Delighted to have been a guest on The Honest Truth with Benito Vergotine on Smile FM with Dylan Jack from SA Rugby Magazine last night, talking about the URC.

Dylan is so cool, he takes my bait and runs with it and does not shout like Mark Keohane …

You are spoilt for choice … Listen to us or read below .. .I think listening is more exciting ….. True story …

Connacht top the log as SA teams find away wins tough to achieve

Irish outsiders Connacht topped the Vodacom United Rugby Championship log after round three after coming back from a 17-point deficit to shock Ulster 22-20 in a standout game of rugby in Galway on Saturday night.

It came against the backdrop of a Springbok celebratory tour of the country following their Rugby World Cup win, and a sobering reminder that winning away from home is another big step that South African teams need to take to maximise the benefits of the switch to the northern hemisphere for South African rugby.

Jack Carty’s 73rd minute cross kick to Diarmuid Kilgallen, which secured the win, showed that there will be no easy games in Ireland for South African franchises, and winning abroad is still a mountain to climb for all four franchises.

The fact that no South African team has ever beaten Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun for instance, a record that Franco Smith’s team kept intact with their hard fought win over the Stormers, tells the story that there is still work to be done.

For the rest it has been a bit a struggle, and while it is true that the South African teams were without their Boks in the third round fixtures, that’s not an excuse the Sharks can use as the Ospreys team they lost by 14 points to was missing most of their team to the Wales v Barbarians game.

Their coach Toby Booth gave the impression at a Vodacom URC media round table last week that for his team the game played at a neutral venue in London was just about giving his young inexperienced players a bit of exposure to the URC level of rugby.

So it was a bit surprising that the Ospreys won so comfortably even though the poor recruitment that has set the Sharks back over the past few years should hardly be news to anyone.

The Sharks do have a new coach in John Plumtree, who is back for a second stint, but what the early rounds of the URC have shown us is that he has been hamstrung by the poor recruitment that has blighted the tenures of many of the other coaches that have taken charge in Durban over the past 10 years.

The priority for Plumtree is to bring in a new culture. The Sharks have yet to get any kind of log point from three games.

The Stormers’ loss to Glasgow was not unexpected as the hosts would have started as favourites on a 4G surface that the Stormers are still struggling to adapt to, an impression that was confirmed with the amount of slipping in evidence in their defeat on Friday night. But their coach John Dobson should be concerned with the poor discipline that saw his team down to 13 men at one point.

Evan Roos is a superb player and is set to go a long way in the sport but he does need to watch the red mist that appears to descend on him at times. Perhaps more concerning though for Dobson given that he may be struggling to get to full muster in the midfield for a while yet was the apparent malfunction in the defensive play of the makeshift centre pairing in the first half.

Fortunately they did appear to rectify that in the second half, and indeed the Stormers can feel heartened by their entire second half performance. They were unlucky here and there otherwise they could well have come back to win as they were the dominant team after halftime.

The unforced errors, something they got away with in their big wins on South African soil that took them to top of the log, requires urgent attention before they play Benetton in Treviso on Saturday.

Connacht’s win lifts them to top, with the Bulls and Stormers third and fourth respectively after three matches, with Leinster’s current sixth position a reminder that the URC is a marathon rather than a sprint, so there is no need to panic just yet. It is time though for the South African sides to start winning overseas.

Weekend Vodacom United Rugby Championship results

Ospreys 19 Hollywoodbets Sharks 5

Glasgow Warriors 20 DHL Stormers 9

Zebre 29 Vodacom Bulls 54

Leinster 36 Edinburgh 27

Scarlets 31 Cardiff Rugby 25

Munster 45 Dragons 14

Connacht 22 Ulster 20

Benetton 15 Emirates Lions 10

Credit URCSA