Phepsi adds fizz to Ulster’s big Belfast bash

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Duane Vermeulen’s match-up with Phendulani ‘Phepsi’ Buthelezi is worth the ticket price alone when Ulster and the Cell C Sharks clash for the first time in their history in the final round of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

Both teams have qualified for the last eight play-offs, but whoever wins at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Friday evening will host a home quarter-final and potentially a home semi-final.

The competition odds have never been higher and for the likes of Buthelezi the match doubles as a national trial to further convince the Springboks selectors and national coach Jacques Nienaber of his ability to play Test rugby.

Ulster’s Vermeulen inspired the Springboks to the 2019 World Cup final win against England and is regarded as the senior statesman among the current Springboks loose-forwards.

But in 2022, in the United Rugby Championship the next generation of South African loose-forwards have made a telling statement about the pending changing of the national guard.

Buthelezi has been at the forefront of these young bucks but Vermeulen this season has shown an appetite that is the equal of when he first played international rugby.

Ulster has never lost at home to South African opposition and the Sharks will have to make history to deny the hosts a sixth successive home win against teams from the Republic.

The betting specialists favour Ulster for the victory, which potentially could ensure them a top two finish to what has been a dramatic last month in the competition. The permutations are numerous, depending on the result and also the remainder of results in this weekend’s final round.

The only certainty is that both teams will be in the eight-strong play-offs.

Only one league point separates the two teams. Both will be at their strongest, with their international players available and both teams have an eye on the big prize.

What adds to the mystique of the occasion is that the two teams have never played each other, although the club is well known to South African rugby supporters.

Several prominent South African players have a rich history at Ulster, with veteran scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar and current Bulls captain Marcel Coetzee as popular as any Ulster-born player during their respective stints at the club. Pienaar played 141 times for Ulster between 2010 and 2017 and Coetzee played 57 times between 2016 and 2021.

The late Pedrie Wannenburg also played for Ulster, as did the mighty prop BJ Botha and his predecessor, Springboks hard man Robbie Kempson.

South African coach Alan Solomons is also synonymous with a lengthy spell at Ulster, in which they rarely failed to win at home.

South African born Rob Herring was schooled in Newlands at SACS and has a strong following back in Cape Town, but it was the arrival of Vermeulen at Ulster this season that ensured South African eyes would firmly be on Ulster throughout the competition.

Both teams have form on their side, with Ulster winning four of their last five home United Rugby Championship matches and the Sharks winning eight of their last nine matches in the competition.

Both teams also have a South African flavour in Vermeulen and Buthelezi that adds spice to a match that hardly needed any.

Photo:Darren Stewart/Gallo Images

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Zelim Nel