URC will once again take center stage during this weekend's first break of the Six Nations season, and the stakes are high for most teams to start the second half of the season.
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Participating team status
The battle within the battle that makes URC so interesting is whether you aim for a top 8 place to secure a place in next season's Elite Champions Cup and a place in the URC Playoffs, or who will take the top spot. Everything is a close battle as to what we are aiming for. Four positions where the team in last place in the playoffs can secure home ground advantage.
Ulster beat Leinster in their New Year's game, locking themselves at the top of the table and now just eight points behind seventh-placed Edinburgh. Benetton, on the other hand, have been operating under the radar, but their efforts are paying off, as they currently sit in second place, just two points behind Leinster.
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After all, the two sides are scheduled to clash in Dublin on Saturday, in a clash at the top of the table. While some players will be left out of the national squad for the bye weekend, both teams will be significantly short-strength as they will be the majority of both sides in the Six Nations clash in Dublin over the weekend. The situation is similar at Leinster, with Benetton supplying around two-thirds of Italy's supplies, who lost 36-0.
But both teams are working hard at their respective layers and have plans in place. But the game against Dublin is just one of those overseas games that the team must get right if they want to achieve their goals. The Ospreys, for example, are eighth and on the cusp of qualifying for the Champions Cup, but they have a big game coming up this weekend when they host Ulster.
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Ulster currently sit in fifth place, outside the top four, and will soon travel to South Africa for games against the Sharks and Stormers, so they could be in line for a good win. They are probably helped by the fact that they have very few representatives in the Irish national team and should be close to a full call-up. The Ospreys also don't have as many Wales internationals as they used to, so Sunday's game could be one of the games of the weekend.
Edinburgh will be hoping to bring back some of their strong Scottish internationals when they travel to Parma to face Zebre on Friday as they aim to move up from their current seventh place – they are level with the Stormers on points, with URC champions Munster in 11th place, with things starting to look hopeless. They will play away to the struggling Scarlets on Friday night.
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Glasgow Warriors will at least have a push to get back into the top two as Leinster and Benetton take on each other. Glasgow Warriors should have more than enough firepower for a struggling Dragons team that will be without a Wales international. Glasgow, of course, provides a large part of the Scottish team that lost narrowly to France at the weekend, but they have performed well at home at Scotstown Stadium.
The local derbies in Johannesburg and Durban will attract the most attention in South Africa, and these two highly anticipated fixtures will have a huge impact on the team's performance and chances of achieving their goals from the league stage of the season. Top 8 or top 4.
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The Bulls are in the best position of the South African teams heading into this week's rematch with the team from Johannesburg in two weeks' time, thanks to their breathtaking win over the Lions in Pretoria a few weeks ago. . Two weeks later (March 2) there will be a big home derby against the Stormers in Pretoria.
South Africa's Shield this season will be determined solely by clashes between the teams in the group, with the Stormers leading in that regard, but Capetonians coach John Dobson himself said before Christmas that if they were to qualify for the Shield He said that if he won, he would feel a little better. Vodacom Bulls are in the lead overall.
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Pretoria's men's team are currently in fourth place, with the Stormers in sixth, but there is only a four-point difference between the two teams. Things could change in either direction between now and the end of the round on the first weekend in May, and the Sharks will be best placed to turn their season around by defeating the Capetonians in Durban on Saturday. There is no doubt that he has the same motivation.
Dobson's team was able to turn around the URC season in December. They came back from the tour and lost every match recorded in the second half of their record, but a win against Zebre in Stellenbosch and wins over the Bulls and Sharks in the festive week in Cape Town helped them Cape's team was able to stabilize.
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For them, it is no longer a question of having to struggle to qualify for the Champions Cup, which looked like a possibility after the tour, but a need to chase further top-four status and home advantage in the first game of the play-offs. be. However, Vodacom Bulls have had a good season and if they can maintain their momentum by winning their next two games ahead of the trip to Leinster at the end of March they will go down in the books.
However, they were a bit lucky to win against Emirates Lions in their first round match, so they will need to improve when they hit the N1 motorway at the weekend. Jozi's team often play just two points outside of the top eight and, if things go well in the second half of the season, they have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions Cup for the first time.
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Weekend URC matches (SA time)
Friday, February 16th:
21:35: Zebre v Edinburgh (Parma)
9.35pm: Scarlets v Munster (Llanelli)
Saturday February 17th:
15:00: Lions v Bulls (Johannesburg)
17:00: Leinster v Benetton (Dublin)
17:05: Sharks v Stormers (Durban)
7.15pm: Cardiff Rugby v Connacht (Cardiff)
9:35pm: Glasgow Warriors v Dragons (Glasgow)
Sunday February 18th:
17:00: Ospreys v Ulster (Swansea)