Stormers in pound seats as SA gets 3 in top 5

When the dust finally settles on a thrilling and tense final round of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship (URC), the South African challengers will be able to look back on a job well done.
Back in September and October, when the local teams started out by travelling to the northern hemisphere for their four-match tours, the outlook was as dark and bleak as most of the Covid lockdown period had been.
With the South African teams languishing in the lower reaches of the log, questions were being asked overseas about the point of having teams from this country in the competition.
However, when Leinster completed their 35-25 win over Munster at Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening to bring the curtain down on the league phase of the URC season, it not only condemned their fellow Irish province to finish in sixth place - meaning well off the pace - it also ensured that South African teams fill three of the top five placings.
The DHL Stormers, courtesy of their dramatic last-gasp win over the Scarlets at Parc Y Scarlets in Llanelli, were the big winners.
They finish second on the log and will face Edinburgh in their home quarterfinal at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town on the weekend of 4 June. On the same day, the fourth and fifth placed teams, the Vodacom Bulls and the Cell C Sharks, will play off in Pretoria.

Start as favourites
The South African Shield winners from Cape Town have the advantage of playing a team that has to cross the equator, something that only two northern teams have done since the inception of this competition.
A note of warning to the Stormers will be the fact that the team they face, Edinburgh, are one of those two teams, along with Irish team Connacht - they beat the Sharks in Durban at the end of March.
So they do know what it takes to win here. But while Stormers coach John Dobson said he was not overly satisfied with his team’s performance, in the sense they made it difficult for themselves, and both he and captain Steven Kitshoff know improvements are necessary, the Stormers should start as favourites at home against the team that finished seventh.
The Sharks might also feel they have dodged a bullet after their loss to Ulster in Belfast in the sense that travelling to Pretoria is a very different proposition to going back to Ireland.
The winner of the Sharks/Bulls game will most likely face the table-topping Leinster, if Leinster win their quarter-final against the Glasgow Warriors.
That’s another way for the Stormers to win, as a semi-final against Ulster or Munster, who play off in the other quarter-final, will be easier than a game against Leinster, who look to be in a league of their own in the competition at present.