It was hard to keep my surprise to myself when DHL Stormers head coach John Dobson mentioned EPCR Challenge Cup qualification as one of the things his team would be playing for when they face Racing 92 in France on Saturday night.
The Stormers are flying out from Cape Town later on Tuesday with their main mission on their two-match tour being a victory over Leinster, who they face in a crucial Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture in Dublin a week after his men play their final Investec Champions Cup group game in Paris.
Dobson emphasised the importance of the league competition over the European knock-out competition at this stage of the Stormers’ development when he described the URC as “our day job”.
Dobson wants to go full muster against log leaders Leinster, who might well be under-strength for the AVIVA Stadium game because the bulk of their first-choice squad will be lining up for Ireland at the start of the Six Nations the following week.
The Stormers lifted themselves from the lower reaches of the URC log with their two derby wins over the festive period, but they are still outside of the top eight and need to keep winning if they want to maintain their challenge for the play-offs and qualification for next season’s Champions Cup.
Given the teams that have to travel to DHL Stadium in the remaining months of the season, and the Stormers’ record on their home ground, you’d back the Stormers to make the top eight even if they lose to Leinster, but it is nonetheless a big game.
AFTER TOULON DEFEAT EVERYTHING WAS A BONUS
Anything the Stormers did in the Champions Cup after their opening loss at home to Toulon was going to be considered a bonus, and it continues to be so.
They can go for broke in their game against Racing in the knowledge that a win will complete a Lazarus like comeback in the competition but after dropping a home game the expectation is less, and they therefore have less to lose.
The Stormers are currently fourth in their Pool, with their points differential gains from the 40-0 win over the Sale Sharks last weekend edging them ahead of Sale, who have the same number of points. Saturday’s opponents have dropped to last, one point behind the Stormers.
So where does the Challenge Cup come in? Well, that is the prize for ending fifth, with the fifth placed teams in each Champions Cup pool being included in the round of 16 in the secondary competition.
It is very much a secondary competition, hence my surprise that Dobson would mention it as something to aim for, something he may well have done just to be politically correct and satisfy the organisers. I mean, what’s the point of having a Challenge Cup if no-one cares about it? So publicly the coaches do have to pay lip-service to it.
The Sharks had to care about it last year because it was a means for them to get into the Champions Cup after their URC form failed them in that competition, but otherwise it really is a competition for also-rans in the leagues that contribute to the EPCR. The top eight teams in the Top 14, the URC and Gallagher Premiership go through to the Champions Cup.
With the Stormers, or the Vodacom Bulls if in the last round of the group stage they lift themselves from last in their Pool and end fifth, committed to having to play all games in the Challenge Cup away due to the competition stipulations pertaining to sides dropping from the Champions Cup, you’d imagine it would be something they wouldn’t want.
The Stormers won’t be in the position of having to use the Challenge Cup to make it into the Champions Cup if they finish in the top eight of the URC, which they will have a good chance of doing if after Saturday’s game in France they only have that competition to focus on. And therefore also fewer overseas trips, with the logistical challenges that come with it, on their schedule.
UNDERSTANDABLE IF JAKE FEELS SIXTH DODGES A BULLET
If Bulls coach Jake White feels he will be dodging a bullet if his team doesn't play in Europe after this week, it would be understandable. He can go all out for the URC. White has won the Challenge Cup before, with Montpellier, and if you read any online bios on the man, you will note that the Challenge Cup hardly gets a mention compared to his other achievements.
There is one way that the Challenge Cup can help Dobson, and for that matter White if his team does sneak into fifth - if they resolve to use the remainder of that competition to aggressively tackle the creation of depth in their squad that is so necessary if either of them ever want to seriously challenge for the main prize.
The Bulls second stringers, or third stringers, that played against Castres this past weekend were more competitive than the 49-10 end scoreline would suggest. And ditto the Stormers against Harlequins before Christmas.
The experience of going overseas to play play-off games in a competition that features mainly bottom eight URC quality teams will surely benefit those players, who aren’t getting a regular run in the URC, and help them be more competitive the next time they are asked to step into the breach in a Champions Cup away game.
The Challenge Cup could in that sense be particularly helpful to Dobson, who in recent weeks has seen a flood of previously injured players coming back into the Stormers system.
Where previously he had an injury crisis that left him with a thin resource base, Dobson suddenly has selection dilemmas and good promising players who have an appetite to play that needs to be sated.
THE LIKES OF ROCHE CAN BENEFIT
Young centre Jonathan Roche is the obvious example. He enjoyed a solid first start against Sale and will probably play 12 for the Stormers until Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu returns in a few weeks. But note those words - a few weeks. Stalwart Dan du Plessis will also be back in a few weeks, so the gap in the first choice Stormers team will be more than filled.
As it will be for Roche’s midfield partner Wandisile Simelane when Ruhan Nel returns, and there are several other players, such as the impressive young flyhalf Jurie Matthee, who only gets rare appearances, who can also benefit from playing overseas Challenge Cup games.
Now that the Stormers’ top players are coming back, the second-string team will be heading back to the strength, or better, of the combination that pushed a full-strength Leicester Tigers at Welford Road in December 2023.
They will be strong enough to win a few knock-out games too, given what they would face in the Challenge Cup, so could also gain experience of the pressure that is an inevitable part of any knock-out rugby.
Make no mistake, ask most coaches what they’d prefer, an exit in the Champions Cup proper in the round of 16 or an exit from Europe in the Challenge Cup quarterfinal and they’d probably choose the former. Particularly South African coaches who have to travel.
But if White and Dobson find themselves in the Challenge Cup after this weekend there is something to be gained from it provided, they make their Challenge Cup squad a different entity to the URC team and resist the temptation to mix and match the two except when injury makes it completely necessary.