Who’s Hot and Who’s Not: Finalists in URC and Super Rugby, Irish sides crash and Springboks injuries pile up

It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

United Rugby Championship finalists:  It was a good weekend for the Bulls and Glasgow Warriors as they advanced to this year’s final after notching deserved victories over Ireland’s leading provinces, Leinster and Munster, in their respective semi-finals. As expected, both matches were closely fought battles with the end result in both games in the balance throughout. In the end, the Bulls held on for a narrow 25-20 victory over Leinster at Loftus Versfeld while Glasgow shocked defending champions Munster 17-10 at Thomond Park. Those victories set up a mouth-watering clash in Pretoria on Saturday which means there will be a new name engraved as winners onto the URC trophy.

Cameron Hanekom and Bulls front-row: While the entire Bulls team deserve credit for securing their win against Leinster on Saturday, young back-row Hanekom delivered a statement performance as he took the fight to his opponents on attack and defence. In the end, the 21-year-old gave his side good momentum on attack as he eventually gained 83 attacking metres and finished with 17 tackles made on defence. Meanwhile, the efforts of the front-row trio of Wilco Louw (tighthead prop), Johan Grobbelaar (hooker) and Gerhard Steenekamp (loosehead) also deserve special praise as they shone in the execution of their core duties throughout. While Louw and Steenekamp have already represented the Springboks, it is only a matter of time before Hanekom and Grobbelaar take that step up to Test level.

Super Rugby Pacific finalists: Just like the URC, Super Rugby Pacific will also have a new winner after the Blues and Chiefs advanced to this year’s final following impressive performances in their semi-final wins over the Brumbies and Hurricanes respectively. The Blues were full value for their 34-20 triumph over the Brumbies while Vern Cotter’s men will be thankful that Clayton McMillan’s troops sealed a 30-19 win over the Hurricanes as it means that all roads lead to Eden Park for Saturday’s final.

Hoskins Sotutu equals record: There were several outstanding individual performances during those Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals but the Blues’ All Blacks number eight Sotutu deserves special praise as he put his name into the tournament’s record books. The 25-year-old scored a well-taken try in the second half which equals the record held by Malcolm Marx, Codie Taylor and Wallaby Folau Fainga’a for tries scored by a forward during a Super Rugby campaign and he is also level with Doug Howlett and Mark Tele’a for most tries scored by a Blues player during the season. It was Sotutu’s 12th try this year which also puts him into joint top spot with the Crusaders’ Sevu Reece as the tournament’s leading try-scorer and if he scores in the final all the aforementioned feats will be his alone.

RFU approves promotion play-off: There was good news for clubs in the Championship last week when the Rugby Football Union announced that it has approved promotion into the Premiership from the 2025/2026 season. That means that whoever finishes the bottom of the Premiership at the end of next season will have to participate in a two-legged, home and away play-off battle with the winners of the Championship to secure their status in England’s top flight.

COLD AS ICE!

Bad weekend for Irish giants: Irish provincial heavyweights Leinster and Munster will want to forget this past weekend in a hurry after they came off second best in those URC semi-finals to the Bulls and Glasgow Warriors. Leinster’s latest defeat means they finish without a trophy for the third season in a row as they have lost three successive Champions Cup finals and are yet to play in a URC final after losing in the semi-finals in 2022, 2023 and this year. Meanwhile, champions Munster were heavy favourites to advance to their second successive final as they came into their clash with Glasgow Warriors on a 10-match winning streak in the URC but their world came crashing down against the Scottish outfit.

Brumbies blown away: As usual, the Canberra-based team came into their Super Rugby Pacific semi-final brimming with confidence as they were, once again, by far, Australia’s leading team in the competition. However, Stephen Larkham’s charges were in for a rude awakening as their opponents, the Blues, dominated from the outset and raced into a 24-6 lead by the 21st minute of their clash in Auckland after four quickfire tries from AJ Lam, Ricky Riccitelli, Sam Darry and Caleb Clarke. That meant the Brumbies were chasing the game after that and although they were a bit more competitive as the match progressed, the Blues always held an edge and were deserved winners in the end.

Rugby Australia loses another to NRL: Rugby union suffered another setback when it was announced that promising Wallabies fly-half Carter Gordon has decided to join NRL outfit the Gold Coast Titans on a two-year deal until the end of 2026. The 23-year-old, who was part of the Australia’s Rugby World Cup squad in France last year, is highly rated and news of his departure to the 13-man code will be a big disappointment to rugby lovers in that country. He is the second high profile player to move over to the NRL after it was announced at the end of last year that Wallabies flyer Mark Nawaqanitawase would be joining the Sydney Roosters.

Double blow on the wing for Springboks: The injuries have been coming thick and fast for the Springboks and mostly in the back-three with Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse set to miss out on the mid-year Tests. It is a massive blow only made worse by another injury in the semi-final, this time to Willie le Roux with the extent of the damage yet to be seen. Pressure is on their back-three stocks with Damian Willemse having been sidelined for the same period with a finger injury.

Bath duo unlucky to miss on England tour: Alfie Barbeary is one of the players unlucky to miss out after a blockbuster season for the Premiership finalists typified by his powerful carrying ability. He loses out to depth in the back-row especially considering that Ben Earl has been a stand out in that role throughout Steve Borthwick’s reign. Ted Hill is also unlucky after working very well with Barbeary in tandem in the latter stages of the season. His defensive work is brilliant and he is not shy in the carry either.