Bulls and Stormers carry SA hopes in URC quarter-finals

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The Bulls will have a home-ground advantage to lean on when they face the up-and-coming Italian outfit, Benetton. The Pretoria side knows as well that a win will see them stay at home for the semi-finals.

Add to that the fact that Benetton was well beaten, 56-35 in round 17 at Loftus, and the odds seem to be stacked in favour of the SA Shield winners marching on to the semi-finals.

The team, however, is not letting all the outside noise affect how they are preparing for Benetton. Bulls loose forward, Nizaam Carr says they remain grounded and focused on the task at hand.

“It’s a real big one for us a lot of people and even some of my family and mates are saying that Benetton is not something to be worried about but that is not the case in the way we are training in our preparation obviously it is a massive game for us it is knockout rugby, so we are really looking forward to a very tough physical challenge against them,”

The Stormers, meanwhile, have their work cut when they face the Glasgow Warriors at Scotstourn Stadium, also on Saturday.

The Stormers won the URC tournament in 2022, and were the beaten finalists last year, but they will be the underdogs against the Warriors in Glasgow.

This will be the first time the Stormers turnout for a URC knockout match away from home since the inception of the tournament.

The Warriors are coached by Franco Smith, and at home will present a huge obstacle to the Cape side if they want to progress to the semi-finals.

The match kicks off just after 8h30 on Saturday evening.