graan era at Munster ends without a single piece of silverware.

Not for the first time this season, Ulster head coach Dan McFarland was left praising his side's back-line after their thumping URC quarter-final success ...

"At that time we weren't playing our best rugby. "The first one was outstanding. For them to come more or less full bore, and us score 36 points, it's a testament to the lads.

Abject display signs off the Johann van Graan/Stephen Larkham/JP Ferreira era.

Hume’s out-in line on to McCloskey’s delayed short pass beat de Allende and Timoney was in support for the finish. Stewart Moore passed on to Ethan McIlroy and took the return offload to complete a lovely try. Munster’s errors and discipline mounted as Ulster built through the phases with far more accuracy and width. Lurching from one style to another, and from the Exeter and Toulouse performances to the last two, is hard to credit. The ball squirted out from the ruck and came off Kleyn’s boot before he regathered to draw the sides level. The attendance for a fixture which was not covered by season tickets hardly reflected the game’s importance but the estimated 12,000 cared and were royally entertained.

The Stormers are sweating over the fitness of star player Damian Willemse ahead of their United Rugby Championship quarter-final against Edinburgh on ...

"We gave Damian as much time as we could to make it for this match, but in the end it was not worth the risk, especially as we have a quality player in Rikus to start at 12," said head coach John Dobson. Willemse has now been taken for scans that will confirm the extent of the damage, but early indications are that he faces six to eight weeks on the sidelines. The Stormers have suffered a huge blow with the news that star Springbok Damian Willemse has been ruled out for the rest of the season through injury.

When the curtain closes on the inaugural URC, Leolin Zas' career comeback will be writ large as the story of the season after overcoming huge personal odds.

Sport24 chief writer. A monster showing from Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee at Loftus would give him the chance of a return to the Bok squad picture.

The Vodacom Bulls have called in a trio of experienced Springboks for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarter-final clash against the Sharks at Loftus ...

“The fact that we have lost twice to them in the round robin stages shows the quality of their side. Now we will need to play our best rugby.” “The Sharks have been an outstanding side throughout the campaign.

The Stormers, Bulls and Sharks will have the same objective when they take the field in their United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-finals.

There’s no existing template in sport for a trophy like this “It is a privilege to be involved in a competition of this nature. Van Heerden moves to the replacements, where he is joined by Ben Tapuai, as the KwaZulu-Natalians chose to revert back to a 5/3 split on the bench. “The fact that we have lost twice to them in the round robin stages shows the quality of their side. “The Sharks have been an outstanding side throughout the campaign. “It has been a good week of preparation, and everyone is excited about what should be a memorable day.

Cape Town – The Bulls won't have star fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse available for Saturday's United Rugby Championship quarter-final against the Sharks at ...

- Bulls have ‘done a lot of homework’ to combat Bok-laden Sharks scrum - Bulls dominate stats, but can Sharks kick to victory? ALSO READ: Bulls have ‘done a lot of homework’ to combat Springbok-laden Sharks scrum

The home side's bench has been bolstered with the inclusion of Springboks, Lizo Gqoboka, who will provide loosehead prop cover, and veteran flyhalf Morne ...

“The fact that we have lost twice to them in the round robin stages shows the quality of their side. “The Cell C Sharks have been an outstanding side throughout the campaign. “I am really proud of our players for what they have achieved in reaching this stage of the Vodacom URC. They have put in the hard work and have shown great determination to overcome some obstacles in the early stages of the season to reach the playoffs,” said Vodacom Bulls director of rugby, Jake White, ahead of the match.

The trophy will be on display when the Bulls host the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. The newly-designed United Rugby Championship trophy arrived in ...

The Array is capped at the top by a removable crown which will have a bespoke design that changes from season to season. - The scale of the Stanley Cup in theNHLand the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the NFLinspired the creators of the United Rugby Championship trophy to produce something equally robust and big. Named “The Array” the trophy stands 680mm tall and weighs almost 20kg.