Munster and three other Vodacom United Rugby Championship title contenders head to South Africa this week for their first forays into the southern hemisphere.
Teams will not only face a change of conditions, but also of altitude and home-ground advantage for the local sides – something that has been sorely missing from the tournament thus far.
A number of the teams will also be without several of their international stars, who line up in Six Nations action this coming weekend, making their task of winning the fixtures rescheduled from December even more difficult.
“A massive challenge,” was how Munster coach Johann van Graan put it when asked about the journey to SA.
“The Bulls at Loftus will be big, the Lions at Ellis Park. I think when South African teams came here into the cold, now we have to go to the heat. It will be hot in South Africa, we have got to deal with the altitude and a Bulls team and a Lions team who are very difficult to beat at Loftus and Ellis Park.
“It’s a great challenge for our lads. We will lose a few more players to the national team, so we will see tomorrow morning before the flight who we have. I’m really looking forward to this and going to enjoy the next two weeks and go and measure ourselves against the South African teams in their backyard.”
Munster face the Vodacom Bulls on Saturday in arguably the biggest clash of the weekend and will head to South Africa on a high after destroying the Dragons 64-3 this past Saturday night – one try short of their biggest win ever in the competition. The Limerick side sit third on the log and will want to pick up some points on the road.
Jake White’s side lie in wait and played several of their stalwarts in the Currie Cup win over Griquas, giving the players battle time ahead of the Loftus showdown.
The weekend will kick off with a mouthwatering clash between the Sharks and Scarlets, with the Welsh side shocking fourth-placed Glasgow Warriors 35-10 over the weekend to the astonishment of several pundits.
Considering Scarlets came back from 10-0 down, their second-half performance will be a warning to the Sharks.
While Ulster and Leinster both recorded massive wins on the weekend to top the table – Leinster smashing Benetton 61-17 while Ulster put Cardiff to the sword on Friday night with a comprehensive 48-12 win – plucky Zebre ran Welsh side Ospreys close for a 27-22 loss and gave themselves hope for their South African adventure.
Cardiff will face the Lions on Sunday as part of a double-header where Zebre travel to Stellenbosch to face the Stormers.
And their coach Dai Young believes they need to put their poor performance in Belfast behind them and move forward.
“It’s part of the league and you want to be measured against good teams. Tonight we were up against a good team but didn’t make them work as much as we would’ve liked,” Young said after the defeat.
“We let ourselves down but we just need to bounce back next week.
“The boys in there are all looking at the floor and looking hugely disappointed but there’s nobody down there to help them.
“What we need to look at is ourselves. The coaching team needs to look at what we’ve done, how we can get better because the messages we’ve said this week didn’t sink in.
“The players also need to look at each other, how they support each other and how the forwards and backs help each other.
“Now is not the time to point fingers, now is the time to get closer and work harder because that’s the only way we’ll move forward.”
“I’ve just told the players in the changing room: team spirit and togetherness is easy when you’re winning. It’s certainly a bit harder when you’ve had a poor performance and a poor result like tonight.
“It will test us, and we’ll have to come out of it stronger. I said before the game, if we play like we can play then it will take a good team to beat us. Ulster are a good team but they didn’t need to be that good tonight, to be honest. I don’t think we pushed them at all.”
All four teams will find the going significantly more difficult against the South African teams that have been relishing the prospect of facing them since joining the competition.
Photo: Dan Sheridan/INPHO/Shutterstock
