SA URC teams 'raising standard of attacking play and athleticism' - Ospreys coach

As his side prepares to host the Stormers in Swansea on Friday, Ospreys coach Toby Booth believes the South African teams have improved the quality of the United Rugby Championship (URC).

All four SA franchises are in the top half of the 16-team URC table, having won 10 of their 12 matches against European opposition in the 2022/23 season.

Defending champions, the Stormers, have bagged maximum points after securing late bonus points in their respective victories over Connacht, Edinburgh and Zebre.

Booth's Ospreys lie ninth on the table with one win from four, so they are bracing for a tough outing on Friday night.

"I think the involvement of the South African teams and the way they play means you can't get away with certain things that you probably got away with [in the past] and you've got to be better at certain aspects," Booth told the official URC website.

"They are raising the standard of, for example, attacking play and athleticism. So I think the challenge for us all is to try and meet and match that because they will have good set-piece, they will be defensively sound and the way they are set up lends itself more to an attacking game. I think the inclusion of the quality of those South African teams has certainly meant that everyone has got to embrace that sort of style and be better at it themselves."

Booth added that it was welcome to see some high-scoring encounters to open the season.

"I think people have definitely wanted to be positive. Speaking to coaches, I get a general sense that people want to be positive, so I think there's a mindset element to it. It's not just in our competition, if I look across different competitions, there have been high scoring games."

He did, however, express concern at the involvement