He is the world’s best loosehead prop and plays in a team that includes several double World Cup winners, but Ox Nche has never come closer than the 2023 quarterfinal away to Toulouse to competing for rugby’s most cherished club trophy - the Investec Champions Cup.
The 30 year old product of HTS Louis Botha in Bloemfontein and the University of the Free State would love to add winning the elite European competition to his extensive CV, and says the Hollywoodbets Sharks are going “all in” for Saturday’s final Pool 1 match against Clermont-Auvergne at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
The last meeting between Clermont and the Hollywoodbets Sharks 🍿
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) January 13, 2026
Mapimpi scoring in the corner and Masuku converting to send the side into the Challenge Cup final 👏
More drama in Durban this weekend?
📺 Saturday | 15:00 Kick-off | #InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/AH3CuHKzOZ
Although the Sharks lost heavily away to Toulouse and then this past weekend in Manchester to the Sale Sharks, the win over Saracens in their only previous home game in this season’s competition in December has put them in with a chance of making the round of 16.
“We have spoken about it after the result never went our way in England; our aim now is to go all out to get the five points in this game (a win and four try bonus point) to give ourselves the best chance of making it through,” said Nche as the Sharks began their buildup for the final Champions Cup pool game on Tuesday.
Even if they do get through, it is likely to be an uphill struggle for the Sharks, as they will probably have to travel for the first playoff game and any round they make thereafter. Which does make Champions Cup success this season, even if the Sharks did experience a miraculous turnaround in form, seem a little bit out of reach.
However, Nche doesn’t believe it will stay that way once the South African franchises, coaches and players become more used to having to be committed across two competitions, with the Vodacom URC already being played over a long 18 game league season before the playoffs even arrive.
“We will find a way (to become more competitive) because at this stage the problem is that we are used to playing one competition and playing in two is very different for us,” he said.
“Playing across two competitions requires much bigger squads than we are used to and were needed in the past. It is a good thing because it will help improve the quality of the players coming through because everyone has to build depth. We all (the different SA franchises) have our own ideas and coaching structures, but we all need to find a way to ensure that we have the freshest guys playing in each game and they are all on the level and on par with what is needed.”
LITTLE CHOICE BUT TO TRAVEL UNDER-STRENGTH
Nche was not part of the Sharks team that lost to Sale at the weekend. That was very much a second string side, and while the Sharks administration may be copping flak from their fans for their policy of going understrength for overseas Champions Cup games, they generally don’t have a choice.
For the Sale game in particular it was odd that the Sharks never sent a stronger team because they did have a seven day turnaround between that game and Saturday’s clash with Clermont, which is different to when they played Toulouse under-strength as the home game against Saracens was scheduled for just six days later.
However, it is hard to win on a single out and back trip to the UK or France and then expect the same result a week later, and Nche is right - there needs to be a levelling out in the ability of the first choice players and those who get called up for games such as last weekend’s.
He appears to think that it might be happening, and while you can’t rank Sale alongside Leicester Tigers, who posted over 50 against a similar Sharks team in a corresponding game last year, the mostly young side that did duty in Manchester did put in a far more competitive performance than that one did.
HITTING AN UPWARD TREND
Nche believes that the Sharks are starting to hit an upward trend in their performance graph and feels they are not far off from becoming the team the players and their new coach JP Pietersen believes they can become.
“I don’t think we are far off and even this past weekend there were lots of opportunities that we just did not take,” said Nche.
“There were a few moments that changed the game (in Manchester) but we weren’t far off. What JP has done since coming in is work on our mental space. He’s impressed upon us and reminded us that we have players of great ability in our group, and now we must start believing in that ability.”
Asked what the biggest stumbling block is to the Sharks, Nche had no hesitation in pinpointing it - skill set.
“Our general trend has been that we have played well and created opportunities but the problem is the skill set that lets us down and prevents us from rounding off scoring opportunities in the opposition 22,” he said.
“Generally we have played well for parts of the games, but we make mistakes that then let us down. We need to stay focused for the entire 80 minutes and against Clermont in particular we need to hold onto the ball when we have it and use our momentum. It is very important to execute as Clermont love playing off unstructured play and they will hurt us if we don’t eradicate the errors.”