SA URC Team of the Week – Round 18

The Bulls honoured the late Cornal Hendricks by hammering the Dragons 55-15 at Loftus Versfeld to finish second, the Sharks moved up to third after grinding out a 12-3 win over the Scarlets at Kings Park, the Stormers secured fifth place with a hard-fought 34-24 win over Cardiff in Cape Town and the 11th-placed Lions signed off with a 29-28 victory over the Ospreys at Ellis Park.

Making up our Team of the Week are seven Bulls, four Lions, three Stormers and a solitary Sharks standout.

15: Willie le Roux (Bulls)

A long-time friend of Hendricks, the veteran was very emotional but still produced the goods. Highly influential with his vision and subtle manipulation of space, including a try assist for Sebastian de Klerk.

14: Suleiman Hartzenberg (Stormers) – Player of the Week

You have to be a special talent to bring up 50 appearances for the Stormers at just 21, and he showed he’s exactly that with an electrifying Man of the Match performance that included two tries and a try assist.

🌟 50th cap. One try. One statement. 😎

Suleiman Hartzenberg marked his milestone in style for the ⚡️ |

— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial)

13: Henco van Wyk (Lions)

A strong return from illness. Showed his explosiveness and power to smash his way over for a crucial try, made some telling tackles, and won two turnovers.

12: David Kriel (Bulls)

A handful with ball in hand. Bagged the Bulls’ first try and led the way for the men from Pretoria when it came to successful carries (7).

11: Lionel Zas (Stormers)

Drew first blood for the Stormers and showed good soccer skills and determination to score his second try. Sat down Callum Sheedy and made a big hit on Aled Davies.

10: Manie Libbok (Stormers)

Super sharp on his return to action. Excellent distribution, including a bullet long ball in the lead-up to Zas’ first try and offload to Damian Willemse. A high percentage of his kicks were contestable, and his left-footed chip to set up Hartzenberg for his second try was pure magic.

9: Bernard van der Linde (Bulls)

One could see how hungry for action the Bath-bound Bulls scrumhalf was as he produced a cracking cameo. Great break from a scrum to put Sergeal Petersen over, sparked a screamer with another brilliant break and added another try assist for Devon Williams.

The try was textbook. The celebration? Pure theatre from Marcell! | |

— vodacomrugby (@VodacomRugga)

8: Cameron Hanekom (Bulls)

A physical force who pin-balled off defenders, grafted hard on defence and won a breakdown penalty in the 36th minute to edge out Marcel Theunissen, who was a slick link man for the Stormers.

7: Renzo du Plessis (Lions)

Ultra-effective battering ram with his power and leg drive, and won a crucial breakdown penalty, from which the Lions scored to regain momentum for the time being.

6: JC Pretorius (Lions)

Wrapped up a strong individual campaign with an all-action Man of the Match performance. Delivered in spades in all areas – punching above his weight with ball in hand, tackling everything that moved and poaching balls at the breakdown.

5: JF van Heerden (Bulls)

A commanding performance by the Bulls blue-chipper. Athletic yet had a hard edge and showed maturity well beyond his years. Marshalled the lineout, snatched one on the Dragons’ throw and charged down Rhodri Williams.

4: Eben Etzebeth (Sharks)

An 80-minute captain’s innings. His physicality and work rate were especially vital given that the Durban clash was such an arm-wrestle. Kick-chased like a man possessed and smashed Sam Costelow to come away with the Man of the Match award.

3: Asenathi Ntlabakanye (Lions)

Solid at scrum time, steamrolled Steffan Thomas with one of his beefy carries, soft touches like the pass in the lead-up to Jaco Visagie’s first try and covered acres of space on defence.

2: Akker van der Merwe (Bulls)

Typical mongrel, set-piece consistency and production from “The Angry Warthog”, who helped himself to a brace of tries.

1: Jan-Hendrik Wessels (Bulls)

Another awesome all-around effort. A four-minute period in the first half summed up what a special athlete he is as he followed up a scrum penalty on his 5m line with a jackal in his 22, while he was strong on the carry throughout.