So the top 4 teams are through to the Semifinals with the following .involved:-
Glasgow vs Bulls; and
Leinster vs Stormers.
Comments on Bulls
For 3 successive years the Bulls reached the tournament final and for hree years theym put u,p weak and losing performances. The problems were
that the team was playing Jakeball - the ten-man game plan that White instilled in all teams he coached throughout his career with trophy wins few and far between; and
tension between the team management and the players that although not public before the 2025 final was ever-present and impacted on all three URC finals since 2021/
After a rather questionable start to the present season showing weaknesses in away from home matches the team showed a strong .improved finishes up to the quarterfinals and now have a very competitive team facing Glashow. It took Ackerman a while to change the team psychology and playing style with the Buls havon g a real chance to beat Glasow.
Comments on The Stormers
The Stormers started off the 2025-26 tournament like a house on fire they won the first 8 matches in a row and they beat all the opposing teams playing excellent attacking rugby, Sacha was absent on national duty and out with injury problems for all 8 matches played and the unknown Matthee played at flyhalf and in most matches the point difference reached record margins. Then the rot set in - in the next en matches the Stormers out of the remaining ten matches in the tournament they won 5 lost 4 and drew 1.
After the return of Sacha and Willemse the rot set in and Dobson lost the plot totally as coach. The reasons were three-fold -
the kicking away of balls in the true Jakeball style - attacking backline play vanished from sight;
passing skill deficiency set in and the crazy passing used with defenders in the position where what must be a record number of intercept tries were scored set in; and
team selection became a lottery with performances going out of the window,
The fact is that whatsoever happened showed up was real coach deficiency and Dobson reached the White and Plumtree level of shit coaching, When Dobson came under media pressure qas a result h ducked back into the White and Plumtree defense of inadequate coaching and the results were disastrous.
Be it as it may an example was the Cardiff round robin match where the Stormers totally lost the plot losing because of shit coaching and team selection and a match plan designed to lose matches. Yesterday the Stormers beat Cardiff by a large margin. Why? The game plan yesterday was shit - but the team won the quarterfinal despite Dobson shit.
The question arises what will happen in the semi against Leinster in the semi? Nobody knows - after beating Leinster by a record margin in the round robin stage what will happen in the upcoming semi? Will the Stormers win despite Dobson or will they lose? Nobody knows.
The team has the capacity and ability to win the match against Leinster despite Dobson - but what is going to happen nobody knows. I am optimistic that a final in Cap Town will be possible if the Stormers and Bulls win their semi matches,
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So the top 4 teams are through to the Semifinals with the following .involved:-
Comments on Bulls
For 3 successive years the Bulls reached the tournament final and for hree years theym put u,p weak and losing performances. The problems were
After a rather questionable start to the present season showing weaknesses in away from home matches the team showed a strong .improved finishes up to the quarterfinals and now have a very competitive team facing Glashow. It took Ackerman a while to change the team psychology and playing style with the Buls havon g a real chance to beat Glasow.
Comments on The Stormers
The Stormers started off the 2025-26 tournament like a house on fire they won the first 8 matches in a row and they beat all the opposing teams playing excellent attacking rugby, Sacha was absent on national duty and out with injury problems for all 8 matches played and the unknown Matthee played at flyhalf and in most matches the point difference reached record margins. Then the rot set in - in the next en matches the Stormers out of the remaining ten matches in the tournament they won 5 lost 4 and drew 1.
After the return of Sacha and Willemse the rot set in and Dobson lost the plot totally as coach. The reasons were three-fold -
The fact is that whatsoever happened showed up was real coach deficiency and Dobson reached the White and Plumtree level of shit coaching, When Dobson came under media pressure qas a result h ducked back into the White and Plumtree defense of inadequate coaching and the results were disastrous.
Be it as it may an example was the Cardiff round robin match where the Stormers totally lost the plot losing because of shit coaching and team selection and a match plan designed to lose matches. Yesterday the Stormers beat Cardiff by a large margin. Why? The game plan yesterday was shit - but the team won the quarterfinal despite Dobson shit.
The question arises what will happen in the semi against Leinster in the semi? Nobody knows - after beating Leinster by a record margin in the round robin stage what will happen in the upcoming semi? Will the Stormers win despite Dobson or will they lose? Nobody knows.
The team has the capacity and ability to win the match against Leinster despite Dobson - but what is going to happen nobody knows. I am optimistic that a final in Cap Town will be possible if the Stormers and Bulls win their semi matches,
. , .