South Africa’s United Rugby Championship teams made a clean sweep this weekend, with the Lions, Bulls, Sharks, and Stormers all winning their respective matches.

The Lions kicked off the weekend’s matches on Saturday afternoon, thrashing Edinburgh 55-21 in Johannesburg. The Lions lead by 48 points to a scoreless Edinburgh at halftime, scoring seven of their eight tries in the first 40 minutes. 

Rabz Maxwane and Edwill van der Merwe both scored two tries in the first half, while there were also tries for Quan Horn, Francke Horn, and Rynhardt Jonker. Edinburgh finally got points on the board in the second half, thanks to tries scored by Grant Gilchrist, Patrick Harrison, and Ben Muncaster.

‘Bulls ran riot over Ulster’

In Pretoria, the Bulls ran riot over Ulster, scoring seven tries in a convincing 47-21 win at Loftus Versfeld. Ulster, who themselves crossed three times, fell just short of securing a bonus point. Kurt-Lee Arendse, David Kriel, and Johan Grobbelaar scored tries in the first half, with Canan Moodie, Cameron Hanekom, Boeta Chamberlain, and Elrigh Louw crossing after halftime. Jacob Stockdale, Ben Carson, and Stewart Moore were Ulster’s try-scorers.

For the Bulls, it is two wins for two to start their campaign after they overcame Edinburgh last weekend.

The Sharks narrowly defeated the Dragons 33-30 in a bonus point win at Rodney Parade. The hosts led from the start and had a 22-5 lead following tries from flanker Taine Basham, prop Chris Coleman, and scrum-half Rhodri Williams, with captain Vincent Tshituka responding for the visitors.

But the Sharks battled back and tries from scrum-half Jaden Hendrikse, centre Jurenzo Julius, and wing Ethan Hooker put them back in the game. Dragons captain Ben Carter scored the bonus point try but Fez Mbatha barreled across the line after 20 phases to score the match-winning try in the 85th minute.

Damian Willemse. Photo: Facebook 

And finally, the Stormers scored a bonus point 36-5 win over Zebre in Parma on Saturday night. Leolin Zas scored twice with Suleiman Hartzenberg and Angelo Davids also crossing the whitewash.  The boot of flyhalf Jurie Matthee added 14 points for the visitors giving them their first win of the competition.

Next Saturday afternoon, the Sharks will face Benetton in Treviso, while the Stormers will take on Edinburgh in Scotland.  The Bulls and Lions will also travel abroad, with the Bulls playing Ospreys in Swansea on Saturday evening.  The Lions will play the Dragons at Rodney Parade on Sunday.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger