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Croke Park in Dublin will host the United Rugby Championship final on Saturday, 14th June, as hosts Leinster welcome the Vodacom Bulls from Pretoria for the big dance to wrap up the season, which will see a first-time winner of the URC.
The Bulls under Jake White have a 4-2 record against Leinster (and four of the past five), including two semi-final wins. The South African outfit is in their third final in four years and have lost both previous finals to the Stormers and Glasgow. They will need to be at their most brutal best to overcome table-topping Leinster at the 82,000-capacity Croke Park. The key to that will be composure, keeping 15 players on the field, and their set piece having dominance.
White said mid-week, “It's going to be like Ireland versus the Vodacom Bulls. I'm not underplaying it.”
They saw off the challenge of the Hollywood Bets Sharks with a 25-13 victory at Loftus Versfeld, and their scrum powered them through, but the three yellow cards in the first half are an ongoing thorn in the Bulls' side. They already led the competition for yellow cards, and that period of poor discipline, which could have cost them the game, needs to be stamped out come the final.
You just know a talented and experienced Leinster team will be provoking the men for Pretoria, and the referee will have an already predetermined picture of their disciplinary record.
The Vodacom Bulls have now won their last eight matches and extended their best winning run in the Championship following last week's defeat of the Sharks at home.
For Leinster, who are in their first URC final since the 2020-21 season, they will want to add the silverware drought despite some fans saying the tournament is seen less of a prize than the coveted Champions Cup, but the team is packed with international test quality players, mainly from Ireland of course, but Jordie Barret and RG Snyman can not be ignored.
In the semifinal, Leinster easily dispatched champions Glasgow 37-19 at the Aviva Stadium, scoring six tries to three in a game in which Glasgow was poor, and it felt like the Irishmen didn't even get out of third gear.
Leinster skipper Jack Conan and coach Leo Cullen are well aware of the challenge the Bulls will be bringing and the historic nature of playing at Croke Park. The number 8 told Irish media, “We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we know it is going to be a tough task [against the Bulls]....The history and the iconic nature of that stadium aren’t lost on us. We want to do right by that and be at our best again.”
Cullen has also been bolstered by the return of Josh van der Flier and Garry Ringrose, but internationals Hugo Keenan, Tadhg Furlong, and Robbie Henshaw all will still be absent. It speaks volumes about the depth and quality Leisnter has that they have been without them and still made the final.
They have only lost two in their past ten URC fixtures, and one of those was against the Bulls back in March by a single point (21-20). When you pair up the teams' stats, the noticeable differences in Leinster's favour are carries, defenders beaten and passes.
The rucks might be another fiercely contested area, and Scott Penny has been key for the home side this weekend, and he made the most tackles in the semi-final win. Jimmy O’Brien has made the most carries & defenders beaten, and the second most meters. Bok RG Snyman (43) has nearly three times as many offloads as the next on the list among his teammates and is second overall in the URC.
Bulls and Bok front rower Wilco Louw alongside Jan-Hendrik Wessels in the front row, and the entire pack is a behemoth, and they dominated a Sharks side laden with Springbok forwards. Unfortunately, they have lost the services of Cameron Hanekom, but his replacement, Van Staaden, is an old head and also an experienced international.
Bulls Hooker Akker van der Merwe says scrum dominance throughout the URC final will be key and the reserves bench form a big part of that 80-minute power play. “It’s the Bulls’ tradition to be forward dominant. There were a few scrums this (past) week we weren’t proud of. It needs to be better, especially in a final. There can’t be any soft moments.
It’s not just about the starting team. The bench is massive. It’s a 23-man game, and everyone’s made a step up this season.”
It was the backs who also shone in patches for the Bulls, with wing and Man of the Match Sebastian de Klerk having an outstanding match, Canan Moodie dotting down his 9th try of the season and is among his teams leading carries and meters made, while Embrose Papier will keep the Leinster defence on their toes and look to exploit any defensive lapses.
A try scorer in the semifinal and an unsung hero according to his coach was David Kriel. He has started all 18 of the Bulls’ URC matches this season and clocked up 1,362 minutes of game time - his try was the final nail in the Sharks' coffin, but he was also great in defence and at the breakdown.
Veteran fullback Willie Le Roux has also called for the team not to make the game bigger than it is and warned that if they do, they could go into their shells, but he has encouraged them to run the ball from their own half.
“We got here by taking chances – if we see an opportunity, we take it – and that’s what you must do in these big games as well, whether you make a mistake or not.”
Moodie is not wearing the 14 jersey as they are paying tribute to the loss of former teammate Cornal Hendricks a month ago.
Le Roux told South African media, “We’re playing for our brothers and for our friend that we lost. Retiring his [No 14] jersey this season, having [Canan] Moodie play in the No 24 jersey, and the photos [of Hendricks] on our numbers, remind us who we are playing for. I think everyone here knows our bigger purpose, so now it’s about going out there and doing it and not just talking about it.”
An interesting stat when digging through the numbers is that both sides have scored their most points in the third quarter of the matches this season - will that determine what could be a close contest?
On Saturday evening in Dublin, either Leinster or the Bulls will be drinking from the 20-kilogram URC trophy, the heaviest in club rugby, for the first time and no matter who it is, history will be made. Aside from either side being a first-time winner, it is also the fourth different winner in four seasons, and the first to be played outside South Africa.
