United Rugby Championship Team of the Week: ‘Monstrous’ Springboks prop shines as South African dominance rewarded

Colin Newboult
Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp, Leinster back-row Caelan Doris and Stormers back Damian Willemse split picture.

Bulls prop Gerhard Steenekamp, Leinster back-row Caelan Doris and Stormers back Damian Willemse.

Following another enthralling weekend of United Rugby Championship (URC) action, here is the Planet Rugby Team of the Week for Round Three.

The South African sides impressed, with the Stormers, Bulls and Lions all claiming dominant victories, which means they are well represented. Elsewhere, Leinster’s stars were on show in Benetton, while the Glasgow Warriors attack was on fire in their victory over Cardiff on Friday.

URC Team of the Week

15 Damian Willemse (Stormers): The two-time World Cup winner’s return from injury is coming along nicely as he showed off his attacking skills throughout against Zebre. Willemse’s versatility came into play as the Springbok slotted in at fly-half for the last 30 minutes. His all-around game and neat shift gets in ahead of South African duo Quan Horn (Lions) and Willie le Roux (Bulls), while Josh McKay was solid for Glasgow.

14 Rabz Maxwane (Lions): The Johannesburg side ran riot against Edinburgh scoring 48 points in the first half, with the wing one of the chief destroyers. He bagged a hat-trick of tries, all of which were solid finishes where his superb turn of speed was used effectively. A very impressive weekend for the flyer.

13 Garry Ringrose (Leinster): A proper rock on both sides of the ball in what was a lovely display. Ringrose was the difference in the middle of the park for Leinster and his name was near the top of almost all the crucial stats categories, which gets him ahead of Bulls centre Canan Moodie.

12 Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors): The playmaking centre has been at his best for quite some time and it was no different at the weekend for the champions. The centre was ever-present and crossed for a try, getting in ahead of Bulls star David Kriel and Bryan Fitzgerald of Munster.

11 Ethan Hooker (Sharks): Just a quality young player. Hooker has moved to the wing with aplomb, bringing his physicality, pace and linking play to the left-hand tramline. The wing got himself involved in a stunning Sharks try that saw him selflessly pass the ball on the line to ensure an easier conversion. Elsewhere, Edwill van der Merwe of the Lions made a solid return from injury, Mack Hansen stood out for Connacht and Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale rolled back the years.

‘Worldie of a performance’

10 Tom Jordan (Glasgow Warriors): The fly-half had a worldie of a performance with a crazy five-try involvements (three assists and two tries) for Glasgow, running over 100 metres in the process. It was one of those performances by a man at the peak of his powers and one certainly to watch.

9 Morne van den Berg (Lions): Would have been happy to be back in red after a mixed start to his Test career. However, the livewire was brilliant yet again in a shift embodied by his epic try assist for Van der Merwe. Jaden Hendrikse (Sharks), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster) Craig Casey (Munster) all deserve mentions.

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8 Caelan Doris (Leinster): Leinster went in fully-loaded against Benetton so it was no surprise to see one of game’s best number eights shine. Doris was excellent on both sides of the ball as he saw off competition from the Scarlets’ Taine Plumtree, Jack Dempsey of Glasgow Warriors and Francke Horn, who was once again exceptional for the Lions.

7 Taine Basham (Dragons): A remarkable shift from the openside as the Dragons came so close to shocking the Sharks. There were also good displays from JC Pretorius (Lions), Josh van der Flier (Leinster) and Dan Thomas (Cardiff), but Basham put in an immense effort. He ran for 58 metres from 20 carries, beating a staggering nine players in the process, and made 16 tackles. A superb performance.

Absolute powerhouse

6 Elrigh Louw (Bulls): It might be rather tough on Leinster’s Jack Conan, who was brilliant at flanker, but Louw was hugely powerful for the Pretoria outfit. The Springbok representative was incredibly difficult to bring to ground, averaging almost five metres per carry, with all of those coming at close quarters.

5 Ruan Nortje (Bulls): An excellent all-round effort from the Springbok. Nortje was part of a fine forward effort as he dominated in the air, grabbing 10 lineouts, while he also carried hard at close quarters. As a result, fellow South Africans Gerbrandt Grobler (Sharks) and Ruben van Heerden (Stormers) just missed out.

4 Tadhg Beirne (Munster): The reason why Beirne’s name is not listed above is that we simply had to get both players in. In horrific conditions in Cork, the Ireland star was excellent. The lineout ran at 100 per cent as Munster controlled the set-piece battle while the lock was also a menace on the Ospreys’ ball, winning three turnovers.

3 Neethling Fouche (Stormers): A consistent performer for the Cape Town outfit over the years, Fouche got the better of the talented Danilo Fischetti in the scrum. The tighthead helped set the platform in the Stormers’ 36-5 triumph as he saw off competition from the Bulls’ Wilco Louw.

2 Brodie Coghlan (Dragons): The Dragons front-rower is currently unheralded outside of Newport but that may change soon after his all-action performance in the narrow defeat to the Sharks. Coghlan was a ubiquitous presence, making a game-high 23 tackles to get into the team ahead of Glasgow’s Johnny Matthews, Munster’s Niall Scannell and the Bulls’ Johan Grobbelaar.

1 Gerhard Steenekamp (Bulls): It looks as though the Springboks have found another monstrous prop in the form of Steenekamp. The loosehead impressed off the bench in the Rugby Championship but, on this evidence, he could press for a starting shirt going forward. Absolutely dominant in the scrum, winning a series of penalties which led to Ulster tighthead Corrie Barrett being sin-binned after just half-an-hour.

READ MORE: Bulls v Ulster: Five takeaways as Springboks rookie ‘man-shames’ Irish outfit and fellow Test stars make their mark