mens
United-rugby-championship
One of BKT URC’s most experienced campaigners described the South African opposition in the competition as “incredibly challenging” but “a great addition”.
This is the sixth year that DHL Stormers, Vodacom Bulls, Hollywoodbets Sharks and 10Bet Lions they participated in a multinational tournament.
In total, they achieved 162 wins in North vs. South matches, compared to 94 for the North.
They started the new season by recording a clean streak of victories in the first round of matches, three of which were won by bonus points.
They now face another round of competition across continents this weekend.
One of them sees Bulls downloading Munster Rugby at Limerick’s Thomond Park on Saturday night.
Munster veteran JJ Hanrahan is well aware of how tough a test the South African sides present.
“They’ve added a lot, it’s incredibly competitive,” said the 34-year-old.
“It’s four extra teams and they’re all 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.”
“Maybe we haven’t always faced that in years past. So I think it’s brilliant, to be honest.
“You get to meet people that you wouldn’t normally meet, go to parts of the world that you wouldn’t normally go to, so I think that’s a great addition.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly challenging, but a very good addition.”
Munster started their BKT URC campaign with a 26-20 defeat at home Glasgow Warriors, after leading 17-17 at the break.
Hanrahan, who had four shots on goal, said: “It was a lot to take in.
“I think (coach) Clayton (McMillan) summed it up really well after the game when he talked about putting greens.
“That’s probably the main thing for us. There was a lot of focus on what we were trying to build in the preseason in terms of some of our play.”
“We felt the transfer from the training pitch to the game was there in the first 40-50 minutes, on both sides of the ball, it was really, really good.
“We didn’t get everything right. There were a lot of things we missed there as well and we addressed that as a team and how to improve those things.”
“As disappointing as the game was, because it was there for us, to put things on the field that we practiced in training and see them come to life was very enjoyable.”
County Kerry-born Hanrahan is now in his third season with Munster after also playing for Northampton, Clermont Auvergne, Dragons and Connacht.
As he prepares for another trip to Thomond Park, he spoke of the huge role played by the team’s loyal fans.
“The fans are always great and the people who turn up week in and week out are absolutely amazing,” he said.
“They were incredible again last weekend.
“Something that Paul O’Connell always talked about is that the fans want to see that in your actions and attitude.
“I hope we showed that at the weekend. We didn’t get the result, but we felt them throughout the game.
“We want to keep building on that and they (the fans) can see us and see the effort we put in at training, the effort we put in from Monday to Friday and hopefully we can show that on Saturday.”
“Hopefully they feel like their money was well spent when they come to watch us.
“Last year we felt we didn’t do justice and these people are paying their good, honest money to come and watch us play and cheer us on.”
