Vodacom Bulls and Glasgow Warriors will contest the 2024 Vodacom United Rugby Championship Grand Final in Pretoria on Saturday.
Beaten finalists in 2022, the Bulls overcame Leinster in a thriller at Loftus Versfeld while Glasgow upset Munster at Thomond Park.
It will be the 17th final in the league’s history with the Bulls making their second appearance in the decider while Glasgow have returned to qualify for their fourth final (2014, 2015, 2019).
For the third season in a row there will be a different winner.
Here we take a closer look at the semi-final action.
The Bulls prevailed in a thrilling last-four clash in Pretoria to reach their second Grand Final in three years.
Two tries from Sergeal Petersen and another from Johan Goosen, who contributed 15 points, saw the Bulls claim a hard-fought victory at Loftus Versfeld.
Leinster responded with tries from James Lowe and Caelan Doris, with 10 points coming from the boot of Ross Byrne, but their bid for a ninth URC title and a first trophy since 2021 fell just short.
Jake White (Bulls)
“I suppose you coach for those memories and obviously to win trophies. It means nothing to win (against Leinster) and drop the baton at the last hurdle.
“I’m not going to walk away from what’s worked for us (this season). I might tactically look at a couple of things. We’ll pick a team that I think will be able to do the things we need to do to get the win.
“It’s going to be fantastic. Imagine 52,000 people coming to a final at Loftus; it’ll probably be like the good old days.”
Leo Cullen (Leinster)
“We will build and we’ll go again. Show some character.
“I think the group showed a lot of resolve to come back from where they had been over the last couple of years so it’s disappointing to be left with the same outcome, which is a one-score loss in a URC semi-final.
“It doesn’t get any closer than that.” Munster 10-17 Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow upset the odds to beat the defending champions and reach their first URC final since 2019.
The Warriors boxed clever after losing Richie Gray and Matt Fagerson to the sin bin and making the most of limited scoring opportunities to stun a Munster side who were on a 10-match winning streak.
Kyle Steyn and Sebastian Cancelliere crossed for Glasgow, both converted by George Horne who also kicked a penalty.
Antoine Frisch went over for Munster, who had Alex Nankivell sent off late on, while Jack Crowley landed a conversion and a penalty.
Graham Rowntree (Munster)
“Hugely frustrating, you get yourself in a position, home semi-final, and then the game got away from us.
“It’s about taking opportunities, using the possession and territory that we had. We didn’t take our opportunities.
“It will take a while to sink in. This will sting for a long time. There’s no tomorrow. It’s knockout rugby.”
Franco Smith (Glasgow)
“I’m very proud of the boys. The fact they stuck to the script again and they worked really hard, adapted well to what was needed.
“And under difficult circumstances sometimes, with the fact we had two yellow cards, so really proud of the resilience. It was about cool heads.
“But we didn’t train and practice to win a semi-final. We would like to go all the way, so a lot of work still to be done this week.”
