CHAMPIONS CUP: Prospect of derby quarterfinal should allay SA's disappointment

The final round of pool matches in the Investec Champions Cup ended in disappointment for South Africa as the Harlequins’ shock win in France at the end of the weekend edged the DHL Stormers out of the home round of 16 match that had appeared to be beckoning.

By picking up a full house of log points against a depleted Leicester Tigers at DHL Stadium, the Stormers put the onus on the English club to beat La Rochelle away in order to secure their home advantage in the first round of knock-out fixtures.

It looked likely the Stormers would get their wish when Ronan O’Gara’s men came back from 17-7 down to level the scores heading into the final 10 minutes but the visitors had an extra gear they duly engaged.

That result does put some perspective on the Stormers’ big defeat to Harlequins at the Stoop in round three. The Stormers travelled to London perhaps believing the press around the form of a team that was in the throes of a crisis and in poor form that had been the subject of strong statements from their chairman and CEO the previous Sunday.

However if you look at the English club team on paper they are a strong side and with their chances of success in the Gallagher Premiership gone, they had clearly made the shift to prioritising the Champions Cup, where they were doing well.

In retrospect the Stormers may have been better off had they sent a stronger side to the Twickenham Stoop. It was just a six day turnaround so it was felt they had little choice but to go under-strength, but it was always likely Leicester were going to travel understrength - which they did. And they only arrived in SA on Wednesday.

JUST A BONUS POINT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH

Had the Stormers picked up just a bonus point in London, and of course assuming the blow out (they lost 61-10) and therefore points differential damage wouldn’t have been so great, they would be looking forward to a home round of 16 game now. Instead, because they finished one point behind Leicester in third in Pool 1, they will be travelling to France to play Toulon.

There is one slight upside to how the draw has panned out for local rugby - should the Stormers beat Toulon and the Vodacom Bulls, who sneaked into the last 16 with their gutsy away win in Pau on Friday night, overcome Glasgow Warriors at the Scotstoun, then the two sides will meet in a Cape Town quarterfinal.

Both teams can win their overseas round of 16 games. The Stormers were a bit unlucky against Toulon in Gqeberha in 2024 and are a better team now, and the Bulls won the last time they were in Glasgow in the Jake White era.

A home quarterfinal between the two biggest local derby rivals, which would guarantee SA’s presence in the semifinal round for the first time, might be just what the Champions Cup needs in this country as the message to take from the initial stages of this year’s competition is that it is just not catching on here.

STRENGTH VERSUS DEVELOPMENT EQUALS POOR TURNOUT

The 8000 crowd that turned up at Hollywoodbets Kings Park to see the Sharks beat Clermont-Auvergne looked smaller on television than the one that was present down the road at Kingsmead for a Betway SA20 clash. And Loftus hasn’t drawn much more than that for any Champions Cup game this season either.

It is easy to understand too, for the clubs/franchises and the EPCR organisers don’t help sell the competition. The clubs by persisting with dealing with logistical challenges, both real and perceived, by choosing under-strength teams, and the EPCR by insisting on a rule that teams only get announced on the Friday afternoon at 2:30pm before a Saturday game.

If you were thinking of buying tickets in advance for a concert but were told you’d only know the day before the event whether the lead singer of the band would be present, would you outlay your money? Probably not.

There were 24 000 at the Cape Town game, which is average for that venue, but it might have been more had Capetonians known in advance that it was going to be Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s first game as captain.

Likewise it might have been less had it been known that Leicester were going to be without 12 of their top players. The bottom line - how are the paying spectators ever going to trust the competition, and lay out their money, if they never know until 24 hours ahead of the game what they are getting, and when it invariably ends up being a strength versus development game.

Both Stormers home games this season were strength versus development, as La Rochelle sent a youth team to Gqeberha in December. In fact there hasn’t been a strength versus strength game for the Stormers in the competition this season as they weren’t at full strength when they beat Bayonne away in their first away game and of course they sent a B team to play Quins.

The Sharks have had a pretty similar experience - they were second string in both away games against Toulouse and Sale Sharks, were full strength against Saracens at home but Saracens sent an under-strength team, and they fielded a weakened team against Clermont, who sent a youth team.

At least the Bulls, when they lost to Bordeaux Begles and Bristol Bears, the only two losses for SA teams at home, were at full strength for those. But they weren’t at full strength when they won in Pau, and neither were their opponents, thus taking some gloss off what should really have been a heady achievement given Pau are second in the Top 14. And of course they sent a B team to Northampton in December.

SHARKS PAY FOR GRAVE ERROR OF JUDGEMENT

There is validity to the marketing drive that states the Champions Cup is the best club competition in the world but it won’t look that way to South African eyes, and in the Sharks’ case so much for going all out to do well in it.

Given how poor Sale Sharks were both in their game against the KZN Sharks and in being thrashed by Toulouse on Saturday, the Sharks would probably have won in Manchester the previous week had the Durbanites gone full strength for that game.

With Clermont always likely to travel to Durban under-strength, they wouldn’t have been compromised, and they had a seven day turnaround anyway, and they’d now be in the Champions Cup round of 16 instead of having to travel for a round of 16 game in the lesser of the two EPCR competitions, the Challenge Cup.

The Lions’ 20-all draw in Perpignan means the Sharks are the only SA team in the Challenge Cup. They won it the year before last because they had to in order to qualify for the Champions Cup but they showed their disdain for that competition last season by sending a development team for their playoff match.

Weekend Investec Champions Cup results

Pau 24 Vodacom Bulls 26

Bath 63 Edinburgh 10

Hollywoodbets Sharks 50 Clermont-Auvergne 12

Bayonne 13 Leinster 22

DHL Stormers 39 Leicester Tigers 26

Munster 29 Castres 31

Toulouse 77 Sale Sharks 7

Gloucester 14 Toulon 31

Bristol Bears 15 Bordeaux-Begles 27

La Rochelle 17 Harlequins 27

Northampton Saints 43 Scarlets 28