In the penultimate weekend of league action in the URC this past weekend, the Stormers booked their spot in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals alongside the Bulls and Sharks.
Unfortunately for the Lions, their hopes of sneaking into the top eight through the back door were dashed completely as they went down against the Scarlets in Johannesburg on Sunday, leaving them to play purely for pride in the final pool round next weekend.
The three qualifying South African sides finished the round in the top eight, with the Bulls and Sharks now assured of home quarter-finals.
HOW THE URC STANDINGS LOOK:
The Sharks started off round 17 on a high note on Friday as they defeated the Ospreys 29-10 in Durban; and the Bulls and Stormers followed suit on Saturday as they beat Cardiff 45-21 in Pretoria and the Dragons 48-12 in Cape Town respectively.
In stark contrast, the Lions saw their faint hopes of a quarter-final spot fall through their fingers as they succumbed to a disappointing 32-19 defeat against the Scarlets in Johannesburg.
These results, combined with the Glasgow Warriors’ surprising 33-7 defeat against to Benetton, saw the Bulls finish the round in second place (63 points) behind Leinster (72), the Sharks in fourth place (58 points) and the Stormers one place behind (50 points). The Lions are languishing in 13th position (35 points).
All four teams have home games next weekend as the league stages come to a close, but the Sharks will hope that Glasgow go down against Leinster and they win their match against the Scarlets to move up to third place, while the Stormers will want to beat Cardiff to finish the pool stages in favourable fifth position.
Scarlets (48), Benetton (46), Munster (46), Cardiff (46), and Edinburgh (44) are still in the Race to the Eight, but Munster face Benetton in the final round, which may cost one of these two teams a spot in the quarter-finals.
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Src: TheSouthAfrican.com - https://rugga.co.za/sharks/updated-urc-standings-with-one-round-left/
