The Vodacom Bulls will arrive for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship playoff in Cape Town on a hot streak and should be considered as favourites against the DHL Stormers, writes MARK KEOHANE.
Defending champions, the Stormers finished the Vodacom URC regular season in third place, securing a home quarter-final against the Vodacom Bulls in the process.
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The quarter-final will be a rematch of last year’s final, which saw the Stormers outplay their rivals to claim the title. Since then, the Stormers have claimed back-to-back wins over the Vodacom Bulls to take their overall winning streak in the north-south derby to five in the Vodacom URC.
However, writing in a column for TimesLIVE, Keohane believes that with a good away record and after turning their season around with big wins over Zebre and Leinster, the Vodacom Bulls should be considered favourites for the playoff.
“The Stormers have beaten the Bulls five times in succession in the URC. Every one of those matches has been close and it took six exhilarating minutes in which the Stormers scored three tries to change the momentum the last time the Bulls were in Cape Town earlier this season,” Keohane writes.
“The Bulls are a side that can win away from home and their semi-final victory against Leinster in Dublin last season was the best one-match performance of a team in the competition.
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Keohane noted that the Stormers had lacked cohesion in the latter stages of the URC as their focus was divided by Champions Cup obligations. Conversely, the URC had been the Bulls’ primary priority, and that had been rewarded by recent results.
“The Bulls, in their last two matches, have been ruthless in destroying Zebre and a Leinster side that was more a C team than an A team. Nevertheless, they battered the Irish kids and the back-to-back performances screamed playoff contenders.
“They arrive in Cape Town with momentum, in form and as the favourites.”
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