Who's the Boss?

FOUR South African rugby gurus will be locking horns in tomorrow’s United Rugby Championship semi-finals as they try to lead their respective teams to this season’s Grand Final.

First-up in a 3.45pm kickoff will be former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber’s Leinster side when they take on defending URC champions Glasgow Warriors, which former Springbok Franco Smith coaches, at the Aviva Stadium.

In the second URC semi-showdown at 6.15pm, Jake White’s Bulls battle familiar foes in coach John Plumtree’s Sharks at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

And all four rugby brains will be desperate for glory in their respective face-offs with Nienaber and White probably the two bosses under the most pressure to deliver a title.

Ever since Nienaber left the Boks after helping them win the 2023 Rugby World Cup, he has been put under a microscope as fellow Leinster boss, under the tutelage of Director of Rugby, Leo Cullen.  

After Leinster fell out in the semi-finals of last season’s URC campaign and lost the 2024 final of the European Champions Cup, Nienaber has been singled out as the reason why the Irish club has failed.

Glasgow’s Smith will look to exploit this and also take a bit of revenge against a Leinster team who klapped his Warriors 52-0 in a Champions Cup quarterfinal and 13-5 in a recent URC league game.

And when things get going in Pretoria, White will also be feeling the heat having already seen his Bulls downed twice [20-17 and 29-19] by counterpart Plumtree’s Sharks in the URC this season.  

His Bulls also face a stern test against a Sharks team gelaai met Springbok World Cup winners with big Shark, Siya Kolisi, warning of knowing what it takes to win knockouts: “That experience does help, to be honest,” Kolisi said this week.

“You know at the back of your mind that you’ve been there… Panic will not help you there. It is all about calm heads and guys like Eben (Etzebeth), Bongi (Mbonambi) and André (Esterhuizen) [taking] charge…”