“I thought the score last week flattered Connacht a little bit. As Cardiff coach Dai Young has said ahead of his team’s clash with the Bulls this coming weekend, the margin of defeat in the first two games did flatter their opponents. That’s not to say the Bulls aren’t going to get better and in time perhaps establish the same authority over opponents in the URC that they do in domestic competition. There isn’t the slightly different angle that the Sharks, Lions and Stormers, who have been working hard on their offloading game and dazzled in that regard in the Rainbow Cup, might bring. It could be that what has made the Bulls relatively easy pickings for Leinster and Connacht is that those teams have been playing against a game strategy they know.

In other words, a team that relies on forward dominance, territory and clinical execution. It may in fact not be entirely a coincidence that the most disappointing SA team to this point in terms of expectations, the Bulls, are the local side who are the closest replica of what the Irish sides mostly are. The one team that is at full strength, the Lions, were responsible for a commanding first-half performance against Zebre in the opening round that laid down a marker on what could be achieved if the SA teams worked at bringing the width and all-round attacking game that had their opponents floundering. The trick for them is just to find a way to sustain it over a full 80 minutes, and that may come in time – and let’s not forget that, like the Sharks and Bulls, the Stormers are not near to full strength at this point. It’s not often Munster find themselves behind 15-0 on their home patch one minute before half time, and in that period the Stormers showed one of the new dimensions that SA teams can bring to the competition. It certainly did work to their advantage in the first half of the Munster game.

Might and magic 8 patch