Hits & Misses: URC clean sweep and crumbling Boks exposed

OPINION: The rugby weekend got off to the best-possible start for South Africans, with all four franchises securing victories in Round One of the United Rugby Championship.

Adding to that, the Springbok Women defeated Italy for the first time on Italian soil in their second WXV Global Series match in Pordenone on Saturday. But what a turn it took.

The Springboks suffered a 38-42 embarrassment against the Wallabies in an outrageous match after the yellow-card-depleted hosts denied them an epic come-from-behind win.

We look at some of the many highs and lows from the weekend’s rugby action.

Hits:

South African URC clean sweep

The South African contingent came out firing in Round One of the 2026/27 United Rugby Championship season with all four franchises recording impressive wins for a rare clean sweep.

The Stormers, trailing 10-12 against Connacht at halftime, scored 19 points after the break and limited the hosts to three as they secured a 15-29 bonus-point victory in Galway to get their two-match European tour off to a solid start.

The Lions were the second team from the Republic in action in the opening round and avenged their quarterfinal defeat against Leinster with a 27-26 win at Ellis Park to build on their pre-season statement against the All Blacks during the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour.

The Sharks ran rampant against Ospreys to clinch a five-try 41-24 victory at Kings Park and bag maximum points to get what they will be hoping to be their redemption season off to a positive start.

Over at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranci, the Bulls made quick work of Zebre to obliterate the Italians 47-13.

What a way to start the new season.

Continues below…

Lions’ toppling of Leinster a solid foundation to chase another historic seasonhttps://t.co/DabDYJmrZ7

— Rugby365 (@rugby365com) September 27, 2026

Paul de Villiers’ shine in otherwise dull Bok display

Disappointing individual Bok performances were far from sparse in Perth, but De Villiers wasn’t one of them.

The Stormers star was outstanding yet again as he made it clear who owns the breakdown right from the start, winning two early turnovers and a match-high three overall, tied with Wallaby flanker Fraser McReight, while he continued to be a pest on the ground from start to finish.

He has consistently performed for the Boks since running out against the Barbarians in Gqeberha at the start of the season, producing promise upon promise of a long and legendary international career.

He may have got his Springbok chance in the absence of captain Siya Kolisi, but De Villiers has repeatedly shown that he is no stop-gap and that he is here to stay.

Wallabies’ Kiss of life

Those who viewed South Africa facing New Zealand in the quarterfinal of next year’s World Cup in Australia as a given will have a rethink after what went down at Optus Stadium.

Given the form the Springboks had been in going into the one-off Test, not even the mass changes Rassie Erasmus had made to his team that defeated the All Blacks in the final Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series in Baltimore were enough to allow fans to entertain thoughts of an upset in Perth.

It just didn’t seem likely. After all, this is a squad that had just defeated the All Blacks three times in a row after facing outrageous pressure due to the way in which they dropped the tour-opening Test.

The Wallabies, meanwhile, could only smile about their four unbeaten Tests – two wins over Japan and a win and a draw against a weakened Argentina side.

So, how were they ever going to lose to the rebuilding Wallabies?

The prospect seemed laughable.

Just about the only praiseworthy aspect of the Springboks we saw Down Under was how they fought back from being 17-42 down in the final quarter and their grind at the breakdown.

Now, however, the Wallabies’ upcoming back-to-back Tests against the All Blacks suddenly don’t look as daunting.

Next year’s World Cup hosts did themselves no favours in those final 10 minutes; their four yellow cards and overall discipline were comical and would have no doubt resulted in a costly implosion on any other day. But the way they attacked and adapted and had the Boks flapping around for large chunks of the game was superb.

Misses:

Bok strengths nullified and continuation of wide-channel woes

There was none of the scrum dominance that was on display against the All Blacks, not even when front-row juggernauts Wilco Louw, Malcolm Marx, and Ox Nche came on, and one of the biggest factors behind the South Africans’ success in the series – their aerial dominance – was nowhere to be seen Down Under.

In fact, the Boks didn’t just not dominate in the air; they were the ones being dominated as wings Max Jorgensen and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii won several high balls.

Australia also exploited the Springboks’ apparent growing vulnerabilities out wide as they all too simply sucked in their defence and created space, repeatedly.

The moment that never was

An obstructive running line by Quan Horn as the Boks launched a final attack with the clock in the red saw him pinged by the referee, crushing any hopes of pulling off what would have been one of the most remarkable comebacks in Test rugby.

While it wouldn’t be fair to put the result down to that one moment, things could possibly have ended differently but for that obstruction.

But it should never have come down to that moment in the first place.

The Boks were terrible as a collective by their own standards. Just too many players were off their game.

While a lack of cohesion is to be expected with that many changes, some of the decision-making, execution, and rookie errors were inexcusable.

Continues below…

#REACTION: ‘It’s sore for me to lose here’: Bok star sends strong message 👇#Australia #Wallabies #SouthAfrica #Springboks #AUSvRSA https://t.co/HvyhkTTB6G

— Rugby365 (@rugby365com) September 27, 2026

Mobile mayhem

It was a bizarre Test match with faulty communication lines that set off a disastrous ripple effect.

Referee Andrea Piardi had no communication with his TMO and had to make use of a cellphone to receive messages.

The technological disruption brought many delays, with play going on and Piardi having to go back to the incident upon TMO intervention a number of times.

The clock also kept running during stoppages at times, while the wrong score (42-36 following the Boks’ disallowed try) was also displayed for some time.

Other than that, this game again highlighted that there are just too many cooks involved in a single Test, completely killing any chances of fluidity.

It was a total mess that should not happen at this level.