Bulls CEO opens up about enquiry into 'weird' play-off draw
SPOTLIGHT: Bulls CEO Edgar Rathbone revealed that his franchise has been in contact with United Rugby Championship officials about the play-off draw.
As it stands, the winner of the Bulls v Sharks quarterfinal will face the winner of Leinster v Glasgow Warriors in the semifinals.
A win for Leinster would mean the semifinal will be played in Dublin.
However, if the Warriors win, the semifinal will be played in Glasgow even though the Bulls and Sharks finished higher than them in the standings.
The Bulls and Sharks finished the round-robin phase in fourth and fifth respectively, while Glasgow finished eighth.
It is the same on the other side of the draw. If Edinburgh upset the Stormers in Cape Town, they will host a semifinal even though Ulster and Munster, who play in the other quarterfinal, finished above them.
Some fans called the play-off draw ‘weird’.
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“We have enquired about it and that is the competition rules for this year,” said Rathbone.
“It is a seeded draw and if Glasgow beats the No.1 seed, they will have a home semifinal.
“We will have to travel to Glasgow if we beat the Sharks. The rules were made at the beginning of the competition and they kept it that way.
“The only rule that changed is that the Final will be hosted by the top-seeded team.
“Previously, it [the Final] would have been at a neutral venue, like we saw in the Champions Cup.”
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The big comeback
Meanwhile, Rathbone had plenty of praise for his franchise after they finished in the top four.
Things didn’t look so rosy last year when only recorded one win during that opening tour in the Northern Hemisphere, which included a 3-31 defeat to Leinster in Round One.
The Pretoria side only record three wins in their first nine games before they went on win eight of their next nine in the second half of the season.
“We always knew it was going to be a tough competition and what I respect about the team, especially our coaching staff, is that they came back with a debrief after that specific tour,” Rathbone explained.
“They said they were going to have to make some game-plan changes, specifically in terms of more ball in hand and with a higher tempo.
“They started implementing that and the team first struggled to get the hang of it because when you change things, it takes a bit of time.
“However, as soon as those new game plans kicked in, we started seeing the results in the competition.”
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