Physical SA league clashes set Munster up for French test

Mike Prendergast: Bayonne defend with a huge amount of linespeed and kick the ball the most in the Top 14. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Whatever your views on South African teams competing in Europe’s premier club knockout competition, Mike Prendergast believes having them in the URC can only benefit all the league’s clubs competing for Champions Cup honours this season.

With last season’s introduction under their belts, the Bulls and the Stormers are gearing up for this weekend’s opening round of pool games and their second campaign in the tournament, both having reached the quarter-finals on their first attempt.

Both the Pretoria and Cape Town franchises harbour ambitions of progressing deeper this time around, and if it is to be a URC team lifting the trophy at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next May 25, it will be the first time a team from outside England or France has managed the feat.

Leinster were the last to do, in a narrow Bilbao final victory over Racing 92 in 2018 and though Leo Cullen’s side have reached three deciders since, including the last two, the boys in blue have been unable to add a fifth star to their jerseys.

That has been a bitter pill to swallow for all in the now six-nation league, let alone Leinster. The arrival of the former Super Rugby quartet has coincided with the post-covid loss of a what was previously a nine-weekend competition. The loss of a competition weekend meant the introduction of an extra knockout round, the Round of 16, and a switch to a four-match pool phase and URC clubs have not fared well since. Leinster have flown the flag for their league but have by and large been the lone standard bearers, the only URC team to make the quarters in 2021, one of two alongside Munster in 2022, and one of three with South African debutants the Bulls and Stormers last season.

Only Leinster among them has reached a semi in that time yet Munster attack coach Prendergast feels the South Africans’ entry into the URC can help all its clubs fare better in the continental competition.

Speaking ahead of this Saturday evening’s visit of tournament newcomers Bayonne to Thomond Park in the opening round of pool fixtures, the Munster assistant said he was grateful his squad has been tested as rigorously as they have been so far in the league this season ahead of what he is confident will be a supremely physical challenge from the French club.

“The URC has gone so competitive where before there might have been a bit of a step up (to the Champions Cup),” Prendergast told the Irish Examiner. “Having coached in a really competitive French league I’ve noticed coming back here that the URC is equally up there in terms of competitiveness.

“I do think it has changed. The South African teams have come in and when you play against something different, physically speaking, we’ve played the Sharks and the Stormers this year, when you think or the physicality of the French teams and the kick-based games, they’re quite similar as well. So it gives you a small bit of a feeling and a bit of picture for this week.

“Bayonne defend with a huge amount of linespeed and they kick the ball the most in the Top 14. Some of the South African teams would be quite similar to that in terms of their linespeed and can be very dangerous on turnover balls, which you have to manage.

“Challenging at set-piece time, very similar as well. You’re talking about South African teams in terms of physicality but mass, size, athleticism that a lot of French teams are like as well. So it’s very much a challenge in the URC but it does set up you up for the Champions Cup, especially when you come up against the French teams, they have similar enough profiles. So we have gotten a little bit of a taste of something similar through the South African teams in the URC that might have not been there before.” 

And the feeling is mutual. Stormers boss John Dobson believes leaving the South Africans’ departure from the Southern Hemisphere’s Super Rugby to turn north and join the URC, a competition his side won in its inaugural season in 2022, has benefitted his nation’s rugby. Yet Dobson also believes it will bring all URC clubs up a level.

Speaking after the Stormers’ defeat to Munster in Limerick last month, the Capetonian made specific reference to the Irish provinces but his points apply across the URC.

“I think it’s going to be good for Irish rugby but we’ve probably benefitted the most so far because we see this rugby as much more like World Cup rugby. Every scrum is massive, even tonight, is a massive contest, every breakdown.

“It’s not like the old Super Rugby which was largely restart and let’s get the ball out and let’s play some basketball, and that’s what we didn’t do well in Super Rugby because our skills were in other areas, mauling and stuff.

“And I think it’s great for Irish rugby because there are now rivalries, Leinster-Bulls, Munster-Stormers is fantastic, you know, we’ll have a crack, Connacht is always tight, so it’s good for Irish rugby to broaden their pool as well.

“We’ve got a certain strength in South Africa which probably won us the World Cup, you’ve got a slightly different way of playing here which has made you number one team in the world and it’s two ideologies almost clashing. That will benefit both because we’re both going to have to get better at each other’s (strengths).

“I think that’s quite exciting, I must say.” 

The only question that appears to remain is how quickly will this translate into a URC team getting its hands back on the Champions Cup.