There are shiny elements to the BKT United Rugby Championship (URC), principally a new title sponsor in the northern hemisphere, a new commercial alliance that has drawn its fair share of criticism, and a new and more onerous challenge for the four South African sides who must learn to husband their playing resources across three tournaments.
The Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers will compete in the Currie Cup, URC and, for the first time in their history, the Heineken Champions Cup – the Lions are in the European Challenge Cup – hoping that the triple focus will not dilute or distract from chances of success. It is hardly a surprise that the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers finished in the bottom three in last season’s Currie Cup.
In their first season proper in the URC tournament three of the four South African sides made the playoffs. The Bulls ambushed Leinster, chasing their fifth league title in succession, in a memorable 27-26 semi-final victory at the RDS but subsequently lost out to the Stormers in the final.
None of the South African sides have recruited aggressively with the majority on the debit side of the “players-in-and-out” equation; the highest-profile signing was the Sharks persuading Eben Etzebeth to bring an end to what appeared to be an unhappy time at Toulon.
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Leinster is an obvious place to start when it comes to teams that could potentially dethrone the Stormers and that is certainly the belief of the bookmakers who list them as odds-on favourites to win the tournament.
Andrew Goodman, who briefly wore the colours as a player, is back in Dublin having been recruited from the Canterbury Crusaders. The former schoolteacher takes over from assistant coach Felipe Contepomi, while Sean O’Brien fills the skills contact role vacated by Denis Leamy. Jason Jenkins and Charlie Ngatai are the principal signings while the squad has been bolstered by players promoted from the academy.
Head coach Leo Cullen will be operating largely with the same playing deck but will start the season with a slightly concerning injury profile. Leinster are a little light in the back three, especially when a couple of key players are missing. It’s a big season for Max O’Reilly, Rob Russell, Tommy O’Brien when back fit, and Andrew Smith and Niall Comerford if they return from the Sevens programme.
Harry Byrne needs a break in a good way, injury wise, and the hope is that he will benefit from his current strength and conditioning regime to try and ensure he is more robust to be able to deliver on his undoubted talent. It will be interesting to see what progress the youngest generation of Chris Cosgrave, Sam Prendergast, Jack Boyle and James Culhane, to highlight a few, make this season.
Ulster were unlucky to lose in the semi-final last season and Dan McFarland has identified a number of positions to strengthen, signing prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen (Wasps), promising flanker Sean Reffell (Saracens) and secondrow Frank Bradshaw Ryan (Nevers) while hoping that Jake Flannery and Michael McDonald add competitive depth and quality to the halfback situation.
The northern province arguably boasts the best set of young backs that includes Ethan McIlroy and Stewart Moore, who will both play with Emerging Ireland in South Africa, and in centre Jude Postlethwaite, a player of rich potential. With Jacob Stockdale back and Will Addison hopefully there soon, the key for McFarland will be to ensure the pack under Iain Henderson delivers a platform.
Young hooker Tom Stewart, prop Callum Reid, secondrow Cormac Izuchukwu, and number eight David McCann have the capacity to progress quickly.
Munster’s new coaching team, led by Graham Rowntree and including Andi Kyriacou, Mike Prendergast and Denis Leamy, will be hoping that they get an even break in terms of the injury profile, especially in the case of RG Snyman and Joey Carbery.
Malakai Fekitoa and Antoine Frisch will add experience, guile and footballing ability to the midfield, while Munster’s backrow options would be the envy of most clubs in the tournament. Paddy Patterson will ask a few questions of Conor Murray and Craig Casey while it is an important season for the young frontrows to step up and be counted.
Connacht have rearranged the coaching structure with Pete Wilkins taking over as head coach and have looked to Leinster and a couple of southern hemisphere signings to bolster the squad. In Shane Jennings, Oran McNulty, Diarmuid Kilgallen, Cathal Forde, Niall and Darragh Murray and Cian Prendergast they possess gifted young players with the qualities to stand out at elite level.
The Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa will deplete the provinces with Leinster providing 11 players, Munster 10, Ulster nine and Connacht five but that is offset by the fact that the Ireland senior squad players will be available from week two of the URC.
