South African Sides Hailed

One of the Vodacom URC’s most seasoned campaigners has described the South African opposition in the competition as “unbelievably challenging” but “a great addition”.

This is the sixth year that the DHL Stormers, Vodacom Bulls, Hollywoodbets Sharks and 10Bet Lions have been involved in the multi-nation tournament.

Overall, they have claimed 162 wins in North v South matches, compared with 94 northern wins.

They began the new season by recording a clean sweep of victories in the opening round of matches, three of the four being bonus point wins.

Now they face another round of cross-continent contests this weekend.

One of those sees the Bulls taking on Munster Rugby at Limerick’s Thomond Park on Saturday night.

Munster’s veteran fly-half JJ Hanrahan is well aware of just how tough a test the South African sides pose.

“They’ve added hugely, it’s incredibly competitive,” said the 34-year-old.

“It’s four extra teams and all of high quality. They bring a different dynamic to the game in terms of their physicality and their pace, with the size of their men, the speed of their backs.

“We might not have always faced that in years gone by. So I think it’s brilliant, to be honest with you.

“You get an opportunity to face people that you don’t normally face, you’re going to parts of the world you might not have normally gone to, so I think it’s a great addition.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s unbelievably challenging, but a very good addition.”

Munster kicked off their Vodacom URC campaign with a 26-20 home defeat to Glasgow Warriors, after leading 17-17 at the break.

Hanrahan, who landed four shots at goal, said: “There was a lot to take from it.

“I think (coach) Clayton (McMillan) summed it up really well after the game when he spoke about green shoots.

“That’s probably the main thing for us. There was a lot of focus on what we were trying to build in pre-season in terms of some of our game.

“We felt the transfer from the training pitch onto the game was there in that first 40-50 minutes, on both sides of the ball, it was really, really good.

“We didn’t get it all right. There was lots of stuff that we missed out there as well and we’ve addressed that as a team and how to improve on those things.

“As disappointing as the game was, because it was there for us, to put the stuff on the field that we had practised in training and to see it come alive was very pleasing.”

The County Kerry-born Hanrahan is now in his third spell at Munster having also played for Northampton, Clermont Auvergne, the Dragons and Connacht.

As he prepares for another outing at Thomond Park, he has spoken about the huge role the team’s loyal fans play.

“The supporters are always excellent and the people that turn up week in, week out are absolutely unbelievable,” he said.

“They were unbelievable again last weekend.

“Something Paul O’Connell always used to talk about was that the fans want to see it in your actions and in your attitude.

“Hopefully we showed glimpses of that at the weekend. We didn’t get the result, but we felt them throughout the whole game.

“We want to keep building on that and they (the fans) can see us and see the effort we’re putting in on the training field, the effort we’re putting in on the Monday to Friday and hopefully we will be able to bring that out on a Saturday.

“Hopefully they feel like their money is well spent when they come to watch us.

“Last year, we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice and these people are paying their good, honest money to come and watch us play and support us.”