URC, Quarterfinals - Saturday's Teams and Predictions

PREVIEW: It’s a case of all or nothing for the Bulls, Lions and Stormers in the United Rugby Championship quarterfinals on Saturday.

With semifinal places on the line, the three teams will need to dig deep and embrace the never-say-die attitude that has defined their campaigns this season.

The Bulls will be first in action against Munster in Pretoria, before the Stormers host Cardiff in Cape Town in the second successive outing between the sides. Meanwhile, the Lions face arguably the toughest assignment of the weekend when they travel to Dublin for a first-ever URC play-off clash against Leinster.

*READ: Friday’s teams and prediction 

Should Glasgow Warriors and Leinster progress to the final four, both sides will host semifinals after finishing in the top two during the round-robin phase.

However, the Bulls and Stormers will be hoping for favours from Connacht and the Lions, respectively, as defeats for Glasgow and Leinster could pave the way for home semifinals for the South African sides should they secure victories of their own.

Bulls braced for Munster battle

The Bulls will be eager to repeat their pool-stage victory over Munster and extend their winning streak in the competition to seven matches.

But the Pretoria outfit know they are in for another bruising encounter after edging the Irish side 34-31 at Loftus Versfeld just two months ago.

Head coach Johan Ackermann admitted he would prefer to avoid another nail-biting finish, though he acknowledged that pressure is part and parcel of knockout rugby.

“It is play-offs,” said Ackermann, adding: “You don’t have to score four tries and there’s a little bit more pressure because mistakes tend to cost you.

“We know it’s going to be a big challenge. Munster has proven themselves over the years that they are a quality team, and they’ve shown that they can travel well.

“But hopefully we can put in a performance that will be good enough.”

Ackermann added that the Bulls have deliberately avoided dwelling too much on previous meetings.

“We looked at areas where we can improve, but we also know that there’s not much you can take out of their last performances. We’ve put a new, fresh mindset on everything to reset ourselves and know that this is only a one-shot opportunity.

“So, we didn’t dwell too much.”

Home-ground advantage and a potent attack make the Bulls favourites on paper, but Munster’s defensive record remains a major threat.

The men from Pretoria will also be wary of the fact that Munster managed to defeat Leinster in Dublin earlier this season – proof that the Irish outfit are capable of producing big performances away from home.

“We obviously looked at their strengths and also looked at maybe areas we can attack, and hopefully the plan will work,” Ackermann concluded.

Stormers seek response against Cardiff

The Stormers head into their quarterfinal under pressure following a disappointing 16-22 defeat to Cardiff in Wales in their previous outing.

Ordinarily, the Cape side would have been overwhelming favourites at DHL Stadium, but recent inconsistency – including a draw and defeat in their last two matches – has added intrigue to the encounter.

John Dobson’s side boasts superior attacking and defensive statistics heading into the clash, but recent history suggests those numbers may count for little.

Centre Ruhan Nel, who returns from injury for the crucial showdown, believes the recent meeting between the teams has at least simplified preparations.

“By no means is Cardiff an easy team. I mean, they beat us and rightly so; they were way better than us.

“But just from a workload point of view, the players already have a picture in mind. We’ve seen their players; the coaches have done the analysis, so it just lightens the load a bit over the two weeks.

“We’ve obviously seen the shortcomings in Cardiff, because the memory is still fresh from playing them, so that’s better than playing a team in round three in the URC and getting them now when the team looks totally different in the quarterfinal than what it looked like at the beginning of the URC. So from that aspect we’re really happy.”

The captain also warned against any complacency from the Stormers camp.

“If there’s any sort of comfort or relaxation because they’re coming to our turf, it’s a given win for us – that’s completely the wrong mentality,” Nel said.

“They beat us fair and square, not because of the pitch but because we were outplayed, and we are fully aware of the danger that Cardiff bring and how good they are.”

Although Cardiff have struggled away from home this season, the Welsh side will be desperate to make history by securing back-to-back wins over the Stormers and reaching the semifinals.

Cardiff coach Corniel van Zyl believes handling pressure will once again be key.

“The approach and what we expect from the Stormers is the same. For us, it’s all about how we apply what we want to do against them,” Cardiff head coach Corniel van Zyl said.

“The pressure was on us last time out at Cardiff Arms Park, but I think that has obviously shifted back onto them a little now. If we can start well and apply pressure through what we do best – scoring points – then we can put them under pressure.

“That is ultimately the only way we can impose ourselves on them. That’s what we’re aiming to do and, at the end of the day, we’ll do our best to come away with the victory.”

Lions chasing history in Dublin

Similarly to Cardiff, the Lions will be determined to make their season even more special by reaching the semifinal for the first time.

However, they will be under no illusions about the challenge they face against Leinster, who will go all-out to silence their critics after going down in the Champions Cup Final last week.

While Leinster’s heavy 19-41 defeat against Bordeaux will fuel the Johannesburgers’ confidence as they look to bounce back from two gut-wrenching defeats in Ireland – one of which was a 7-31 loss against Leinster – they will give everything to avoid suffering the same fate against the Irish giants this week.

Ivan van Rooyen’s men remained in Ireland after the conclusion of the pool stages in a bid to maximise preparation time for the clash.

While the Johannesburg side have scored 17 more points than Leinster across their 18 matches this season, they now face one of the strongest defensive units in the competition.

To spring an upset, the Lions will need precision, composure and near-perfect execution against one of Europe’s rugby heavyweights.

The teams and predictions below…

Bulls v Munster
(Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria – Kick-off: 13.00 SAST; 11.00 GMT; 12.00 UK & Ireland)

Prediction:

Rugby365: Bulls by seven points

Teams:

Bulls: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Cameron Hanekom, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Marcell Coetzee (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Ruan Vermaak, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp
Replacements: 16 Marco van Staden, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Francois Klopper, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Jeandre Rudolph, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Stedman Gans, 23 Sergeal Petersen

Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Andrew Smith, 13 Alex Nankivell, 12 Seán O’Brien, 11 Shane Daly, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Craig Casey (captain), 8 Brian Gleeson, 7 John Hodnett, 6 Jack O’Donoghue, 5 Evan O’Connell, 4 Tom Ahern, 3 Michael Ala’alatoa, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements: 16 Diarmuid Barron, 17 Josh Wycherley, 18 Conor Bartley, 19 Fineen Wycherley, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Ben O’Donovan, 22 Dan Kelly, 23 Alex Kendellen

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Federico Vedovelli (Italy), Fillipo Russo (Italy)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)

Stormers v Cardiff
(DHL Stadium, Cape Town – Kick-off: 15.30 SAST; 13.30 GMT; 14.30 Ireland & UK)

Prediction:

Rugby365: Stormers by five points

Teams:

Stormers: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Seabelo Senatla, 13 Ruhan Nel (captain), 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Imad Khan, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Paul de Villiers, 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adré Smith, 3 Neethling Fouché, 2 André-Hugo Venter, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu
Replacements: 16 JJ Kotzé, 17 Vernon Matongo, 18 Zachary Porthen, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Ruan Ackermann, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Stefan Ungerer, 23 Jurie Matthee

Cardiff: 15 Cam Winnett, 14 Jacob Beetham, 13 Ben Thomas, 12 Rory Jennings, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Ioan Lloyd, 9 Johan Mulder, 8 Taine Basham, 7 Dan Thomas, 6 James Botham, 5 Rory Thornton, 4 Josh McNally, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Liam Belcher (captain), 1 Rhys Barratt
Replacements: 16 Daf Hughes, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Javan Sebastian, 19 George Nott, 20 Alun Lawrence, 21 Evan Lloyd, 22 Ellis Bevan, 23 Tom Bowen

Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Andrew Cole (Ireland)
TMO: Leo Colgan (Ireland)

Leinster v Lions
(Aviva Stadium, Dublin – Kick-off: 20.00 UK & Ireland; 19.00 GMT; 21.00 SAST)

Prediction:

Rugby365: Leinster by 10 points

Leinster: 15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Jimmy O’Brien, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 Jamie Osborne, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Luke McGrath, 8 Caelan Doris (captain), 7 Scott Penny, 6 Max Deegan, 5 James Ryan, 4 Joe McCarthy, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16 Gus McCarthy, 17 Alex Usanov, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Diarmuid Mangan, 20 Josh van der Flier, 21 Jamison Gibson-Park, 22 Harry Byrne, 23 Robbie Henshaw

Lions: 15 Quan Horn, 14 Angelo Davids, 13 Henco van Wyk, 12 Richard Kriel, 11 Erich Cronje, 10 Chris Smith, 9 Nico Steyn, 8 Francke Horn (captain), 7 Batho Hlekani, 6 Siba Mahashe, 5 Darrien Landsberg, 4 Reinhard Nothnagel, 3 Sebastian Lombard, 2 PJ Botha, 1 SJ Kotze
Replacements: 16 Franco Marais, 17 Edward Davids, 18 RF Schoeman, 19 Ruan Delport, 20 Siba Qoma, 21 JC Pretorius, 22 Rynhardt Jonker, 23 Haashim Pead

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Hollie Davidson (Scotland), Ru Campbell (Scotland)
TMO: Mike Adamson (Scotland)