Hits & Misses: Shining Sharks Boks and Stormers' self-implosion

OPINION: To refer to different sporting results, good and bad, as a “mixed bag” may be a cliché, but that is exactly what Round Two of the United Rugby Championship delivered for the four South African franchises.

While the Stormers and the Bulls came up short in Europe, the Lions and the Sharks continued their winning ways locally.

The Stormers were in action first on Friday night, and success in Scotland sidestepped them yet again as they went down to Edinburgh (13-17).

In Ireland, the Bulls were outplayed by Munster (22-26) after a sweeping Zebre aside in the opening round, while the Lions and Sharks were impressive as they bagged maximum points on home turf against the Ospreys and Leinster, respectively.

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

Hits:

Bellowing roars from the ‘old’ and the ‘new’

How can you not do well when your captain performs like that?

Lions captain Francke Horn led from the front as he steered his side in an excellent performance all around the park, winning two crucial turnovers, eating up metres in the carry, making his presence felt at the line-out, and adding a top try assist for Boeta Chamberlain.

While it was a superb team effort, Horn was one of the men who stood tallest, and there were a number of them. Nobody will be disputing his man-of-the-match recognition.

Another big performance came courtesy of Ethan Adams.

The 19-year-old carried his sensational Junior Springbok form into the URC in his first start for Ivan van Rooyen’s team, showing just why he is nicknamed ‘The Tank’ with hard running that constantly kept the Ospreys on their toes. He also won a turnover.

The burly youngster was equally impressive in his cameo off the bench against Leinster, and he is one man to watch in a Lions team that can only continue to rise.

Continues below…

Cash: ‘We’ll take the five’

https://t.co/sNDAl6aD7Z

— Rugby365 (@rugby365com) October 4, 2026

Super Scrummaging

The Ospreys were no match for the Lions at scrum time, and the Sharks put up a display that was just as effective in keeping Leinster on the back foot.

The Lions wore the Welsh outfit down with their scrum and maul and became increasingly dangerous as the clock ticked on, and having altitude on their side certainly helped.

The destruction continued in Durban, with Thomas du Toit repeatedly obliterating Leinster’s Thomas Clarkson.

As Clarkson continued to buckle, so too did the referee’s patience as he eventually yellow-carded the tighthead late in the opening half for collapsing the scrum.

With Ox Nche coming on for Du Toit, the second half brought no reprieve for Clarkson and the rest of Leinster’s pack at the pack-down.

Seeing the Sharks make full use of the platform they created with their strong set-piece was one of the highlights of the weekend.

Bok and Bester brilliance at the Shark Tank

While Leinster went into the fixture with a host of Ireland players, it was the Sharks’ internationals who stole the show.

Captain Andre Esterhuizen, Thomas du Toit, and Edwill van der Merwe were all outstanding, but Eben Etzebeth was colossal when he came off the bench. He displayed powerful running and perfect timing, and it was the kind of performance that would have any Sharks fans crossing their fingers for an injury-free run for the Springbok veteran.

But before the Sharks went on a second-half mission, Litelihle Bester gave them the 14-7 lead going into half-time with a sublime finish.

The Sharks dominated early on but didn’t make proper use of their territorial advantage or Leinster’s litany of errors, and the opposition instead got the goods and drew first blood to go 0-7 up.

While the Sharks did score two more tries in the second half, they would have certainly gained some confidence and momentum from Bester’s try that put them ahead going into the shed.

Continues below…

JP: ‘The buy-in from the players as a collective is one of a team that really wants to win’

https://t.co/MzN9YSNO7j

— Rugby365 (@rugby365com) October 4, 2026

Misses:

Shambolic Stormers line-out

There have been some bizarre things happening in rugby over the last two weekends.

From that whole Springboks versus Wallabies Test, to Australia suddenly becoming world beaters after a bit of narrow success over the Boks, to Chris Smith’s lost compass, the wild and confusing have been served in abundance.

And then there was the Stormers’ line-out. It was literally a miss…or a string of misses, rather.

You can’t even say the Stormers suffered yet another loss in Scotland; “suffered” would imply that Edinburgh were the ones to inflict pain on them, but John Dobson’s crew did that all to themselves.

The severity of the conditions and the blustery wind were clear early on when Yaqeen Ahmed hooked his straightforward kick at goal, but nothing could prepare viewers for the disaster that was the Stormers line-out.

After Andre-Hugo Venter left the field and Vernon Paulo came on, the Capetonians’ incompetence at the set-piece beggared belief.

In the first half alone, six of their line-outs went against the throw, and in total, the Stormers secured just 12 of their 21 throws.

While the direction of the throws looked dodgy at best, the whole line-out set-up looked a mess at times.

It could have, and probably would have, been a very different result had the Stormers got a grip on their line-out and managed to get their drive going.

It’s not hard to guess what will be first on their fix-it list for the week.