SA teams under fire for poor performances in Champions Cup

Former England flyhalf Stuart Barnes labelled the lack of available Springboks stars in the Sharks team against Leicester as a “lack of commitment”.

“Change European rugby to help South African teams? No thanks” ran the headline to former England hooker Brian Moore’s column in The Telegraph.

The Sharks lost 56-17 to a Handré Pollard-inspired Leicester while the Stormers were hammered 53-16 by Harlequins.

George Martin of Leicester Tigers is tackled by Corne Rahl of the Sharks during their Investec Champions Cup match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on 14 December in Leicester. (Photo: David Rogers / Getty Images)

The Bulls, more closely resembling a full-strength team, went down 31-20 at Loftus against Northampton Saints, which was a real body blow to their chances for knockout qualification in the Champions Cup.

Barnes, who is always balanced in his reporting about South African rugby and the Springboks in particular, was forthright in his assessment.

“The Sharks need their sextet (six Bok stalwarts) for a United Rugby Championship (URC) Christmas derby more than for the Champions Cup second round,” he wrote.

“Getting the big names on the field for a match against the Bulls (the Sharks’ next URC opponents) is more of a priority than a European match.

“But Europe has been here before. Bourgoin-Jallieu were famous for being useless in Europe, even as they focused their dwindling resources on domestic glory.

“But somehow, when World Cup winners are absent, the flaws are more glaring.

“The season is gruelling. The decision to essentially throw the game does damage to the competition, especially with the lopsided 16-from-24 qualifier set-up for the ‘round of 16’.”

‘Not robots’

On the other side of the fence, Sharks coach John Plumtree defended sending out an understrength team against Leicester because “the players aren’t robots”.

But it wasn’t a good look over the past weekend for South African rugby.

Stormers coach John Dobson, who is juggling a squad with an injury list into double figures, acknowledged that South African teams need to do better in Europe’s premier club rugby tournament.

Dobson and Plumtree both used their post-match media engagements to suggest that the scheduling for Champions Cup matches should be better planned.

In January, the Stormers host Sale Sharks at Cape Town’s DHL Stadium before travelling to Paris to face Racing 92. Both are Champions Cup fixtures. After that, they take on Leinster in the URC. It’s a messy schedule.

“Is there a way to link them up on a tour?” Dobson asked after the loss to Harlequins.

“That would make it much more palatable. We could take our strongest team, play both games at full bore. It’s just this December fixture that has caught us the last two years.”

Plumtree similarly suggested that improvements to the fixture list should be considered.

His side that took on Leicester didn’t include recent Bok tourists to Britain such as Ox Nché, Eben Etzebeth (concussion), Lukhanyo Am, André Esterhuizen, Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi and Makazole Mapimpi.

“I want to bring our strongest Sharks side here and play on the biggest stage,” Plumtree explained after the defeat.

“I can understand their [fans’] frustration. I want to go out there and give Leicester a good hiding in front of their home crowd. Don’t worry about that.

“We’re all competitive. But the reality is we’ve got to look after these athletes. They are not robots. They don’t front up every week. And right now, the South African boys are treated like robots.

“I think the organisers need to have a look at it and go: ‘Well, why are we sending a team up here for one week?’ We arrive on Wednesday and play on Saturday. It’s hardly high performance.

“Maybe we should come up here and play a couple of games and stay for a fortnight? They need to look at it.”

Considering English and French members of European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) were lukewarm about the inclusion of South African clubs in the tournament in the first place, they won’t be sympathetic to the travelling schedule.

After all, it works both ways, with European teams having to fly to South Africa for one-off matches.

Consequences

South African rugby’s alignment with the Northern Hemisphere was always going to come with scheduling challenges.

Covid-19 complicated matters initially and now in a post-Covid world those challenges haven’t changed — they have only been exacerbated because of the added layer of EPCR competition.

The only acceptable solution will be a global calendar that aligns all rugby into workable blocs for both hemispheres.

Despite World Rugby’s mutterings on the issue, the sport is no closer to achieving a global season than it was five years ago.

The introduction of the Nations Cup, which starts in 2026, has further congested the global calendar, although it did lead to a reduction in the length of the Six Nations from seven weeks to six.

One of the major stumbling blocks to a global season is moving the Rugby Championship, played in August and September, into the Six Nations window of February and March. That would allow SA players the same off-season as their European counterparts — from late July to early September.

Dobson emphasised that EPCR is where South African teams need to be.

“We have to be part of this tournament because it’s such a high level and it’s such a great tournament,” said Dobson.

“And if we’re not careful, were we not to be part of the Champions Cup, and the URC morphed into an Anglo league and we went back to the Currie Cup of the 1980s where we were playing Griqualand West and Free State in dusty Kimberley, that would be disastrous for South African rugby.

“This competition is probably what has helped us so much in World Cups. Every breakdown is a competition. Every scrum is a 20-second contest. Every lineout or maul is a contest, and I think that has been a massive boost for South African rugby, and we’ve got to make sure we can stay here, but evenings like this evening don’t help.” DM