URC Round 16 Review

Peel proud as Scarlets down the leaders

The Scarlets became just the second team to beat Leinster Rugby this season on a perfect weekend for the three Welsh play-off contenders.

Dwayne Peel’s team claimed a thrilling 35-22 bonus point victory over the league leaders, with No 8 Taine Plumtree scoring one of their four tries and setting up another amid a rampaging Player of the Match display.

They are now up to seventh in the table with trips to the Emirates Lions and Hollywoodbets Sharks to follow in the final two rounds.

Reflecting on a first victory over Leinster since 2018, head coach Peel said: "We are proud of the courage we showed.

“The boys were hungry for it and the character was big. They were brave from the start and didn't sit back.

"It was a pressure game and we’re delighted with the win. It means our future is in our own hands now going to South Africa. We’re looking forward to it. It’s a chance to make some history.

“The big goal this season was to be competitive and, for a large part of the year, we have been and we have got ourselves in a position where we’ve got it all to play for.”

Leinster’s only other defeat in their 22 matches in all competitions this season was a narrow league loss to the Bulls in Pretoria in March.

Such was the scale of the Scarlets’ convincing win.

The game proved to be a landmark occasion for their veteran scrum-half Gareth Davies who became the region’s record league try-scorer. He touched down for the 55th time to move clear of team-mate Steff Evans and go fifth on the competition’s all-time list.

Paying tribute to him, fellow former Wales No 9 Peel said: “He has got a knack for finishing and being in the right position.

“That comes from a bit of experience. It also comes from being fit. To run those lines, you’ve got to be on the shoulder all the time.

“He has played a hell of a lot of minutes for us this season, more than he’s probably ever played for the club and he’s 35. That’s testament to his preparation and his robustness.”

Meanwhile, Cardiff Rugby and the Ospreys also secured maximum points in their final home games of the season to keep up their play-off bids as they too prepare to head for South Africa.

Cardiff beat Munster Rugby 26-21 in front of a passionate Arms Park crowd on Friday night, holding firm amid a nail-biting finale to go up to fifth in the table. More on that game to come.

Then, the following afternoon, the Ospreys ran in nine tries as they defeated Dragons RFC 57-24 to move within three points of the top eight, with wing Keelan Giles and 20-point fly-half Dan Edwards both crossing twice.

Their coach Mark Jones said: “At the end of the season, you want to be in with an opportunity of play-offs and we have given ourselves a chance to get in there. It’s all up for grabs.

“The URC is some competition. It’s a tough league. For us, as regions, to be competing as well as we are, for as long as we are, shows there’s growth and there’s talent there.”

Like the Scarlets, the Ospreys will travel to Durban and Johannesburg on their campaign concluding tour of South Africa.

“It’s a tough place to go, but if you want to be in play-offs you’ve got to go to those places and get results. It’s in our hands,” said Jones.

Elsewhere, the third-placed Vodacom Bulls beat second-placed Glasgow Warriors 26-19 at Scotstoun on Friday night to move within a point of them.

There were further South African victories for the DHL Stormers and Lions who beat Benetton Rugby (56-5) and Connacht Rugby (27-7) respectively on home soil.

Then, in the final game of the weekend, the Sharks completed the full house for the Rainbow Nation as they came from 19-0 down to beat Ulster Rugby 22-19 in Belfast and confirm their play-off spot.

That meant you had the real rarity of all four Irish provinces losing on the same weekend in the league.

In the other match, Zebre Parma and Edinburgh Rugby fought out a 25-25 draw, with the Scottish visitors levelling it up in the final play.

It all means we now know four of the eight teams in the play-offs - Leinster, Glasgow, Bulls and Sharks - while there are still ten teams in with a chance of claiming one of the other four slots with two rounds to go. Those ten, from fifth to 14th in the table, are separated by 11 points.

X-Factor Faletau hits the heights for soaring Cardiff

Taulupe Faletau has been dubbed an “unbelievable X-Factor” player after helping keep Cardiff on course for the BKT URC Play-Offs.

The 34-year-old Wales back row legend produced a Player of the Match display in a compelling 26-21 bonus point victory over top eight rivals Munster at a packed Arms Park.

He was the game’s top carrier (17) and made the second most tackles (21) even though he was only on the field for 63 minutes, while he also set up a try for good measure.

Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt commented: “He’s unbelievable, isn’t he?

“He’s right up there with one of the best that’s ever put a red shirt on.

"He is such a class act. He's obviously a talented athlete, but it's also his diligent work ethic behind the scenes and his understanding of the game.

“It’s a pleasure to see him do his thing every day. He’s very unassuming, he doesn’t say a lot, he just goes out and delivers and he gets better with each performance.

“For me, that’s probably his best performance in a blue and black shirt. He showed his full repertoire - stepping, line breaks, great timing of passes, defended well.”

The players’ perspective on Faletau was provided by scrum-half Johan Mulder who scored the match-winning try in front of a crowd of 11,253.

“He has got that X-Factor, he is just incredible,” said the South African.

“He is very composed and chilled on the field.

“You can see why he is a British and Irish Lion and why he has the amount of caps he has. He is a world class No 8.”

As for the man himself, he was typically humble and modest as he picked up his Player of the Match award.

“The shift some of the boys put in out there, I feel embarrassed coming up to collect this. There are many that could have come,” he said.

“The fight from the boys in the last five to ten minutes was class. It was pretty special, sitting up there and experiencing the crowd. We are just chuffed to get the result.”

The 106-cap Faletau is out of contract in June and admits he is uncertain over his future.

“I don’t know where I will be playing next season yet,” he said.

“It’s just been up and down, playing and not playing, so to get the run of games the last few weeks has been good. I am just happy to get out there with the boys.

“Hopefully we can keep on winning and see where we get to.”

Giving his take on the No 8’s future, Sherratt said: “I don’t know yet. It’s something we will chat about over the next couple of weeks, but Taulupe is enjoying it here.”

Faletau played a key role in Cardiff taking the lead in the first half, bursting away to set up centre Harri Millard who is now the joint top try scorer in the league this season, with eight, alongside Glasgow hooker Johnny Matthews.

Munster fought back to lead 21-12, but the hosts secured the spoils as a penalty try was followed by Mulder’s match-winner 15 minutes from time, ahead of some defiant defence during an extended final play.

Sherratt said: “I thought it was a real good contest. A team in sixth and a team in seventh and that’s what it looked like.

“It was end to end, blow for blow and fortunately we came out on the right side of it.”

Cardiff are now up to fifth in the table and in with a very real chance of making the URC play-offs for the first time with trips to the Bulls and Stormers to come.

“It’s been a bumpy two years for the club,” said Sherratt.

“It wasn’t long ago we were talking about starting pre-season with 12 players.

“We changed our training base, we have had a change of ownership, we have had 1800 caps leave the club and new staff.

“So this group has had every excuse to ease off. To be where we are at the moment, surrounded by good teams, is a massive credit to everyone involved in the club.

“I am just chuffed for the club as a whole.”

Sherratt also made a point of praising the fans who sung his team home to victory in the nerve jangling closing stages.

“The support was amazing. I was genuinely blown away by it,” he said.

“You could hear the crowd at the end and that definitely gave the boys another five or ten per cent. It does make a massive difference.

“It’s a test of any relationship how people stick by you through thick and thin and our supporters have done that in spades. I can’t thank them enough. They have been brilliant.

“Last season, we won four games. It could have easily got really sour and negative. But, through thick and thin, they have come out in their masses and supported us.

“So to give them that send off for this season was massive for us. That was for them. It’s about time they had something to shout about.”

Game of the weekend

Ulster Rugby 19, Hollywoodbets Sharks 22

Ulster looked odds on to be heading for a victory that would do their play-off prospects a power of good when they led 19-0 after half an hour, with try-scoring No 10 Jack Murphy contributing nine of those points.

But that was the cue for the Sharks to stage a dramatic comeback.

Winger Makazole Mapimpi followed up his late match-winning try against Edinburgh last weekend by reducing the half-time deficit, with flanker Manu Tshituka and centre Jurenzo Julius crossing in the final quarter to level the scores ahead of fly-half Jordan Hendrikse slotting the decisive penalty three minutes from time.

Ulster full-back Jacob Stockdale, who was named Player of the Match, summed up the mood in the home camp.

“It feels like one that got away from us a bit,” he said.

“In the first half an hour, we were cooking and it felt great, but we just let them back into the game a bit too much. We let them play their power game and, in fairness to them, they took their chances well.

“It’s a disappointing one and that’s maybe representative of the season we’ve had. There’s been a lot of really promising stuff, but we haven’t quite been able to get across the line.

“I’m gutted we didn’t get the win, but we’ve got a couple of games left to try and squeeze into the play-offs. So our focus has to shift to that now.”

Player of the weekend

Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Vodacom Bulls)

Props often go unheralded, so it’s important to recognise their efforts when the opportunity arises and Wessels deserves all the praise going after delivering a mighty Player of the Match display in the Vodacom Bulls’ 26-19 victory over Glasgow at Scotstoun.

The Bloemfontein-born loosehead was sensational in the meeting between second and third, scrummaging really strongly and delivering immense work-rate on either side of the ball.  He also produced one of the finest tackles you will ever see from a prop, denying Argentine wing Sebastián Cancelliere a try by turning him on to his back over the line.

There’s huge competition for front row spots in the Springbok set-up, but the 23-year-old is certainly putting his hand up to add to his two caps.

Giving his thoughts on the victory over Glasgow, Wessels said: “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, so we came out fighting for each other. The guys really stuck together.

“We’ve had two massive games with Munster and Glasgow away. If we can build on this momentum, anything can happen in the play-offs. We just want to fight hard and stay in it.”

Quote of the weekend

Glasgow coach Franco Smith responding to former All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald saying the URC is “a very, very low level” compared to Super Rugby.

“I think that is absolutely unfounded. We’d love to hear what the reasons are why he thinks it’s weaker,” said Smith.

“I’ve coached Super Rugby, I’ve been involved with Super Rugby for a long time. Yes, that’s a very good competition. But I don’t know if Stephen Donald has coached one day in the URC. He’s definitely not played in the URC.

“It will be hard for him to be able to make that kind of statement if he doesn’t have first-hand knowledge of the competition.

“I think the URC is an excellent tournament. It’s fed the Six Nations teams for many a year with huge success.

“I’ve been involved with it since the Magners League, the RaboDirect and then the Pro 12 and Pro 14. I’ve been basically involved in all of the eras.

“This is a quality competition. It is massive. The fact we play in three different, four different countries, with the Champions Cup in the middle of it, makes it a completely different challenge to Super Rugby. You can’t compare it.”

What’s coming next?

The BKT URC takes a break for a week to make way for the semi-finals of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, with Leinster and Edinburgh representing the league in those EPCR competitions.

Then it’s back for Round 17 on the weekend of May 9-11 as the play-off battle moves towards a crescendo.

Leaders Leinster entertain Zebre, while second-placed Glasgow also face Italian opposition as they travel to Treviso to take on Benetton, while Munster host Ulster in an Irish derby and Connacht welcome Edinburgh to Galway.

Meanwhile, all four Welsh teams are out in South Africa for the final two rounds of the regular season.