Victor Matfield: 'That is a lesson for us South Africans in how to use a squad as well.'

Wins for Leinster and Munster last weekend, away to the Lions and the Stormers, are feeding into a gathering sense of soul-searching in the home of the world champions.

A LOT TO LEARN: Peter O'Mahony of Munster before the United Rugby Championship match between DHL Stormers and Munster at DHL Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Carl Fourie/Sportsfile

Those trumpeting the arrival of South Africa’s biggest franchises into the newly-minted URC hailed it as a merger of two distinct rugby cultures. The best for both worlds. By the time the Stormers and the Bulls met in Cape Town in last year’s final it was looking more like a hostile takeover.

Only nine months had passed since the season’s opening round, when the Lions won away to Zebre and the other three posted heavy defeats on the road, but the acclimatisation process was swift and the fear that this was more of an aggressive buyout owed to more than just the Rainbow Nation decider under Table Mountain last June.