The Vodacom Bulls will appeal the massive nine-week suspension given to their Springbok utility forward Jan-Hendrik Wessels by a Vodacom United Rugby Championship disciplinary hearing on Wednesday.

The decision was only announced on Thursday afternoon, but it means that Wessels will not play any rugby for the rest of the calendar year and will miss several massive games should the ban be upheld.

The perplexing thing is that the Bulls have privately confirmed that no new video evidence was presented at the hearing and Wessels was allegedly banned on the same footage that the refereeing team could not find clear evidence of foul play.

If this is the case, it is deeply troubling, because if Wessels is found guilty without clear evidence it opens a dangerous can of worms that could backfire badly in the future.

PERPLEXING DECISION

The Vodacom Bulls have confirmed that Wessels was due to play for the team in Friday night’s URC match against Glasgow Warriors but was withdrawn because of the disciplinary hearing’s findings.

Privately the Bulls are incensed that the finding could have been made given there was an allegation but no clear evidence backing it up.

Considering two other high profile incidents in the past few years and how they were handled, it makes the decision even more perplexing.

In the British and Irish Lions tour in 2021 Kyle Sinckler was accused by Bok flanker Franco Mostert that he bit him in a ruck. The allegation was dismissed by a disciplinary committee because there was no clear evidence.

In the 2023 World Cup England flanker Tom Curry accused Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi of making a racial slur against him during the game.

World Rugby investigated the allegation and found that without evidence, they could not take the matter further.

But in this case the disciplinary committee, consisting of three Welsh officers - chair Declan Goodwin and Simon and Leah Thomas - have all found Wessels guilty, and have given him a harsh ban when there does not seem to be evidence of the incident itself.

RASSIE REACTS

The fallout from the verdict has begun, with the Bulls privately fuming and readying themselves for the appeal process while even Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus seems to have weighed in.

While Erasmus didn’t indicate that he was specifically referring to the reporting about the verdict on Wessels, it seemed that he was as Wessels is in the squad as his third hooker for the upcoming tour of Europe.

On Wednesday another Springbok - Makazole Mapimpi - was banned for five weeks by a disciplinary committee for a tip tackle.

Mapimpi wasn’t in the Bok squad for the tour but was listed as a standby player.

Erasmus tweeted: “It just got tougher! We now have to beat them on the field and in the boardrooms. Hamba man. Tsek. Loop k*k”

It just got tougher !! We now have to beat them on the field. and in the boardrooms. Hamba man. Tsek. Loop Kak

— Johan Erasmus (@RassieRugby) October 23, 2025

URC STATEMENT

On Thursday, almost 24 hours after the hearing took place and way outside the normal protocols, the URC released this statement: “ The Disciplinary process related to Jan-Hendrik Wessels citing in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship Round 4 game against Connacht Rugby on Friday, October 17 has resulted in a nine game suspension.

“The Citing Commissioner in charge reported Vodacom Bulls player No 2 (Jan-Hendrik Wessels), for an act of foul play in the 18th minute under Law 9.27 – A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship. This includes grabbing, twisting or squeezing the genitals.

“The Panel overseeing the disciplinary process Declan Goodwin (Chair, Wales), Simon Thomas (Wales) and Leah Thomas (Wales) were satisfied that an act of foul play had occurred and found the incident met the Red Card threshold, with entry of low-end warranting a 12 week suspension. The Panel reduced the suspension by three weeks (25 per cent mitigation) due to the Player's good conduct prior to and at the hearing and good record which results in a nine game suspension.”

The list of games that Wessels is banned for includes the Springbok tour of Europe and the Bulls Investec Champions Cup games in December.

CONCERN ON PRECEDENT BEING SET

The concern is precisely that if players can be banned on allegations from other players without evidence, it could lead to this happening across the league, as a precedent has been set.

If the appeals process confirms the original decision, it would be very difficult not to use that precedent in other situations.

Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone told Supersport: “The Vodacom Bulls fully respect and will adhere to the judicial process, which provides for an appeal opportunity, which we will use.”

The incident happened during the 19th minute of the game, when Connacht flanker Josh Murphy lashed out against Wessels in the middle of a ruck, striking him in the face and then apologising to the referee, but claiming at the same time that Wessels had grabbed him in the groin area in the ruck.

JHW
. Accused by PLAYER of foul PLAY.
. No evidence to support allegations
. Not a repeat offender
. Got selected for EOYT.
. Gets banned for 9 weeks.

Josh Murphy.
. Strikes player against the head.
. Clear video evidence
. Red card.
. Still no sanction.

As the coach… https://t.co/FCBVxAmqS4 pic.twitter.com/VgqZHZ4eW1

— 👑Don lizz👑💥 (@rekoil92) October 23, 2025

Whether it happened, accidental or on purpose, the refereeing team as well as TMO Holly Davidson scoured the footage more than 10 times in the game and could find no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing.

As such, the only incident that the referee could adjudicate on was a strike to the head, which cost Connacht and Murphy a 20-minute red card and incensed the crowd.

But the question remains - how - if multiple replays and an entire refereeing team could find nothing conclusive, could Wessels be banned for the act?

FIXTURES JAN-HENDRIK WESSELS IN UNAVAILABLE FOR:

Glasgow Warriors v Vodacom Bulls, 24 October 2025 Vodacom URC

South Africa v Japan, 1 November 2025, Castle Lager Outgoing Tour

France v South Africa, 8 November 2025, Quilter Nations Series

Italy v South Africa, 15 November 2025, Quilter Nations Series

Ireland v South Africa, 22 November 2025, Quilter Nations Series

Vodacom Bulls v Lions, 29 November 2025 Vodacom URC

Vodacom Bulls v Bordeaux Begles, 6 December 2025, Investec Champions Cup

Northampton Saints v Vodacom Bulls, 14 December 2025, Investec Champions Cup

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Vodacom Bulls, 20 December 2025 Vodacom URC

* The Player and the Club have the right to appeal.

The Vodacom Bulls continue to wait for the official verdict from the Vodacom United Rugby Championship disciplinary committee, despite a guilty finding against Springbok utility forward Jan-Hendrik Wessels on Tuesday.

The verdict, not released officially but reported by other news outlets of Wessels being banned for nine weeks after he was found guilty of grabbing the groin area of Connacht flanker Josh Murphy despite there being no video evidence of the incident.

While privately officials from the URC said the verdict would be made public on Thursday morning, there was no sign of it all day as the Bulls continued to wait.

But the fall out from the expected verdict has begun, with the Bulls privately fuming and readying themselves for the appeal process while even Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus seems to have weighed in.

While Erasmus didn’t indicate that he was specifically referring to the reporting about the verdict on Wessels, it seemed that he was as Wessels is in the squad as his third hooker for the upcoming tour of Europe.

On Wednesday another Springbok - Makazole Mapimpi - was banned for five weeks by a disciplinary committee for a tip tackle.

Mapimpi wasn’t in the Bok squad for the tour but was listed as a standby player.

Erasmus tweeted: “It just got tougher! We now have to beat them on the field and in the boardrooms. Hamba man. Tsek. Loop k*k”

It just got tougher !! We now have to beat them on the field. and in the boardrooms. Hamba man. Tsek. Loop Kak

— Johan Erasmus (@RassieRugby) October 23, 2025

The reason why the Bulls are fuming about any possible sanction for Wessels is precisely because there doesn’t seem to be any video evidence on the incident, and simply accepting the accusation of an opposition player would be a very dangerous precedent that could have far-reaching implications for rugby.

Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone told Supersport: “While the URC has not yet issued official communication, the Vodacom Bulls fully respect and will adhere to the judicial process, which provides for an appeal opportunity.”

The incident happened during the 19th minute of the game, when Connacht flanker Josh Murphy lashed out against Wessels in the middle of a ruck, striking him in the face and then apologising to the referee, but claiming at the same time that Wessels had grabbed him in the groin area in the ruck.

Whether it happened, accidental or on purpose, the refereeing team as well as TMO Holly Davidson scoured the footage more than 10 times in the game and could find no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing.

As such, the only incident that the referee could adjudicate on was a strike to the head, which cost Connacht and Murphy a 20-minute red card and incensed the crowd.

But the question remains - how - if multiple replays and an entire refereeing team could find nothing conclusive, could Wessels be banned for the act? This is why the written judicial decision will be crucial for the Bulls.

It has been confirmed that no new evidence was offered at the disciplinary hearing, and the reasons for the supposed ban remain unknown.

Normally the URC sends out a press release detailing the findings within an hour of the verdict being known, or at least the same day.

On Thursday Bulls coach Johan Ackermann confirmed that Wessels would have played for the side in their next URC match against Glasgow Warriors on Friday night but had been withdrawn because of the disciplinary decision.

The Bulls named their side for the clash without Wessels in the match day 23 and until the official written decision is released, the future is unclear for his participation in both URC games and the Springbok tour of Europe.

Glasgow Warriors coach Franco Smith says his players are “hitting their straps” as they head into Friday night’s big Vodacom URC clash with the Vodacom Bulls.

Smith’s team have scored 13 tries in their last two matches while recording bonus point victories at home to Dragons RFC (49-0) and away to the Ospreys (42-17).

That has taken the 2024 champions up to third in the table, just three points off the top.

Now comes the Scotstoun showdown with the sixth-placed Vodacom Bulls from Pretoria, which has all the makings of being a cracking contest with both teams having won three of their first four league matches.

“It's the start of the season, so it takes a while for all the engines to start up,” said Smith.

"But the players are now starting to find their way and hitting their straps.

“In this first block, we had three objectives - to manage the internationals and allow them to be in top form when they go into the autumn series; to continue to bring young players through, creating a new generation of Warriors; and at the same time to keep the performance.

“Those were our main ingredients and objectives, and, bar the result against Benetton, I think we have seen that progression.”

Now for the Vodacom Bulls in a repeat of the 2024 Vodacom URC grand final.

“We know we must be at our best as we look to finish the first block of fixtures on a high,” said Smith.

“The Bulls possess one of the strongest and deepest squads in the URC and are consistent in the quality of performances they produce.

“We know we must be at the right level physically and mentally in order to meet their challenge.”

Smith was particularly pleased with last weekend’s six-try win over the Ospreys at the Brewery Field given what a fortress the Bridgend ground has been for the Welsh team over the past couple of years.

“I was very nervous around that one. We knew it was going to be tough,” said the former Springbok who played at the venue in his days with Newport RFC.

“But the boys stepped up from an emotional and creative point of view.

“The Ospreys are a very good team, very well coached, tenacious. They never back off; they made some big collisions. We had to break them down.

“I'm delighted that we performed well. There was good energy, we were technically good, and there was good application. It was much better.

“Consistency is obviously what we're after. I still feel our scrum set-piece can improve, and I think there's more from the individuals in our team to add value to the general structure.”

Flashback to an epic Grand Final full of passion... 🏆🔥@GlasgowWarriors lifted the trophy, but the Vodacom @BlueBullsRugby haven't forgotten 😤

Rematch incoming this Friday... Who are you backing? 💥#BKTURC #URC | #GLAvBUL pic.twitter.com/TzbFZDEQKh

— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) October 23, 2025

As for the Vodacom Bulls, they were involved in a much closer contest last weekend, squeezing past Connacht Rugby 27-26 in Galway amid a dramatic conclusion with the hosts having a chance to snatch the spoils at the death following Mack Hansen’s late try, but failing to land the touchline conversion.

“Obviously, you couldn’t get it closer,” said Bulls coach Johan Ackermann.

“We could have lost it. They had the kick to win it, so we were grateful to get over the line, but I felt we did a lot of good things.

“We probably didn’t feel too guilty about the win because we really were in control of the game until that last moment.”

Ackermann took particular heart from the way his team bounced back from the previous week’s 28-7 defeat to Ulster in Belfast.

“The pleasing thing was the character. I asked the players that we don’t have that big slump we had against Ulster, and they showed that fight,” he said.

However, he admitted there is still work to do in terms of cutting out costly lapses in concentration.

“The ability is there, the skill is there, but we tend to switch off,” he said.

“We feel in control, then one little mistake snowballs, and we let the other side in. Every week, you play quality sides that will punish you when you make errors, so if we want to progress, we need to cut those mistakes.”

The trip to Scotland brings down the curtain on a three-match adventure in Europe for the Vodacom Bulls.

“It is a tough old tour. But then again, we are getting it out of the way early,” said Ackermann.

“It’s a challenge playing Glasgow at their home. They’ve been one of the most consistent sides the last couple of years under Franco Smith and are one of the best attacking sides in the competition.

“They are well coached style-wise and tactics-wise with quality players. They have a strong culture and a passionate crowd.

“It’s another opportunity to measure ourselves. As a team, we are still not firing like we want to, but this is another chance.”

In terms of the team news, Glasgow have made six changes from the side that beat the Ospreys, while second row Ruan Nortje returns to captain the Vodacom Bulls.

The expectation that Jordan Hendrikse would be given the reins to become the Hollywoodbets Sharks’ game driver in their fifth round Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Scarlets in Durban appears to have been scuppered by the suspension slapped on Makazole Mapimpi.

The Springbok wing was banned for five weeks after a URC disciplinary hearing on Wednesday following the red card he received for a tip tackle in the game against Ulster last Saturday. His absence from the Scarlets game meant that coach John Plumtree needed a wing and it makes sense for him to move Edwill van der Merwe back there.

Van der Merwe has played the last few games for the Sharks at No 15, but that was before Hendrikse, who can play both fullback and flyhalf and is equally adept at both, was back from his injury battle.

Still, it is a pity that Hendrikse won’t be wearing the No 10 against Scarlets as there is a good argument to be made for bedding him in and backing him as your permanent game driver so that he can build his confidence. Siya Masuku, who will start at pivot on Saturday, is a decent player but he can be inconsistent and was poor against Ulster.

He was also lining up much deeper than he used to in that game so it will be interesting to see if any adjustment is made in the second Hollywoodbets Kings Park game of the season.

Meanwhile Eben Etzebeth has taken the captaincy reins from Vincent Tshituka, which may be sourced in the strong leadership role the Bok lock has taken off the field this week in a period of mini-crisis for the Sharks.

It is understood that he and Siya Kolisi addressed the rest of the team on Monday and pledged support for the coach and loyalty to the jersey after last week’s disjointed performance led to an outcry from critics who expect a star studded team to always win no matter what.

There have been some other adjustments to the team that played last week, with Emmanuel Tshituka coming in at No 8 for Phepsi Buthelezi, who is on the bench, thus joining his brother and Kolisi in the back row.

Lukhanyo Am will also start in the midfield alongside Andre Esterherhuizen this week at the expense of Jurenzo Julius, who also plays off the bench. Am’s selection means that it is an all Bok midfield.

Hollywoodbets Sharks team: Jordan Hendrikse, Ethan Hooker, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Edwill van der Merwe, Siya Masuku, Grant Williams, Emmanuel Tshituka, Vincent Tshituka, Siya Kolisi, Marvin Orie, Eben Etzebeth (captain), Vincent Koch, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche.

Replacements: Fez Mbatha, Cameron Dawson, Lee-Marvin Mazibuko, JJ Scheepers, Phepsi Buthelezi, Jaden Hendrikse, Jean Smith, Jurenzo Julius.

 

Vodacom Bulls coach Johan Ackermann again rang the changes to his side, as they said goodbye to some Springboks and welcomed back season captain Ruan Nortje to the side for their Vodacom United Rugby Championship match against Glasgow Warriors on Friday night.

Nortje is joined by fellow captain Marcell Coetzee, who missed the tour with a concussion, but joined up with the team in Glasgow. Nortje was rested for the first two weeks of the tour and will join up with the Springboks after the game.

Many of the other changes are rotational with Gerhard Steenekamp moving back into the starting line-up alongside Johan Grobbelaar and Mornay Smith coming in at tighthead after Wilco Louw returned home.

Nortje will partner Cobus Wiese in the second row, while last week’s captain Reinhardt Ludwig, moves to seven to join Coetzee and Jeandre Rudolph in the back row. That means that Nama Xaba and JJ Theron, who started last week, drop down to the bench.

In the backline Embrose Papier returns to the starting line-up, swapping with two try hero Paul de Wet while Stravino Jacobs is on the wing for Canan Moodie, who returned home before reporting for Springbok duty.

Jan-Hendrik Wessels is the other notable absence after apparently being banned by a URC tribunal, which at the time of writing had still not been made public.

The Vodacom Bulls have lost just two of their last seven away games in the URC, but Glasgow Warriors’ only defeat so far this campaign was a narrow loss against Benetton in Round Two.

The Warriors have lost just twice at home in any competition since December 2023, both in the URC against Ospreys in March and against this week’s opponents, in April.

The two sides have met on five previous occasions with the Bulls having the edge by three wins to two. The Vodacom Bulls’ 26-19 win on their most recent visit to Scotstoun in April is the South Africans’ only victory in Scotland.

Vodacom Bulls: Willie le Roux; Sebastian de Klerk, David Kriel, Jan Serfontein, Stravino Jacobs; Keagan Johannes, Embrose Papier; Jeandre Rudolph, Reinhardt Ludwig, Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Nortje (captain), Cobus Wiese, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp.

Replacements: Juann Else, Etienne Janneke, Francois Klopper, JJ Theron, Nama Xaba, Paul de Wet, Stedman Gans, Kurt-Lee Arendse.

The omission of several Springbok World Cup winners from the current Castle Lager Outgoing Tour squad this week may have raised a few eyebrows, especially as it has seemed to suggest that a slow culling of the 2019 World Cup squad has had to start, but it could also work out to be a massive positive for South African rugby as a whole.

For the first time in a long time, the Vodacom Bulls have supplied the most players for the Springboks with nine members of their squad heading north with coach Rassie Erasmus’ team, and while the immediate tests are the immediate focus, there is a massive tour by New Zealand that will take the focus next year for eight glorious weeks.

The Greatest Rivalry tour, which takes place in 2026, will see New Zealand face off with the Springboks in four tests while the four Vodacom United Rugby Championship franchises each get a date with the All Blacks during the tour as well.

DISCARDED BOKS GOOD FOR FRANCHISES

Now while it may have been a bit of a shock for some to see some of the Springboks who were instrumental in bringing the World Cup home being left behind for this tour, there are definitively some positives in it for the franchises.

The Sharks have perennially supplied the most Springboks to the national side, and have struggled in the URC without their big name players. They have had to sacrifice continuity and some big firepower in the name of the national interest, and that hasn’t always impressed their fans.

And just as the Bulls will start learning what that means and what squad depth really means when it comes to the rest of the season without more than half a team of stars, lets rather look to the positives for the franchises, especially with the Greatest Rivalry tour.

The Sharks suddenly have the likes of Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Makazole Mapimpi (when his ban expires) available for them, the Bulls have Willie le Roux back at home plotting URC games with them and not on tour with the Boks.

STILL HAVE THE HUNGER

Those players will hopefully have that hunger still to play for the national side and given their absence will fuel the way they approach their game. If there is anything that these players enjoy more, it is aiming for a target, and aiming to prove someone wrong.

All of the players who have been left behind - Lukhanyo Am - included in this category are still top class players and can offer a lot to their franchises.

They bring their experience of two World Cup victories and a plethora of tests under their belt and that should filter through to some of their younger teammates.

They can no longer be accused of looking to protect themselves for test duty because if they want to play test rugby again they need to show it. The players may be entering the winter of their careers, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot to offer their franchises.

Ask any Springbok and they will tell you the worst possible thing is to be away from the national side. That feeling of missing out will fuel their hunger going forward, even if it is their last few seasons on the field.

So then, turning to the Greatest Rivalry Tour next year, the one concern is what sort of opposition the franchises will be able to put up against an All Black touring team?

WEAKENED FRANCHISE SIDES BENEFIT NOBODY

If the Lions tour in 2021 was any indication, withdrawing Springboks from the franchises will severely weaken them in this regard, and for the tour to be successful the midweek games need to be successful as well.

That’s what made tours of the past so memorable - that tough midweek game that really tested a team before they got to the tests.

Thankfully, with the advent of URC, South African sides are a lot better equipped for the task than they were in 2021.

The junior pipeline has been sorted out and the success at national level and Rassie’s desire to create as wide a base as possible has been good for the development of squads across the URC.

Add to that the more experienced players returning from overseas clubs and it would be fair to wager that the franchises are stronger now than they were in 2021.

GOOD SIGN

That is all a good sign, but think of this for a minute, how much stronger will the Sharks be if they have these discarded Boks playing for them next year against the All Blacks? The same for the Bulls?

There are others who may return to South Africa as well in the meantime and teams will look to strengthen their sides further, while the World Champion Junior Boks side will be a year older and several of them will be up for franchise selection by the time the tour comes around.

In the meantime Erasmus can call on any of these players whenever he needs them and they are keeping match fit in their franchise squads.

And Springbok rugby as a whole is getting stronger.

The All Blacks will pose a formidable challenge on the tour and will benefit immensely from it as well, and there is no way that franchises can take these things for granted.

But the thought of having World Cup winners between the franchise players, helping them as they face the All Blacks, is something that most franchise coaches would welcome.

And could make those midweek games a lot more spicy indeed.

It has been so far so good for the DHL Stormers in their quest to turn around what in previous Vodacom United Rugby Championship seasons has been their biggest bogey - winning away games overseas.

They’ve had no problems in the past winning away in South Africa, and have beaten the Vodacom Bulls more times at Loftus in the URC era than the Bulls have beaten them.

And ditto the Hollywoodbets Sharks, who have scored only one win against the Stormers in the URC - that being a one point win in Durban last November. When the Lions won in Johannesburg last year it was the first time they’d won at home against the Cape side.

But overseas has been different, and it has been costly to their chances of doing well in a competition they won in the inaugural season. The last two years they either started off their campaigns overseas or travelled early on, like they have this year, and on both occasions they struggled and it set back their campaign.

Ultimately, their slow starts were why, while they have always comfortably managed a top eight finish, have fallen tantalisingly short of securing a place in the coveted top four.

Their current tour has been different, with the Stormers winning both overseas games played so far, with the clash with the better of the two Italian teams, Benetton, to come on Saturday. Both games were won fairly comfortably, with Scarlets being seen off 34-0 and Zebre going down 31-13 in Parma last weekend.


EASY WINS BUT AGAINST TEAMS THEY’VE BEATEN BEFORE

That’s a scoreline across two games of 65-13, and it certainly belies any contention that the Stormers may still have a problem playing overseas and haven’t buried whatever it was that was proving a stumbling block. But as assistant coach Rito Hlungwani pointed out, the teams that the Stormers have beaten are teams they’ve beaten away before.

The Stormers scored a nail-biting win over the Scarlets in the first season to clinch their second place finish in the last game of their title winning season of 2021/2022, and they’ve never lost to Zebre. Anywhere. In fact, they were even more comprehensive winners in Parma last season than they were last Saturday - they won 26-5 in October 2024.

They then went on to get thrashed by Edinburgh, a result that brought a whole different perspective. Losing to Benetton in Treviso won’t destroy the Stormers like that result against Sean Everitt’s men did, but winning it will push the narrative of the Stormers having profited from adjustments they’ve made to their touring a lot further.

“I think the big assessment of whether we are cracking the away code can only be made after this game, after the completion of the three games on tour,” said Hlungwani from Treviso.

“We have beaten Scarlets and Zebre overseas before, whereas we have never beaten Benetton on their home ground. This is the moment of truth.

"It is after this that we will look at the adjustments in our travel and the other small changes we have made and decide whether it is working or not. Then we will plan for the next one, which is Munster away (at the end of November).”

NOT READING ANYTHING INTO DEFEAT TO EDINBURGH

Given how Munster and the Stormers have started the season that game in Limerick will be a big one for both teams, but the Stormers can’t afford to be looking ahead at the re-enactment of the 2023 final, which was won by Munster in Cape Town, as Benetton are a tough proposition despite being well beaten by Edinburgh last weekend.

“We have always struggled previously on tour but we are now trying a a couple of things and so far we have picked up good performances,” said the Stormers forwards coach.

“We feel we are ready to compete and go for big wins away from home. With no exception to Benetton, they are a team we can really target as a test to see if our plans and small adjustments to how we tour can make a difference.”

Hlungwani reminded the media that there is folly in reading too much into the away form of the Italian teams in the competition.

“There are no easy games in this competition, we are well aware of that. Benetton are just like Zebre, who lost badly the week before they played us away and then fought hard against us at home. They left out nine top players (in Edinburgh) and clearly target home games. They kept their Italian internationals at home to target this game.

“They will put out their best team against us, with all their Italian internationals, and it is something we are expecting and are ready for,” he added.

REVENGE FOOTING WILL MAKE BENETTON TOUGHER

That might be why newly recalled Springbok blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon referred to the Treviso game as “a kind of playoff fixture”, a status that was attached to last years visit by Benetton to the DHL Stadium. They came to Cape Town needing to win to get themselves into a prime position on the URC log, and got thumped.

“I didn’t play in that game but I know all the other guys in the camp who did play against them will be drawing on that memory and yes, it will inspire some confidence for us,” said Dixon.

Yes, but at the same time that defeat, which was pretty embarrassing, will put Benetton on a revenge footing. All of which makes Saturday a particularly important day on the Stormers’ calendar and in their season.

Rugby is a team game and assembling a side of superstar players does not lead to success if the different components don’t gel into a unit, as the Hollywoodbets Sharks discovered when they played Ulster after just three days of training in the Vodacom URC last week.

It was noticeable that the longer that game lasted the Sharks started to stabilise and combine better, and had it not been for the silly yellow cards, one of which turned Into a red, picked up by two Springboks, the Durbanites may well have turned around their 17-0 deficit at the end of the third quarter. In the end, they lost 34-26.

One of the players who seemed particularly inspired to almost take it in his own hands to turn the momentum was Andre Esterhuizen, who has been a valuable acquisition to the Sharks since returning from his stint in Ulster.

There is a lot of talk about the Sharks having too many Boks, and it is true in the sense that it means coach John Plumtree never has a pre-season with his team, but Esterhuizen, like Edwill van der Merwe, has proved a shrewd buy.

Having spent most of his early senior career at the Sharks, he does appear to be a player who’s heart bleeds for the team, so it was unsurprising to hear him effectively responding to a meeting held on Monday, where senior players Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth are understood to have made an impassioned plea to their teammates, in kind via an audio issued to the media.

Discipline > Motivation.@vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/n0Hrfv6SaG

— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) October 22, 2025

Kolisi and Etzebeth, noting the pressure that their coach John Plumtree has come under because of the perception that a star studded team should always get a big result regardless of the circumstances, apparently called for team work - and the big centre, Esternhuizen, echoed that call.

“It’s been a tough week. Last week we wanted it badly, but I don’t think we were aggressive enough. We made a lot of individual errors, which obviously affects the team,” said Esterhuizen.

“But the boys have responded well. We had some hard meetings on Monday and took a hard look at ourselves. We can’t change what’s happened, so the focus is on the next game before the big break in the URC for the international window.

“The key message [this week] is just everyone getting on the same page so that we can play to the level we know we can. There’s no use having a superstar team if we don’t play like one. Everything revolves around playing as a team. We need to stick together whether things go well or badly. That’s what team sport is about.”

The Sharks will have a good chance to register their first win of their campaign, and pick up full points in the process, when they play the Scarlets at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on Saturday. However, while the Scarlets currently foot the log, and were hammered 34-0 by the DHL Stormers two weeks ago, the Sharks won’t have forgotten how tight it was when the two teams met in Durban in a key fixture last season.

That was a different Scarlets team then, they were playing for a place in the playoffs and achieved that, subsequent to which they’ve been severely weakened by injuries.

Yet the memory of that evening game, where dew rendered the ball slippery and neither side could get their attack going, has not faded for the Sharks, which means there shouldn’t be any complacency. Not that there would be after the week the players have had, with sources around the camp indicating that there has been a passionate response to the Kolisi/Etzebeth meeting on Monday.

“Every time we’ve played the Scarlets, they’ve made the game quite messy,” said Esterhuizen. “They like it loose and they love playing off turnovers. Last season when we played them here, it was a messy game with lots of broken play and turnovers.

"We’re expecting a hard physical battle. They’ve also got flair, they play attacking, running rugby. We just need to counter that and play to our strengths.”

The Sharks team for Saturday’s game will be announced later on Thursday.

The Vodacom Bulls are waiting nervously to hear if their Springbok prop Jan-Hendrik Wessels has been banned for nine weeks, as reported by the Sunday newspaper Rapport.

Wessels, who was accused during the Bulls win over Connacht this past weekend of grabbing a player by the groin, never was sanctioned during the game because of a lack of video evidence, but has, if the reporting is correct, been given a hefty fine despite the lack of evidence in the game.

Rapport claimed in an article on Netwerk24 that the player has been informed that he was banned for nine weeks because of the incident, but the Bulls have not received any formal communication in this regard.

Players can only receive a ban after the fact if it is said to be a red card incident, if it wasn’t adjudicated on the field as such.

Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone told Supersport: “While the URC has not yet issued official communication, the Vodacom Bulls fully respect and will adhere to the judicial process, which provides for an appeal opportunity.”

If the ban is confirmed officially, there is no doubt the Bulls will want to appeal, as it would be strange to ban a player without video evidence, thereby simply accepting the accusation of an opposition player.

The incident happened during the 19th minute of the game, when Connacht flanker Josh Murphy lashed out against Wessels in the middle of a ruck, striking him in the face and then apologising to the referee, but claiming at the same time that Wessels had grabbed him in the groin area in the ruck.

A nine-week ban based on this evidence alone is ridiculous. Also, there’s still no mention of Murphy striking JH Wessels on the head. And that Irish biased commentary… wow 😂 https://t.co/DZu6MlLAJH pic.twitter.com/qKGRBBjXHg

— Ofentse (@OfentseLehong) October 22, 2025

Whether it happened, accidental or on purpose, the refereeing team as well as TMO Holly Davidson scoured the footage more than 10 times in the game and could find no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing.

As such, the only incident that the referee could adjudicate on was a strike to the head, which cost Connacht and Murphy a 20-minute red card and incensed the crowd.

But the question remains - how - if multiple replays and an entire refereeing team could find nothing conclusive, could Wessels be banned for the act?

Unless there has been conclusive evidence found in the meantime, it remains a mystery.

The Bulls are likely to appeal and URC are likely only to send out their statement, which is likely to be scrutinised by the Bulls legal team, only on Thursday.

Until then the matter remains in limbo, and Wessels' chances of playing against Glasgow this weekend, and for the Springboks in their five-game tour of Europe, remains in the balance.

Springbok and Hollywoodbets Sharks wing Makazole Mapimpi has been handed a five-match ban that will rule him out of being a standby player for the national squad on their November tour of the UK, Ireland, France and Italy as well as Saturday’s Vodacom URC match against Scarlets.

Mapimpi was not selected for the tour but he was named as one of the standby players who can be called upon in the event of an injury to one of the selected players.

The scorer of the first ever Bok try in a Rugby World Cup final in 2019 has been sanctioned for the illegal tackle that saw him red carded in the second half of the Sharks’ URC loss to Ulster in Durban last weekend.

Here is the act of foul play by Makazole Mapimpi which has seen him handed a five-match ban 🟥

In his response to the Judicial Officer, he accepted that he had committed an act of foul play which warranted a Red Card.#SSRugby | #VURC pic.twitter.com/PMwIDkYfi5

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 22, 2025

It seems a harsh ban but it was made clear by the URC disciplinary committee that heard his case that Mapimpi’s poor disciplinary record prior to this last weekend’s game was taken into account in the process.

“The player received two red cards in 2023 and 2025 and cannot be said to have a clean disciplinary record,” said the DC in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon.

Mapimpi accepted in his responses to the Judicial Officer overseeing the disciplinary process, Sheriff Kathrine Mackie, that he had committed an act of foul play which warranted a red card.

Mackie found that the incident met the red card threshold, with the entry point of low end warranting the suspension.

SHARKS NEED TO REJIG

The fixtures that have been listed as games that the Sharks wing will be unavailable for are Saturday’s URC game against the Scarlets at Hollywoodbets Kings Park and the Bok fixtures against Japan, France, Italy and Ireland in November.

He could theoretically be called to play for the Boks in the last tour game against Wales at the end of November, and will be available to play for the Sharks against Connacht that same day (29 November).

The immediate impact on the Sharks is that they will need to rejig their back three for the Scarlet game, something that might have more far-reaching implications than just who plays on the wing in his place.

Another Bok wing, Edwill van der Merwe, has been used at fullback in the last few games and the absence of Mapimpi might necessitate a move back to the wing, which could mean that Jordan Hendrikse comes into the last line of defence.

With Siya Masuku having been poor against Ulster, and Hendrikse probably the fourth ranked Bok flyhalf, the smart money would have been on Hendrikse playing No 10 against the Scarlets but there is a chance he could be used in his other position, wearing the No 15.

The Sharks team for the Scarlets game will be announced on Thursday.

Just when they got a bit of momentum, the Lions have been rocked by losing two of their brightest stars for the next few months.

Springbok Morne van den Berg, or “Krappies” as he is known in team circles, has been struggling with a hamstring injury and missed the win over Scarlets last weekend.

Van den Berg was called up to the Springboks for their end-of-year tour and because of that, the Lions don’t want to risk him with such a testy injury that could easily relapse.

Lions kicking consultant Morne Steyn said as much in the media call on Tuesday, with the Lions giving Krappies enough time to recover to play a part in the Bok game plan up north.

“Morne is still struggling with the injury, so we don’t want to risk him this weekend,” Steyn explained.

“We are very excited for Krappies that he is with the Springboks again. He is almost ready to play, but we don’t want to force him for this game coming up.

“We don’t want to risk him, and maybe force him out of the Bok tour.”

The other player the Lions have lost is top flanker JC Pretorius, the turnover specialist that hurt his knee in the win over the Scarlets and will now be out until around late January it seems, missing a number of Lions’ matches.

Pretorius has been particularly effective at the breakdown, an area that the Lions have struggled in their opening four games this season.

“It’s sad to lose JC; he will be out for four months, so it’s not looking good with all the injuries. He is one of our top players, and we are really going to miss him.

“He injured his knee after coming back a while ago because of the knee, and now he injured it again,” Steyn added.

Turning to Ulster’s arrival at Ellis Park, where the Irish side has lost five players, either to injury or call-ups to the Irish squad, the former Bok believes the Lions will need to counter the aerial battle if they want to be successful.

“Ulster are a quality side, like all Irish teams,” Steyn said. “They’ve got great forwards and exciting backs. From nine to 15, almost all of them can kick, and that’s quite something.

“It’s also going to be a physical battle, but luckily we play here in Joburg. Hopefully, we can tire them out a bit, run them around, and get points on the board.”

But the Lions are confident in their kicking game after winning the aerial battle against Scarlets, with winger Angelo Davids in particular rather effective. So Steyn sees it as a key area the team can exploit.

“At the moment our kicking game is working well for us,” Steyn explained.

“Chris Smith has slotted in nicely at flyhalf. I played with him at the Bulls, so I know what he brings. He’s calm, takes control of the game, and runs it nicely.

“Then you have great wingers contesting in the air and winning the ball back. Hopefully, we can take the same game into this weekend and maybe get the same result.”

The Lions will name their side for the clash on Friday.

If Frans Malherbe makes a full recovery from his back injury, something that apparently appears more likely now than it did a few months ago, the DHL Stormers could find themselves heading into next season with four Springbok tighthead props.


Four, surely that can’t be right? Well, it is - the Ceres farmer Wilco Louw will be returning to the region that reared him next season after his years away at first London club Harlequins. Then the Bulls, then there’s Neethling Fouche, an experienced player who has now finally been Bok capped, and the new kid on the block, Zachary Porthen.

Add Malherbe, and that makes four, and if you need further ammunition to argue that the Stormers have a scrum factory that they are drawing on you can look at the loosehead side too. There was some alarm when Steven Kitshoff was forced to retire.

Still, although he has yet to play as he recovers from injury, Stormers director of rugby John Dobson speaks highly of the ability of newcomer Ntuthuko Mchunu (as by the way does his former franchise coach John Plumtree).

Then there’s another former KZN schoolboy in Vernon Matongo, who has learned quickly and who Fouche last year tipped to become an international great. Fouche will know as he has scrummed against Matongo a lot in training. Not forgetting too that in veteran Ali Vermaak the Stormers have a player who is rated by many players as one of the most underrated looseheads in the country.

The players who he has scrummed against on a daily basis in training would be acknowledged by Matongo as one of the reasons he has developed quicker than the likes of Dobson expected him to and helped sweep away any talk of the Stormers being short on the left side of the scrum.

Remembering too that they also have the highly promising young Junior Bok star Oliver Reid on their books, with Dobson handing him his first cap as a 19-year-old a few weeks back.

INCREDIBLY YOUNG FOR A TIGHTHEAD

But it is Porthen, on the other side of the scrum, who is all the talk at the Cape franchise now after his call up to the Bok end of year tour, and rightly so as 21 is incredibly young for a tighthead prop. Players in that position tend to mature at 31, so he’s got 10 years of improvement in him.

Malherbe was the last tighthead to make waves at such a young age, but his call-up to international honours came a few years later. He went on to become the recognised best in the world in his position when he helped the Boks win two World Cups.

Porthen, last year’s Junior Bok captain, was still playing for Western Province under-21s three weeks ago, so it was fair to ask Rito Hlungwani, the Stormers forwards coach, if he was surprised the player has been selected for the Boks so soon.

“I’d say I am more happy than suprised. You never know when it will come (the call-up) so it is more a celebration, emphasising to everyone else that opportunity can come when you least expect it,” said Hlungwani.

“It means we are doing something right. We are really, really proud of Zachary’s achievement as it is a boost for everyone in the coaching staff, from scrum coach Brok Harris right through the group. Everyone who helps each and every player has something to be proud of. It does let us know we are doing something right.

“It is not a surprise because Zach at training sessions has been scrumming against the best looseheads in the world. He scrummed against Kitsie (Kitshoff) when he was very young. He has also scrummed against someone who in my opinion is one of the best attacking looseheads in the world in Ali Vermaak. He has scrummed extensively against Sti Sithole (now with the Bulls).

“So he has been training in fire for months, for almost two years. You have to learn a lot out of that. It has been great to see him develop into the player he is becoming, and to get the recognition he has.”

SCRUMMING ON SHARP IMPROVEMENT CURVE

One of the reasons Dobson held Porthen back for his first start until last week’s game against Zebre, after he made his first appearance for the Stormers as a replacement late last season, was because he felt Porthen’s scrumming wasn’t developed enough.

However, earlier in this campaign Dobson admitted that Porthen had surprised him in that regard and it was an easy selection for him to make when Sazi Sandi was injured ahead of last week’s game in Parma.

“There has definitely been lots of improvement (in his scrumming),” said Hlungwani. “He’s always had the soft skills, he’s mobile and has a high work rate, but in scrumming he had a lot to learn, as he is young for that position. He still has a lot to learn. As a tighthead you need to learn by making mistakes, but getting scrummed.

“We are going to see a lot of him going forward. He has incredible potential, and was playing for our under-21 team just a few weeks ago. But when given his opportunity he put his hand up.

"He is one person who has learned so quickly. His scrumming has really improved and I am incredibly excited as right now he is just at the beginning of what he is going to become.”

After making his first appearance of the season as a replacement late in the 34-26 loss to Uster at the weekend, Jordan Hendrikse should be ready to wear the Hollywoodbets Sharks No 10 in the Vodacom URC fourth round game against the Scarlets at Kings Park on Saturday.

Those who remember how ineffectual the Springbok-capped former Lions flyhalf was towards the end of last season might be tempted to ask “So what?”

However, there was context to the last months of the 2024/25 term for Hendrikse, with coach John Plumtree disclosing during the off-season that it was found that the player was struggling with an injury for much of that time and it impacted on his form and his confidence - much like was the case with Lukhanyo Am.

Like Am, Hendrikse has subsequently had the issue sorted out, with the delay to his start to the new season revolving around the need for him to be completely ready. Could he be the solution to the much-focused-on Sharks' failure to get their attack going and all aspects of the team’s template coordinated and synchronised?

Much is made of the number of Bok stars the Sharks have on their books, but the most successful teams are the ones with world class flyhalves, game drivers who can be likened to being military generals in their positions.

The best Sharks/Natal teams of the past 30 odd years have had clearly identifiable match-winning flyhalves - Joel Stransky in 1990, Henry Honiball a bit after that, then Frenchman Thierry Lacroix, 2007 World Cup winner Butch James, another Frenchman, Frederik Michalak after that and then Patrick Lambie, who won the 2010 Currie Cup final almost on his own.

If you consider the flaws evident in the pre-Plumtree era when Curwin Bosch and Boeta Chamberlain were the No 10s, and the chasm in ability between them and the previously mentioned players, that kind of accomplished game driver is something the Sharks have been lacking for a long time.

Hendrikse has shown in glimpses both for his previous franchise team and for the Boks and Sharks that he does have the ability - it just needs to be developed.

IT'S A FOLLY TO EXPECT AN OVERNIGHT FIX

By now, it should be clear to anyone who has insight into the challenges Plumtree faces with having so many Boks on his books, which in this era means at this time of the year you only see some influential members of your team sporadically, that there is folly in expecting an overnight fix to anything.

The coach doesn’t have a pre-season with his Boks as this is a different time to when, for example, players like Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez were champions as much for their franchises as they were for their country.

In the Super Rugby era, those players would have their season end in November at the conclusion of the Bok overseas tour and would take the whole of December off as well as the first week or so of January.

They’d have a complete six-week break, and then when they reported for the pre-season, there would still be around five or six weeks to go before the Super Rugby kick-off. We used to think at the time that it wasn’t always optimum, and maybe that they should have had more time both to prepare and to rest, but it was far more time than the three days Plumtree had with his returning Boks ahead of last week’s Ulster clash.

Five or six weeks does give a coach time to work on aspects of the game that need it, to make adjustments that are needed to his template, to get his players acquainted with the game he wants to play in the forthcoming season.

DHL Stormers coach John Dobson, with far fewer Boks currently involved with the national squad on his books than the Sharks had in the pre-season, and with the right attitude to where the Carling Currie Cup stands these days in SA rugby’s eco-system, had that opportunity before this URC campaign and it may be one of the reasons his team is topping the log after four rounds.

But if you are overloaded with Boks in the modern era, coaches don’t get the pre-season window they were afforded in the Super Rugby era, and injuries also forced Plumtree to go cap in hand to some of the coaches of the smaller Currie Cup unions to ask for loan reinforcements that only concluded of the domestic season. In other words, a week before the URC kick-off.

FOUR FLYHALVES ACROSS FIRST FOUR ROUNDS

It might have been easier for Plumtree if his top game drivers were ever-present through the off-season, although in saying that, we are forgetting that at stages of the pre-season, he was working with just 10 players.

You simply can’t work effectively with that number. Still, it is a fact that the Sharks’ underwhelming start to this URC campaign has seen four different flyhalves used across four games.

Jordan’s brother Jaden, normally a scrumhalf, played the opener against Glasgow Warriors at Scotstoun in the No. 10 jersey. Young Jean Smith, who cut his teeth at senior level for the first time in the latter stages of the Currie Cup and is promising but still callow, then took over for the games against the Dragons and Leinster, with Siya Masuku, the most experienced specialist pivot at that point, then coming in at the latter stages in Dublin before starting against Ulster.

Jordan Hendrikse’s late cameo, which wasn’t without promise, made it four flyhalves across four games.

Hendrikse was in the Bok mix last year, but national coach Rassie Erasmus appears to have made it easier for Plumtree for now by settling on three pivots, with the Sharks player not in the mix.

PLUMTREE HAS MORE TO WORK WITH DURING THE BREAK

Indeed, while the players themselves will understandably not be delighted, Erasmus has also helped Plumtree by excluding the experienced front row duo of Vincent Koch and Bongi Mbonambi from the end-of-year tour (although both are on standby).

That means that the Sharks coach will have more experienced hands on deck in the five weeks that separate Saturday’s game against the Scarlets from the next encounter, which is against Connacht in Galway on 29 November.

The Boks will be playing Wales that same day, so the players who he works with in the coming weeks will be the ones who front the team now coached by former England mentor Stuart Lancaster.

With someone like lock Jason Jenkins having joined Hendrikse by being absent so far but due to return to the playing field, and Jurenzo Julius also back now and gaining momentum after missing the pre-season due to injury, Plumtree will have more to work with in this mini pre-season than he had in the pre-season proper.

But the presence of Hendrikse and his effectiveness after hopefully shaking off the injury that was inhibiting him in the second half of last season, will be key.

MASUKU HAS BECOME A CURATE’S EGG

Masuku has become a bit of a Curate’s egg recently, meaning good in parts and bad in parts - and last week he was mostly bad.

In mitigation to him, the Sharks would surely have trained like that during the week, but it was hard to equate the deep lining flyhalf we saw against Ulster with the one that transformed the Sharks by hitting the gainline when he replaced Curwin Bosch as the Sharks No 10 two seasons ago.

Admittedly when saying that a flyhalf lined up flatter than Bosch that’s a bit like saying that a courgette looks vaguely more like a banana than an apple does, but still - Masuku needs to work on his consistency.

Hendrikse is the fourth ranked Bok flyhalf, well at least specialist flyhalf because of course Damian Willemse could do the job too. Hendrikse isn’t completely specialist either and that cues a thought - hopefully Plumtree won’t play him at fullback on Saturday, for there is a need for the Sharks to create a general at 10. And that requires Hendrikse to have time in the saddle in that position.

The Sharks team for the Scarlets game will be announced on Thursday.

DHL Stormers forwards coach Rito Hlungwani has become so well known for being hard to please and for repeating the “we must improve” mantra ad-nauseam that it has almost become a standing joke when he goes in front of press conferences.

In the sense that we, including the Stormers media people, can anticipate what he is going to say.

But given how his pack has performed in the first few weeks of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season, and after the forwards have laid the foundation for four wins in four starts, surely this is a time when he can change the script and own up to being satisfied? If you think that, you are destined to be disappointed.

“Maybe one of the things we can improve is that we had four or five opportunities and we converted just one maul,” said Cape rugby’s Mr Perfectionist when it was put to him that knowing how he was, there would be something he felt needed improving.

“Three or four of those mauls brought penalties, so that was good, and the one led to Sacha (Feinberg-Mngomezulu) scoring a try on the blindside. But we (the forwards) should probably look to be driving over the line and scoring those tries ourselves. We want to go over the tryline at every single opportunity.”

He’s right too. As Stormers blindside flank Ben-Jason Dixon, who has just been recalled to the Springbok squad as he makes his way back into rugby after a long injury enforced absence, put it, there have been times when the Stormers have made heavy weather of their dominance and not taken full advantage of their opportunities.

SLOW POISON IS WORKING

“It is probably a combination of the two,” said Dixon when he was asked whether the Stormers were profiting from the exertion of slow poison or were struggling to be as clinical as they could be.

“We are a long way short of being as clinical we could be. We have been working on the cohesion of the forwards and the backline, but we need to make more of it (our forward dominance), we sometimes make heavy weather of it (by not taking our opportunities).

“But there is another aspect of it, the slow poison aspect. We tackle them back, we put the ball in the air, we chase the kicks, we give the opposition trouble at the lineouts and the scrums. We know that eventually takes its toll. It makes it difficult for the opposing team and that is slow poison.

‘The way our set piece has been working has been really encouraging and it does boost confidence when the set piece is working well. However, I know Rito says it every time, but it is true - we are not close to arriving yet. There are some serious teams out there who will test us. We don’t want to be caught off guard.

“So we are under no illusions that we have arrived (as a team or as pack). We know where we can improve,” he added.

One of those serious teams that Dixon was referring to might just be Saturday’s opponents, Benetton, who have yet to lose to the Stormers in Treviso.

“We see them as a massive challenge. We saw how Italy played against the Springboks when they were in South Africa, and we also know how well they played against the Lions at home. It is a massive challenge and we know we have struggled in the past at this venue. We see it as a type of playoff game.”

What makes it a playoff game is where the game is positioned in the Stormers’ season. They will go into a hiatus of more than a month after this as the competition breaks for the international window, with the Stormers next seeing action when they visit Limerick for a tough game against Munster on 29 November.

WILL GO FOR BROKE

Given that a break comes after this, there is no reason for the Stormers not to go for broke and play like there is no tomorrow in the quest for the win that will give them a perfect five out of five wins to take as a platform into the next phase of the competition.

“Yes, we will be throwing everything we can at Benetton, definitely,” said Hlungwani.

“It will be nice to finish with another win. It is extremely important to us. Before we left Cape Town we set certain goals, and we need to make good on those goals.”

Which is surely another way of saying that the Stormers aimed high at departure and were looking for three wins out of three on the road, a result that would give them a start that is the diametric opposite of all their previous seasons in the URC. Even in the year they won the competition, 2022, they started off poorly and were under pressure after five games.

And just to show that he isn’t completely glass empty and can be glass half at times, Hlungwani did acknowledge the progress that has been made this season.

“We are happy with the progress and what we are doing, we just need to step it up a bit. We need to break the opponent more, there is room for us to be more ruthless,” he said.

In some of the games the opposition team has still been in the game at halftime when the Stormers’ dominance should really have played them out of it, so what he says is grounded in reality. It’s a good sign for Stormers fans that there’s so much room for improvement when only one possible point - a try scoring bonus point against the Ospreys - has been missed out on in four games.

Ulster could be without one of their kingpins - Springbok standby player Juarno Augustus when they face the Lions at Ellis Park in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture on Saturday.

Augustus suffered an arm injury according to the team injury report released on Tuesday, and “his fitness will be monitored during the week”.

That could rob the few Joburg fans who will turn up to see the game from seeing one of the toughest loose forwards in the game play.

Ulster also lost Sean Reffell with a shoulder injury, while their four Ireland players - Iain Henderson, Jacob Stockdale, Nick Timoney and Stuart McCloskey have all returned home to link up with the Ireland team for the November test matches.

Ulster have added Marcus Rea, Ben Carson, Charlie Irvine and Bryn Ward to their squad for the final tour match, and will be buoyed by their last two wins over South African opposition - especially the win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks in Durban.

Defence has been a massive talking point in the Vodacom Bulls realm this season, even though it is only four rounds old, but the team management feel they have made enough strides forward to warrant some confidence after their narrow win over Connacht on Friday night.

The team head to Glasgow this weekend, looking for a repeat win against the Warriors and a repeat performance of their defensive effort.

While it would be easy to point out that Connacht scored four tries and got close to the Bulls on the scoreboard in the end, and could have sneaked home had their kicking been better, this Bulls side is still a work in progress, and they had a lot of control for most of the game, despite not having the ball.

Coach Johan Ackermann is on a steep learning curve, especially as his side have had no real pre-season to speak of, no games and a host of injuries to deal with, as well as trying to use their Springboks for the limited time they have them.

236 TACKLES

On Friday night they put together no less than 236 tackles - a monumental effort given this side had shipped 14 tries against them in their previous three games, and saw a defensive stat where 13 of the side made more than 10 tackles - the norm for a good defensive game for any player.

Connacht are - as Ackermann rightly points out - the team that have the most ball in play minutes with them and put together an astounding amount of phases, and yet, the Bulls repelled many of them with ease.

Some of the tries were against the run of play and often a team learns more about winning the hard way away from home. But still, there was bound to be a lot of relief after that game against the Irish team.

Ackermann pronounced himself extremely proud of the effort, and knows that the team need to build on moments like these if they are to be in the fight when the playoffs come around.

“That's the part that I'm very pleased and proud of, is the character that the team showed. That was basically the challenge to the team, to say, we've got a team that is really playing to inspire the supporters and the people they represent. The way we can show that is by putting out a good performance, and especially when we defend, and the guys did that.

NOT PERFECT

“It wasn't perfect. You know, there are still work-ons, individual work-ons, as well as system work-ons. But it's a massive step up, and the players just showed to themselves what they can do.

“I'm proud of every player that went on that field last night, and as well as those individual efforts, just, you know, the back row, the locks, everybody. It's hard to mention everybody individually, but everybody got through a lot of work, and that's the part that I'm proud of.”

Ackermann was also proud of the captaincy of 22-year old Reinhardt Ludwig, who led the team well despite only his second game back from injury.

“Ruan (Nortje) is there, as is Marcel (Coetzee), and there are a lot of senior players. But he led so well in the match. I only worked with him for a few weeks, because he was injured for a large part of the pre-season and only came back from rehab recently. It was a bit more pressure than we wanted, but again it is typical of him and the kind of person he is.

The DHL Stormers top the #VURC log after four rounds of action ⛈️🔝 pic.twitter.com/S7YVK1VXpT

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 20, 2025

“He’s definitely a born leader, talks well to the team, motivates them and is always positive, and he played extremely well as well. So that means a lot, as you said, to show his calmness in a big, tight match. That's what's nice, that there are guys who can solve each other's problems, who can help each other, and support each other. That's great for where we are now, and it's great for his development as captain.

“Because I think he made really good decisions.”

IMPORTANT FOR SELF BELIEF

Ackermann added that the victory, even the way it was achieved, was important for the self-belief of the group and the mood in the squad.

Yeah, I think it's just important for the mood of the group, for the belief that we trust the system, we trust the squad. We made changes, but the players that came in and grabbed the opportunity, they played well.

“So that means there's healthy competition, everybody is understanding what we want to achieve, and we're still growing in the way we want to play. That's great for us as a team, as a group, and it's not going to get easier.

“Glasgow is a world-class team, well-coached and with a host of internationals, so we're obviously going to make a few changes again, but that's what we're going to need this whole season. It's not about one individual or two players, it's about the whole squad, putting up their hands when they get the jersey to play for the team.”

The Bulls will name their side for the clash on Wednesday.

Regardless of what happens in their final week of tour the DHL Stormers will end the first phase of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in a much better position than they have been at a corresponding stage of any of the previous editions of the competition.

Even in the year they won the competition or the season after that when they were beaten in a Cape Town final by Munster they inhabited the lower reaches of the log in December and were under pressure. With four wins in four starts, and just one missed point when they failed to cross the line for a fourth try against the Ospreys, plus an overwhelmingly superior points differential to the teams around them, the Stormers top the log with one game remaining before the international break.

But while four wins in five games heading into the next phase will be a comfortable position for the Stormers, their director of rugby John Dobson knows only too well just how tough the URC is. The game they play after the international break is away against Munster, who after their win over Leinster at the weekend are arguably the form team in the early rounds of competition, and then after the interlude for the EPCR games in early and mid-December they head into a series of tough derbies.

RIDING THE MOMENTUM IS IMPERATIVE

So, another win while the momentum is with them is imperative, and Dobson is also mindful that his team’s last opponents on tour, Benetton in Treviso on Saturday evening, have also been strong challengers in recent seasons for the finishing log position that he covets. With two defeats in four games so far, a Stormers win at the weekend will hurt the Italian team.

What Dobson is also mindful of is that unlike Parma, where his team won 31-13 and banked another five log points at the weekend, Treviso has not been kind to the Stormers.

“We have a huge battle against Benetton coming up. It is a shootout and really important to us,” said Dobson after his team’s five try triumph against Zebre.

The DHL Stormers make it four wins from four in 2025/26 ✅✅✅✅#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/65vIdELoXS

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 18, 2025

“We haven’t won in Treviso before. More importantly, neither have we actually ever played well in Treviso before. So the challenge will be for us to lift ourselves for a really big battle.”

NEED TO REVERSE TREND OF NARROW LOSSES

The trend has been for the Stormers to suffer really close losses in away games against the top Italian team. In the first ever game between the sides in 2021 the Stormers started off well and then tailed off to be beaten by a narrow margin, while on their last visit to Treviso two seasons ago hooker Joseph Dweba thought he’d scored the winning try near the end only to discover he’d dived over the wrong line. The Stormers lost that game by a solitary point.

Benetton were thrashed by Edinburgh at the weekend, but it was an away game for them and the Stormers, after their experience in Parma, are well aware of how differently the Italian teams treat home games. Zebre had lost the week before they played the Stormers, but the team they sent to the Ospreys was a very different one to the one that played the home game.

“Zebre are a different proposition and a very tricky team to play at home, which is shown by them beating the Lions and Edinburgh in Parma so far this season,” he said.

Indeed, although in the early stages the Stormers looked completely dominant and set to win by a bigger margin than they did, Zebre played with great passion and made the log leaders work really hard for their haul of five log points.

“We will take a five try win. Maybe we were a bit lucky with that intercept try (to skipper Ruhan Nel) at the end but we were held up on the line two or three times too. We weren’t at our clinical best,” said Dobson.

Round 4 brought the drama, the passion and the flair 🔥

Where's your club sitting? 👀@Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/gtmgt7VZG8

— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 19, 2025

“It felt like we were a bit flat. Whether that was because of the time we played, because it felt like a really long day building up to the game, or the pressure that Zebre exerted, we just weren’t at our best. We had a strong tempo towards the back end of last season and the start of this season and that maybe impacted us a bit.

“I hate using the term overplayed, but in some ways we probably pushed it a bit. There were times we should have been more direct. They seduced us into seeing space and then they closed it up really well.”

PACK IS GOING WELL

It was a night though where, as Dobson pointed out, the Stormers were over the line a few times only for the ball to be held up, and his forwards continued to dominate all opponents.

“Our lineout and maul is going really well. Yes, we got a couple of penalties, but we felt they came a bit later than in the other first couple of games. So we didn’t have it quite as easily at scrum time (as before) but if you consider we are without Tuks (Ntuthuko Mchunu), Neethling (Fouche), Sazi (Sandi) and Frans (Malherbe), we are doing okay. I thought Zachary Porthen (making his first start) was exceptional.

“So the set piece was nice, where we are on the log is nice, how we defended I thought was really nice. They tried to get on top of us with their contestable kicks, and obviously targeted JC (Mars) in his first URC start (playing as late replacement for the injured Seabelo Senatla) and he handled it well.”

The Stormers coach was undecided towards the end of last week as to whether one or both of his Bok duo of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Damian Willemse will be going home to have a short break before they join the Bok tour to the UK, France, Ireland and Italy the week after the Benetton game, but he did confirm the arrival of some additional cavalry.

“Salmaan (Moerat) wasn’t ready to play against Zebre but he is here with us now and will be available to play against Benetton and (new recruit) Cobus Reinach is flying over,” said Dobson.

It was unexpected that two of last year’s top four finishers would be the big losers in the fourth round of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship but in retrospect that Leinster and the Hollywoodbets Sharks both lost home games is not as strange as some may make out.

Perhaps we saw the warning sign the previous week when the Vodacom Bulls, laden for that game with returning Springboks, were outplayed 28-7 by Ulster in Belfast. Handre Pollard was returning to the Bulls after a long absence and had had just a few training sessions with the team. Wilco Louw, Canan Moodie, Marco van Staden, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and others were all getting their first taste of being Bulls since losing last season’s final against Leinster. That was nearly five months ago, and they were also playing under a different coach then.

Unlike their Ulster opponents, a sizable proportion of the Bulls team that played that night had not been together as Bulls in the pre-season and they had not played the pre-season games or the games played in the first two rounds of the competition. So was it a surprise then that Ulster won because they looked the more organised team?

Bulls coach Johan Ackermann is still arguably facing a challenge in re-absorbing his Boks. The Pretoria team conspired against themselves and really should have put Connacht away earlier in the Galway game this past Friday night, but in the end they had to survive two last gasp conversion attempts (the referee ordered a retake) to win by one point.

TEAMS MOULDED IN PRE-SEASON ARE PERFORMING

The team that conquered the Bulls in round three travelled to Durban in a confident mood and as a together team that has mostly been together since the start of the pre-season. By contrast half the Sharks team they faced at Hollywoodbets Kings Park arrived home from a three-match tour on Tuesday, while the other half reported for their first Sharks training of the season the next day.

If Sharks coach John Plumtree erred it was probably in disrespecting what rugby is - a team sport. It did work for the Sharks last year when they faced Glasgow Warriors in the Boks’ first game back, but unless you are the Barbarians, and the result doesn’t matter, bringing a team together three days before the game is high risk. Particularly when you are playing against a team on the rise again and that has had far more disruptions and therefore greater continuity in selection.

There was a lot wrong with the Sharks game at the weekend, both on attack and defence, but it is their lack of attacking shape that was highlighted. And rightly so, because it is a problem carried over from last season. But when do you work on attacking shape? Every coach will tell you that is something you do in the pre-season. When do the Sharks have a pre-season? They don’t, at least not one with their Boks present.

NOT EVEN A WASHUP FOR SHARKS AT END OF LAST SEASON

Plumtree didn’t even have a wash-up session with his players, which is normal practice at the end of a season, when they bowed out of last year’s URC by losing to the Bulls in the Pretoria semifinal. The Boks had to report to the national camp the day after the game, and the Sharks coach did not see them again until last Wednesday’s training session.

The disappointment in the Sharks’ performance against Ulster from Sharks supporters is justified. Like Liverpool are experiencing now, when you have big name players on your books expectation is raised. But like the Liverpool bosses are probably now realising after a third successive defeat in the Premier League, a bedding in period is also necessary. Big names don’t just come together and automatically gel.

And comparing what Plumtree is going through to what Arne Slot with Liverpool in a different sport isn’t even comparing apples with apples if you consider that in the round ball league in England the managers do work with their top players during the pre-season.

Round 4 brought the drama, the passion and the flair 🔥

Where's your club sitting? 👀#BKTURC #URC pic.twitter.com/WJgjFFl4nF

— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) October 19, 2025

Plumtree said in his first season back at the Sharks that he had discovered that being a coach of a local URC team was the toughest rugby coaching job in the world. And it is if you are coaching a team loaded with Boks. Jake White discovered that quite quickly when he took the Bulls into the URC and it was one of the reasons why he initially didn’t contract many current Boks.

He did start bringing in more Boks later on and the team his successor, Johan Ackermann, is in charge of now has been built by White. Ackermann hadn’t coached in the URC before this season but the Ulster game was doubtlessly a wake-up call for him. Next time he has a phalanx of Boks coming back all at once he might select his team differently.

CULLEN’S LEINSTER STRUGGLING WITH SAME PROBLEM

By contrast to Ackermann, the Leinster chief honcho Leo Cullen is a URC veteran, and yet even he has struggled with what for Leinster was the fairly rare challenge of having to go through a pre-season without top players. The Irish province provided 13 members of the British and Irish Lions squad that toured Australia in the off-season, and that was the context to his team’s poor start to the competition in South Africa.

Now that he’s got the Lions available again Cullen has discovered it is hard for that to happen in seamless fashion, as shown when his team was well beaten by a far more together, and less Lions or international absentee impacted, rival in Munster at Croke Park. Like Ulster, and also like another team that is surging early in this competition, the DHL Stormers, Munster would have had most of the players on duty for them now working with them in the pre-season.

So maybe it is no surprise that those three teams have been the most impressive thus far, and inhabit the upper reaches of the log, while Leinster, so dominant last season, sit with just one win in four starts, and the Sharks, who finished third in the URC last season, sit with just one draw in four starts.

LOG MAKES INTERESTING READING

A glance at the log will confirm at this early stage that the Irish teams outside of Leinster are on the up, and that, because they are not alone in being rated teams that have failed to get going thus far, there’s no reason for either of Leinster and the Sharks to tip themselves into a crisis at this point.

The log can easily be divided as it is currently into two separate sections - there’s the teams that have won all their games or dropped just one, which apart from the Stormers, Munster, Ulster (who have played one game less), Cardiff and the Bulls also includes what is becoming a rampant Glasgow Warriors, and then the rest are lumped together with one or no wins.

The DHL Stormers make it four wins from four in 2025/26 ✅✅✅✅#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/65vIdELoXS

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 18, 2025

For those in the bottom half the pressure will be intense to win their next games and again when the competition resumes at the end of November after the international break. The URC is a tough competition, as confirmed by the interesting anomaly of six of this past weekend’s eight games all having been won by the visiting team.


Fourth round URC results

Dragons 17 Cardiff Rugby 24

Edinburgh 43 Benetton 0

Connacht 27 Vodacom Bulls 28

Emirates Lions 29 Scarlets 18

Ospreys 17 Glasgow Warriors 42

Hollywoodbets Sharks 26 Ulster 34

Leinster 14 Munster 31

Zebre 13 DHL Stormers 31

Thanks to another powerful performance from the forwards and the brilliance of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu at the back the DHL Stormers made it four out of four wins so far in their Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign as they beat Zebre 31-13 in Parma on Saturday night.

It was the third time in four games that the Stormers managed to add the four-try bonus point to the match points, so the Cape Town team were able to retain their position at the top of the log after the fourth round.

Five tries and five points in Parma to make it four from four this season. #ZEBvSTO #inittogether @Vodacom #URC pic.twitter.com/Xw0wYRvgta

— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) October 18, 2025

They have the same number of points, 19, as Munster, but have a vastly superior points differential to the team that upset Leinster earlier in the day.

The Stormers win was never really in doubt from the moment they were able to recover from a mistake from the kick-off that gave Zebre an early opportunity and transfer play back to the other side of the field, where another of what is now becoming the customary impressive Stormers driving mauls sent flanker Paul de Villiers in for his third try of the season.

The lineout was set up from a scrum penalty, and the Stormers’ complete dominance of the scrums was also nothing new.

Indeed, so superior were the Stormers, who had No 8 Evan Roos in barnstorming form again en route to yet another Man of the Match award, that it would not have been a misrepresentation of how the game went had the visitors reached 50 points.

A second straight @Vodacom #URC Man of the Match performance on tour for Evan Roos. #ZEBvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/yRnfbpUIvG

— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) October 18, 2025

Several times in the first half they were over the line only to be held up, and then Ruben van Heerden appeared to power his way over shortly after the break only for referee Andrew Brace and the television match officials to be unable to find conclusive evidence that it had been dotted down.

SACHA'S WIZARDRY

Feinberg-Mngomezulu came close to scoring not long after the De Villiers try and the Stormers were completely dominant in the first quarter, so it came as a bit of a surprise when a long pass from Warrick Gelant, playing his first game of the season at fullback, was intercepted by Zebre wing Mirko Belloni and he ran through to score.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu had missed the conversion of De Villiers’s try so when Giacomo De Rea converted Belloni’s effort it meant that Zebre took a 7-5 lead.

And to their credit, the hosts did make it really hard for the Stormers to convert their dominance and were tigerish on defence, in their attempts to spoil, throughout the 80 minutes.

It looked like Zebre might even hold onto their narrow lead until halftime as the Stormers kept getting near and yet so far, such as when lock Adre Smith was held up over the line.

However, it was soon Sacha time, as a high kick was spilt and Feinberg-Mngomezulu came through to pick it up and weave over to score between the posts.

SFM 🪄🪄

The DHL Stormers and Sacha score their second 👇

📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/y4CRKmjZ90

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 18, 2025

He nearly did it again just before the halftime hooter but again it wasn’t to be and the Stormers held a five point lead (12-7) at the halfway point.

The Stormers placed enormous pressure on Zebre at the start of the second half and although Van Heerden’s claims for a try were denied, it was inevitable the dam wall would break at some stage.

When it did it was Feinberg-Mngomezulu again who got the five pointer, this time driving over from close range as the Stormers attacked near the Zebre line.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu didn’t kick the conversion but in the 58th minute his playmaking wizardry was to the fore as he sent Gelant in for the try with a pinpoint long pass.

Willemse ➡️ Feinberg-Mngomezulu ➡️ Gelant

No defence is safe when these three start ballin' 🤩⚡

📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/yP2uIROJ43

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) October 18, 2025

This time he converted and at 24-7 with a quarter of the game left, and with Zebre having lost reserve prop Matteo Nocero for 10 minutes to a yellow card, expectations would have been for the score to mount considerably.

However, Zebre never gave up and actually drew six points back with two De Rea penalties to ensure the Stormers remained honest until the end, with captain Ruhan Nel making the gap a more fitting representation of the difference between the teams when he scored an intercept try off the final move of the game.

It was the second win of the three-game tour for the Stormers and they will feel they have hit their target but having got this far they will go all out to make it three out of three when they face Benetton in Treviso in their final tour game next weekend.

When De Rea kicked his first penalty in the 61st minute it was the first successful penalty kick against the Stormers of the season.

Belloni’s intercept try was just the third try scored against the Stormers in four games.

The Stormers team was different to the one announced on Friday as Seabelo Senatla was a last-minute withdrawal and was replaced by young JC Mars on the wing.

Scores

DHL Stormers 31 - Tries: Paul de Villiers, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 2, Warrick Gelant and Ruhan Nel; Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3.

Zebre 13 - Try: Mirko Belloni; Conversion: Giacomo de Rea; Penalties: Giacomo de Rea 2.

The jubilation of the Ulster players told the story of the magnitude of their triumph as they overcame a marquee laden but disjointed Hollywoodbets Sharks team 34-26 in Durban to record only their third Vodacom United Rugby Championship win on the road in the past year.

What made the Ulster win so impressive was that it was achieved against a Sharks team that had their star Springboks, with the exception of the still injured Aphelele Fassi, back in tow.

By contrast with the Sharks, Ulster didn’t have nearly as many international or decorated star players.

They were though the far more organised team in the first half an hour, which was effectively when they won the match, and there’s good reason for that - they have played together over three rounds and had a proper pre-season together.

A strong showing from @UlsterRugby 🔴⚪

Great skill and collective effort on display from the men in white and red 🙌

📺 Watch every VURC match live on SuperSport 🏉@Vodacom #URC | #SHAvULS pic.twitter.com/O3PAghYq31

— Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial_RSA) October 18, 2025

The Sharks by contrast might have actually paid for having too many Boks - certainly in terms of them all returning at once for while they may have seen each other at the Boks they came into this game without any pre-season.

The same thing happened to the Vodacom Bulls against exactly these same opponents in Belfast last week - Johan Ackermann also had several star current Boks back in his team and they lost 28-7 on a night where the Bulls just didn’t gel as a team.

LOOKED LIKE A TEAM THAT HASN’T PLAYED TOGETHER

It was a similar story at Hollywoodbets Kings Park, with the Sharks looking like what they were in an opening quarter where they conceded 17 points - a team that hasn’t played together since June, when they lost the 2024/2025 semifinal to the Bulls in Pretoria.

The Sharks dominated the scrums, and let it be said that referee Ben Whitehouse should have shown Ulster a yellow card far sooner than he did and should also have followed up with a second when, a minute after the first, Ulster produced the cynical infringement that saw the referee award the Sharks a penalty try.

By then the Sharks had been down to 13 men themselves due to two poor disciplinary indiscretions that saw first Vincent Koch yellow carded and then minutes later Makazole Mapimpi.

Both were for taking an opposition player through the horizontal in the tackle, but Koch’s was mitigated by him putting the Ulster player down gently once he knew what he was doing.

So his card stayed yellow, but Mapimpi’s was upgraded to a red, which meant the Sharks were down to 14 men until there were just four minutes left.

The Sharks had been coming back into the game when the cards were shown so it was costly, and that was why it was a bit of a horror show evening for them.

FOURTH ULSTER TRY WAS CONTROVERSIAL DECISION

Indeed, there was more, for it was hard to fathom how Whitehouse stuck with his onfield decision when the replay clearly showed Ulster prop Callum Reid appearing to ground the ball short of the line for Ulster’s fourth try.

But that the Sharks were in position to concede that try in the first place summed up their night, for there was a pattern that was repeated throughout the game of the Sharks scoring points and then giving it away with soft moments and conceding points in return.

This time it was a penalty conceded at the restart, with the Ulster lead having been cut to eight points due to the penalty try, that set Ulster up in the attacking position from which they launched the attack that netted the try that took their lead back to 15 points.

Andre Esterhuizen did score a good try off a tap penalty with eight minutes to go to cut the deficit back to eight, but the Sharks’ attacking game just wasn’t synched enough for them to come back and win the game.

ERRORS AND LACK OF ATTACKING SHAPE

While Ulster were efficient and clinical even though they were smashed in the scrums, and at one stage were conceding a penalty every time a scrum was set, the Sharks were error-ridden, which was symptomatic of a team that had not played together and which was only fully reintroduced to each other on Wednesday of this week.

There were also though symptoms of one of last year’s problems, which was lack of attacking shape, and it is difficult to equate the Siya Masuku we saw in this game with the one that lined up so close to the gainline and was such a revelation when he first replaced Curwin Bosch two years ago.

The Sharks simply played way too much behind the gain line, and given their advantage at forward, should really have made the decision to just keep the ball under a forward blanket and not try to engage the backs too often given the damp conditions and also the fact that there wasn’t much synching happening at the back.

That said, the Sharks made a noose for themselves when they conceded a try to fullback Mike Lowry after just five minutes before Ulster added a penalty from Nathan Doak and then an excellent try from their slippery former Sharks wing Werner Kok to make it 17-0 to the visitors.

That meant the Durban team had to play catch-up for two thirds of the game and instead of the calmness you might have expected from a team so loaded with stars they were frenetic and made mistakes.

The Sharks were awarded 17 penalties against seven and really should have got more out of the game than the bonus point they netted for scoring four tries.

They head into next Saturday’s fifth round game against Scarlets still looking for their first win in the competition.

SCORES

Ulster 34 - Tries: Mike Lowry, Werner Kok, Tom Stewart and Callum Reid; Conversions: Nathan Doak 4; Penalties: Nathan Doak 2.

Hollywoodbets Sharks 26 - Tries: Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Andre Esterhuizen; Penalty try; Conversions: Siya Masuku and Jordan Hendrikse.