Official United Rugby Championship thread

[Chilli]

Stormers will rest Kitshoff, Malherbe and Willemse.
Sharks will rest Kolisi, Etsebeth and Bongi, they also got the good news of Curwin to the rescue.

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Are you going to watch the Stormers on Saturday?

Sadly not, I am at work.

[OomStruisbaai]

DHL Stormers: 15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Tristan Leyds, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Hacjivah Dayimani, 7 Willie
Engelbrecht, 6 Nama Xaba, 5 Marvin Orie, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Kwenzo Blose.
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotze, 17 Brok Harris, 18 Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Deon Fourie, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Kade Wolhuter, 23 Mnombo Zwelendaba.

11 out of starting 15 PoC.

[OomStruisbaai]

Dobson created great depth since the start of the season. Not only returning Boks like Libbok, Orrie, Fourie and Moerat but also Nel, Muskiet, Willie Engelbrecht, Xaba and Zwelendaba getting a chance for next week trip to France.

[LoveOfTheGame]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Are you going to watch the Stormers on Saturday?

Sadly not, I am at work.

Ja gaan skil aartappels man.

[OomStruisbaai]

Edinburgh v Munster
(Edinburgh Stadium, Edinburgh – Kick-off: 19.35; 19.35 GMT)
Teams

Edinburgh: 15 Wes Goosen, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Blair Kinghorn, 9 Ben Vellacott, 8 Villame Mata, 7 Luke Crosbie, 6 Jamie Ritchie (cc), 5 Grant Gilchrist (cc), 4 Jamie Hodgson, 3 Luan de Bruin, 2 Patrick Harrison, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Boan Venter, 18 WP Nel, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Nick Haining, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 James Lang.

Munster: 15 Shane Daly, 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Craig Casey, 8 Gavin Coombes, 7 John Hodnett, 6 Peter O’Mahony (captain), 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman.
Replacements: 16 Diarmuid Barron, 17 Josh Wycherley, 18 Roman Salanoa, 19 Jack O’Donoghue, 20 Alex Kendellen, 21 Paddy Patterson, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Patrick Campbell.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant referees: Ian Kenny (Scotland), Ross Ma bon (Scotland)
TMO: Philippe Bonhoure (France)

[OomStruisbaai]

Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 David Kriel, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marco Van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain), 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobberlaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Lionel Mapoe.

Date: Saturday, December 3
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 20.00 (18.00 UK & Ireland time, 18.00 GMT)
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Griffin Colby (South Africa)
TMO: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)

[handyman]

Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14 David Kriel, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Canan Moodie, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Zak Burger, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Cyle Brink, 6 Marco Van Staden, 5 Ruan Nortje (captain), 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Mornay Smith, 2 Johan Grobberlaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Janko Swanepoel, 20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Chris Smith, 23 Lionel Mapoe.

Date: Saturday, December 3
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 20.00 (18.00 UK & Ireland time, 18.00 GMT)
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Cwengile Jadezweni (South Africa), Griffin Colby (South Africa)
TMO: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)

Fantastic Bulls team.

[OomStruisbaai]

Sharks need something

[OomStruisbaai]

Sharks need something

They need a Damian Willemse type of flair player.

[Sards]

I will take that. Just remember what we still have coming back into the team.
Outstanding performance from Bosch.
Sharks get the W and its a good start under Powell. With more time and other players it should get even better.
Is this the change in the wind direction we need to win this competition.

Jayden Hendricks take a bow

[assfly]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Good call. Man of the match

[Sards]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Good call. Man of the match

I think ouboet just shat his pants.

He was looking to insult and mock the Sharks and suddenly they look like a threat

[Slick]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

[robmatic]

The oversized stadiums don't help.

[OomStruisbaai]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Derbin never have good support like the Stormers and Bulls.

[OomStruisbaai]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Good call. Man of the match

I think ouboet just shat his pants.

He was looking to insult and mock the Sharks and suddenly they look like a threat

Nah not at all. Glad they got the win. They still look kak.

[Sards]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Derbin never have good support like the Stormers and Bulls.

Did you see the attendance at last week's Stormers match
......nah. Don't think so

[OomStruisbaai]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Derbin never have good support like the Stormers and Bulls.

Did you see the attendance at last week's Stormers match
......nah. Don't think so

Still much better then the 10 attended this evening

[OomStruisbaai]

Nice try by Embra. Weather look perfect

[OomStruisbaai]

Gasman Graham.

[Slick]

Gasman Graham.

He’s just in such great form you think he is going to score every time he gets the ball

[OomStruisbaai]

Munster fight back nicely. It's a tough game now

[OomStruisbaai]

Interesting to have a French ref in the URC. He has been very good.

[OomStruisbaai]

Munster win means the Lions can move to 5th on the log tomorrow

[Chilli]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Good call. Man of the match

[Chilli]

Cometh the hour
Cometh the man
If anyone can rescue the $harks it's Curwin Bosch.

Good call. Man of the match

I think ouboet just shat his pants.

He was looking to insult and mock the Sharks and suddenly they look like a threat

It was a win. An important win. Nothing else.
This performance is hardly threatening.

[bok_viking]

Good call. Man of the match

I think ouboet just shat his pants.

He was looking to insult and mock the Sharks and suddenly they look like a threat

It was a win. An important win. Nothing else.
This performance is hardly threatening.

Yeah it might have been a win, but the Sharks looked anything but convincing in the game, specially against a team that was having trouble scratching 23 players together for the game. Hopefully they do play a lot better when the rest returns, the way they are playing now they will not get close to the finals, closer to falling out in 1 of the first knockout rounds. They were hardly convincing in some of their games with all the springboks in the team before the international break.

[bok_viking]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Like mentioned by someone else, a big problem is playing all these games in big stadiums. 15000 will fill or get close to filling many of the NH club stadiums but in SA its not even half the stadium capacity, so 15000 people look quite empty in SA. The bulls went through a decade of really bad performances until White came in, add to that a Super rugby competition that in its last version was one of the worst thought out competition structures ever, it turned a lot of people away from going to the stadium and in the last year before Covid started. the bulls would only get about 5000 attendance on average, compared to around 2012 where they used to have an average of between 35000-40000. But the crowds seem to come back slowly, they regularly get around 150000-20000 in URC games now and during the knockouts and a couple of other games they were getting 25000 (the stadium limited last year was still 50%) If the Bulls have a couple of home knockouts this year, I think they could get close to capacity of 50000. Will be interesting to see what kind of crowd the First Europeaan cup game next week is going to attract.
Overall the Stormers and Bulls always had the biggest average crowds in SA. The Lions have a big problem that the neighbourhood where their stadium is located has become one of the most crime ridden areas in SA over the last 20 years so a lot of their fans are kept away because of it I think. They would do well to find another stadium to play in, but then again they own the current stadium so why rent another.

[assfly]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Stormers aside, we've struggled to get decent crowds down in recent years, especially from the heyday of Super Rugby when it was common to see full stadiums.

I think our stadiums are definitely too big. The $harks probably had about 8 or 9,000 down last night, which wouldn't be a bad turnout in the ND, but they gets lost in the giant stands.

Crowds can be bigger for big school and club games. I've long been an advocate of moving these games out of the big stadiums and going to clubs, school and townships to grow the game. But I know it probably doesn't make commercial sense for the teams.

Maybe the clingons can comment why people have stopped watching live rugby. Perhaps it's the cost of living biting, or a safety issue (like Ellis Park). I think maybe some teams have missed the boat when it comes to making matches a more family-friendly event, but then again late kick-off on a Friday or a Sunday won't help.

It's weird, as if you went into any decent bar or restaurant, chances are there would be a lot of people watching.

[assfly]

Yeah it might have been a win, but the Sharks looked anything but convincing in the game, specially against a team that was having trouble scratching 23 players together for the game. Hopefully they do play a lot better when the rest returns, the way they are playing now they will not get close to the finals, closer to falling out in 1 of the first knockout rounds. They were hardly convincing in some of their games with all the springboks in the team before the international break.

Last night was purely about the win. It went about as well as could be expected, considering their coach was sacked 5 days previously. There was a sense of desperation, and beyond 2 or 3 phases you could see their lack of cohesion biting. I think for now they've just got to concentrate on a top 8 finish. Powell is essentially picking up the pieces and starting from scratch, as he didn't have the luxury of a pre-season to settle in.

[OomStruisbaai]

Cape Town always had the Newlands faithful and has been the best attended venue in rugby. It had all to do with the location in Newlands, close to the heart of rugby in the southern suburbs ( Bishops Sacs, Rondebosch & Wynberg) Most rugby supporters would walking line with the schools and then visit the rugby at Newlands. The same as Loftus with Affies and Pta Boys High just around the corner. Shifting to CT Stadium and moving the season to summer plus Covid also didn't help. The local Derbies still draw the best crowds. Bulls vs Stormers , North vs South is South Africa's real derby for ages. The rugby culture is healthy at these two franchises.

[OomStruisbaai]

Not trolling.

What is it with the lack of supporters going to club games? The attendances look uniformly low in SA.

Is a rugby culture thing? Did you get more at S14 games?

Stormers aside, we've struggled to get decent crowds down in recent years, especially from the heyday of Super Rugby when it was common to see full stadiums.

I think our stadiums are definitely too big. The $harks probably had about 8 or 9,000 down last night, which wouldn't be a bad turnout in the ND, but they gets lost in the giant stands.

Crowds can be bigger for big school and club games. I've long been an advocate of moving these games out of the big stadiums and going to clubs, school and townships to grow the game. But I know it probably doesn't make commercial sense for the teams.

Maybe the clingons can comment why people have stopped watching live rugby. Perhaps it's the cost of living biting, or a safety issue (like Ellis Park). I think maybe some teams have missed the boat when it comes to making matches a more family-friendly event, but then again late kick-off on a Friday or a Sunday won't help.

It's weird, as if you went into any decent bar or restaurant, chances are there would be a lot of people watching.

Trust me even this small town of Struisbaai go silent when the Boks play. If they win you smell the brasi and hear the joy from the locals. Even the All Blacks have a lot of support.

I must admit I love the Irish and Scottish supporters at games. Last night in Edinburgh was a fantastic crowd and a lot of Munster support.

Superrugby kill rugby. It died since they change the S12 format.

[FalseBayFC]

That scratchy Sharks result sure felt good! The crowds continue to be weak and a worry. A winning team will see an increase but I think the glory days of regular big domestic crowds are gone. Combination of factors I guess. Security, cost, change of culture. During the Sharks heyday they were selling 5-10000 scholar and student tickets alone per match. There would be a huge number of people coming from all corners of the province. A drive from say Ladysmith to Durban to watch the rugby at todays petrol price suddenly doesn't seem so attractive.

[OomStruisbaai]

Will be interesting to see how many the Stormers will draw in PE. 14h00 kick off way to early, but a worth while exercise.

[bok_viking]

That scratchy Sharks result sure felt good! The crowds continue to be weak and a worry. A winning team will see an increase but I think the glory days of regular big domestic crowds are gone. Combination of factors I guess. Security, cost, change of culture. During the Sharks heyday they were selling 5-10000 scholar and student tickets alone per match. There would be a huge number of people coming from all corners of the province. A drive from say Ladysmith to Durban to watch the rugby at todays petrol price suddenly doesn't seem so attractive.

Yeah I do think the cost of fuel has a bit to do as you say, the fans living in all the smaller towns a couple of hours drive away have to spend quite a bit on petrol to get to the stadiums now. so they do not make a day of it anymore to come out to the game. For me that goes to Loftus a lot, my fuel cost is generally more than my tickets and i am only a 50 minute drive away.

[weegie01]

Trust me even this small town of Struisbaai go silent when the Boks play. If they win you smell the brasi and hear the joy from the locals. All Blacks have a lot of support.

I must admit I love the Irish and Scottish supporters at games. Last night in Edinburgh was a fantastic crowd and a lot of Munster support.

Superrugby kill rugby. It died since they change the S12 format.

Edinburgh used to play in the international stadium at Murrayfield. The crowd was usually lost. The smaller Dam stadium was built to overcome this and has worked wonders. There is always a good atmosphere when the Irish and Saffas are in town as there are plenty Irish and Saffas living in the area. The Welsh used to travel in decent numbers but that seems to have stopped.

Edinburgh just need to sort out the crap on the pitch now.

[Slick]

Trust me even this small town of Struisbaai go silent when the Boks play. If they win you smell the brasi and hear the joy from the locals. All Blacks have a lot of support.

I must admit I love the Irish and Scottish supporters at games. Last night in Edinburgh was a fantastic crowd and a lot of Munster support.

Superrugby kill rugby. It died since they change the S12 format.

Edinburgh used to play in the international stadium at Murrayfield. The crowd was usually lost. The smaller Dam stadium was built to overcome this and has worked wonders. There is always a good atmosphere when the Irish and Saffas are in town as there are plenty Irish and Saffas living in the area. The Welsh used to travel in decent numbers but that seems to have stopped.

Edinburgh just need to sort out the crap on the pitch now.

Yes, I remember when the Welsh used to come and take up half a stand, wherever that was, never really notice them now

[Jock42]

Trust me even this small town of Struisbaai go silent when the Boks play. If they win you smell the brasi and hear the joy from the locals. All Blacks have a lot of support.

I must admit I love the Irish and Scottish supporters at games. Last night in Edinburgh was a fantastic crowd and a lot of Munster support.

Superrugby kill rugby. It died since they change the S12 format.

Edinburgh used to play in the international stadium at Murrayfield. The crowd was usually lost. The smaller Dam stadium was built to overcome this and has worked wonders. There is always a good atmosphere when the Irish and Saffas are in town as there are plenty Irish and Saffas living in the area. The Welsh used to travel in decent numbers but that seems to have stopped.

Edinburgh just need to sort out the crap on the pitch now.

It seems to have boosted attendances too.

[OomStruisbaai]

Disappointed PE crowd. Still more then Derbin

[Sards]

I am sorry. But if you can't see Libbok as our Springboks number 10/ 15 , you have no taste.