Skinstad: In the URC SA teams will need to try and try again

SA's four entrants in the brand new United Rugby Championship (URC) will at times have to embrace 'try-scoring rugby', former Springbok, Stormers and Cats captain Bob Skinstad has advised.

The competition, which rolls off the assembly line in the industrial city of Parma on Friday when hosts Zebre take on the Lions, will pit the best of Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and SA in cross-continental club combat.

Unlike Super Rugby where travel across time zones proved a major debilitating factor, it is the adaptation to different playing conditions and styles that will test teams' mettle in the URC.

Equally, endurance will be a key element in the tournament that will feature 18 rounds of league action.

While conditions may prove vastly different between blustery Belfast to more temperate Treviso, Skinstad believes SA teams have to be prepared to cash in when the going is good.

“The SA teams will be aware of the fact that they will still have to play try-scoring rugby to win these games,” said Skinstad.

“They will, however, come up against a very technically efficient set of players. And I’m talking most particularly in line-out. And then the loose forwards — they can pick and steal balls like the best of the best South Africans.

Playing in the wet is an art 

“There is an art and a nuance in a cold, wet game to still doing your job as a loose forward. It was obviously something I ran away from, because I was playing in the backs most of the time! But it really is something you’ve got to have a handle on.”

With matches in the northern hemisphere often decided by tighter margins, the importance of every passage of play is accentuated. Teams have to avoid squandering possession.

“Your possession, you’ve got to maintain it, and then know what to do with it when you get it on the front foot,” Skinstad advised.

Skinstad, who represented the Stormers in Super Rugby, believes the Cape side were making progress in the Currie Cup before losing to the Blue Bulls in the semifinals.

“They were able to play some combinations towards the end of that tournament, and therefore made it through. It was a bit of an all-or-nothing semifinal show for them.”

The Stormers go first up against Benetton, the team that thoroughly vanquished the Bulls in the Rainbow Cup final.

“It was one of those matches when everything went right for Benetton and everything went wrong for the Bulls,” reminded Skinstad.

“I think Benetton will be very good at home, and very good contenders — for any team in fact, not just the Stormers. But they will be a stiff test for the Stormers early on in the tournament,” predicted Skinstad.

Rainbow Cup is no barometer

Jim Hamilton, the erstwhile Scotland international, believes the one-off Rainbow Cup should not necessarily be used as a barometer.

“That was very different. There had been the lack of travel. I don't say we can talk about it in that sense. Conditions were similar to that in SA,” he said about the tournament that was essentially played in the European winter.

While the Lions and the Stormers can perhaps ease their way into the competition with less challenging assignments, the opposite is true for the Bulls and the Sharks.

Both face powerhouse Irish outfits in Leinster and Munster respectively. While the Bulls are the SA flag bearers, Leinster are European rugby aristocracy with four Champions Cup titles. Only Toulouse have more.

The Sharks face a testing opener against Munster in Limerick but some of the hosts' brightest lights have been dimmed through injury. RG Snyman, Conor Murray, Jason Jenkins and Tadhg Beirne count among those in the infirmary.

SA team URC fixtures this weekend

Friday:

Zebre v Lions (Parma, 6.35pm)

Saturday:

Benetton v Stormers (Treviso, 2pm)

Leinster v Bulls (Dublin, 6.15pm)

Munster v Sharks (Limerick 8.35pm)