PREVIEW: Big weekend for SA’s United Rugby Championship teams

The Stormers, Lions, Bulls and Sharks are set to face overseas opponents in their penultimate round of United Rugby Championship home matches, where victories will be invaluable with an eye on playoff places.

In other developments in the cross-hemisphere showpiece, the tournament organisers announced earlier on Thursday that the Grand Final will be hosted at the home venue of the highest-ranked team where the first URC champions will be crowned, while they also virtually unveiled a unique new trophy for the competition – all the details can be accessed here.

Looking at this weekend’s action, the four SA teams have only three matches remaining – including this round – to secure quarter-final places, and with the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls currently hanging onto spots in the top eight on the log, they will be determined to avoid any slip-ups, especially with their final round of league matches in May set to be played on foreign territory. 

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The Stormers will open the weekend’s action against the Glasgow Warriors in Cape Town on Friday at 18h3src, and this will be followed by a jam-packed Saturday, with the Bulls hosting Benetton in Pretoria (14hsrcsrc), the Lions taking on Connacht in Johannesburg (16hsrc5) and the Sharks meeting log-leaders Leinster in Durban (18h15).

A win for the Capetonians would see them secure their sixth victory in a row, and even more significantly, it could push them into the top three on the log if they topple the third-placed Glasgow Warriors and the second-placed Ulster go down against the fourth-placed Munster.

While they will be bracing themselves for a tough battle against one of the top sides in the competition, the Stormers will draw inspiration from the fact that the Glasgow Warriors have won only one more match than them this season, while they a