June 4 (Reuters) - Holders Leinster and 2024 champions Glasgow Warriors are on course to meet in the United Rugby Championship final later this month, with both teams having home advantage against South African opposition in Saturday’s semi-finals.
Leinster, who have won the annual competition between Irish, Italian, Scottish, South African and Welsh sides a record nine times, will host the Stormers in Dublin after Glasgow face the Bulls at Murrayfield.
Glasgow, by virtue of finishing the regular season in top place, will have home advantage for the final on June 20 if they overcome the Bulls, who have been runners-up in three of the last four editions.
However, Glasgow have had to move the match to Edinburgh because their Scotstoun Stadium is being modified and expanded to host the Commonwealth Games' athletics next month.
Glasgow, whose URC triumph two years ago came against the Bulls in Pretoria, are braced for a bruising physical battle.
They have a potential crisis at scrum-half after George Horne hurt his hand in Friday's quarter-final win over Connacht at Scotstoun, while Jamie Dobie has been out since injuring his shoulder playing for Scotland against England in mid-February.
“Plan A when you play the Bulls is it's going to be a man test and there's no shirking that. If you don't match it, you're in trouble. They bring a tremendous amount of physicality,” said Warriors attack coach Nigel Carolan in the build-up to the semi.
BULLS HAVE LOST TWICE AWAY TO GLASGOW THIS SEASON
The Bulls have the best percentage of away success among the South African teams in the competition but it is just over 50%, indicative of how taxing the long travel can be.
They have already lost twice to Glasgow at Scotstoun this season in the URC in October and 25-21 in the European Champions Cup last 16 in April.
“Glasgow defend very well. So our patience with the ball will have to improve. But it’s two quality sides, so the margins will be so small,” predicted Bulls coach Johan Ackermann.
Leinster will be looking for URC success to make up for the disappointment of losing last month’s Champions Cup final to Bordeaux-Begles.
“It is something we’ll revisit at the right time, but we were a little bit off in Bilbao, and it’s just about making sure that we’re at our very best now this week to hopefully put ourselves in a position to get into another final,” said their Ireland lock James Ryan.
Stormers travelled to Dublin without flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who hurt his ankle in their quarter-final win over Cardiff last Saturday.
“It’s a big blow,” said the Cape Town team’s coach John Dobson. “But whenever we take a knock, this group tends to pull together and fight.”
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Ken Ferris)
