Fruits of of South Africa-infused URC have become clear

The United Rugby Championship has endured a long year of pressure to reveal whether or not it would be as successful a league as what had gone before it.

There was a huge risk with introducing South African teams into the Pro14 and rebranding as the URC. With change always comes scrutiny and opinions of what should have happened instead.

It wasn't long ago that South African teams had been struggling coming to the northern hemisphere without their international players and there wasn’t much hope of improvement in the new structure.

However, when you review the league standings at the moment, there’s been a real buzz around how the table might finish up and which teams are going to get home play-off games.

Leinster are even under more pressure than they have been in the last five years or so, with doubt creeping in over their ability to top the league and reserve the right to a home final. It has to be said, they weren’t under too much pressure to tour South Africa with mostly an academy or young professional side and if they really wanted to turn up the heat, they could catapult in a whole team of internationals. However, all of a sudden, we’re talking about them needing to get a win against the Stormers or Munster to secure their top spot.

Winning at home against Munster won’t put much fear into Leinster currently, although Munster have turned yet another corner in beating Ulster away from home for the first time since 2016. In doing so, they have disrupted Ulster’s season with back-to-back home losses for the Ulster men and suddenly their claim to a home quarter-final is out of their hands.

With only a few minutes left in the Ulster versus Toulouse match, Ulster were in the driving seat. Not only in the match, but with their