CHAMPIONS CUP WRAP: Stormers can sell competition to SA

It was mostly a depressingly familiar South African scene on the first weekend of the Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup, and that reference isn’t just to the fact that only one of five local teams was on the winning side.

No, when it comes to the results, most of them were expected. There was some hype around the Vodacom Bulls having their Springboks back and playing at Loftus. But by now people should have cottoned onto the fact that having a lot of international players doesn’t automatically translate to success.

Those players need to be bedded in too when they haven’t played for you for a while. You just need to ask the Hollywoodbets Sharks about that.

And Bordeaux Begles aren’t champions for nothing. The game was also played in the early evening, meaning as the sun was setting and then the game was under lights. That is always easier for a visiting team to deal with the altitude than when playing under the hot sun. So the hype was just hubris. The Bulls did well to push Bordeaux like they did.

And when it comes to the Sharks, they were never going to win in Toulouse, where they actually showed a lot of pluck with a severely under-strength team. The big one for the Sharks is this coming Saturday, when they host Saracens at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

They have put all their eggs into that basket, and the game becomes doubly important now because it will be the first one where JP Pietersen will officially be in charge after John Plumtree handed over the reins to him on Sunday night.

FULL TIME. @Vodacom | @ChampionsCup #TheUnbreakableLine pic.twitter.com/mxUbYAjBe7
— Official Blue Bulls (@BlueBullsRugby) December 6, 2025

When it comes to the EPCR Challenge Cup, the Lions spoke a big game last week, in the sense they were talking about a desire to go all the way in the competition. Which isn’t unrealistic, for after all the Challenge Cup is effectively a Plate competition for teams not good enough to play in the elite European competition. But everyone knows the Lions are a bit hit and miss. Against Benetton, they missed.

LOCAL CROWDS AGAIN VERY UNDERWHELMING

And when it came to the Toyota Cheetahs, well when last did we see them play a big game? Plus their game, the last one of the weekend, was away against Exeter Chiefs. Where there was quite an atmosphere, and if you did watch it on television it might have set the thought processes going about how excited the overseas teams and their fans get about their home games in the EPCR competitions.

The Exeter game was only a Challenge Cup game, meaning they finished lower than eighth in the Gallagher Premiership last season, but, and granted that the stadiums are smaller over there, it seemed so superior in atmosphere to the two games shown back to back on television from the highveld on Saturday afternoon. Which cues what was particularly depressing from a local perspective.

The commentators have to try and sell the game so it was understandable there was a lot of talk about the Loftus atmosphere, but the official crowd figure was 7 327. In a stadium equipped to seat eight times that number.

The large empty spaces picked up on television were not good for sending the message out to foreign audiences that South Africans really want to be part of the Champions Cup.

The Bulls were playing the champions, you’d think there’d be some excitement. To be sure, as written in a recent URC preview, most of the local franchises are pretty inept when it comes to marketing. There should have been more fuss made of the Pretoria game by the host union.

One press conference in a week, and that the day before the game for the team announcement, doesn’t crack it. The franchises complain that the Springboks are prioritised too much at the expense of themselves, but they could certainly do a lot more to sell their level of the professional game in this country.

The Lions drew just 4 120 to their game against Benetton. Again, the scenes, with the Ellis Park stadium appearing so cavernous because of its emptiness, would not have inspired those watching on television to say “Hey, let’s get to Ellis Park for the next game”.

SUCCESS WILL CHANGE THE NARRATIVE

In all four above-mentioned cases though there was another factor at play - with the exception of the Lions, who had won a few games on the bounce in the URC, there wasn’t much form to speak of coming into the games. And then there is the big one - while the Sharks did win the secondary competition, the Challenge Cup, two seasons ago, the teams generally haven’t done well enough in the EPCR competitions to generate excitement.

Which cues the DHL Stormers. Watching the Leinster game against Harlequins, it was astounding how often the Irish commentators referenced the Stormers’ win over Bayonne in France the previous evening as a big result. They also couldn’t stop talking about the Stormers’ win over Munster in Limerick in the URC the previous week.

Clearly the Stormers are starting to create an impression with the overseas pundits, and so they should. Their win over Bayonne wasn’t just their seventh in succession after seven starts in the season, it was also their fifth in a row overseas. That monkey hasn’t just jumped off their backs, it has sprinted away with a haste that suggests it will be a long time before it is seen again.

The Stormers win was the only one by a South African team, but it was hugely significant in the sense that it was the first time a local side has started the Champions Cup with an away win. And away wins are like gold in that competition.

A win on the road to start the Investec Champions Cup. See you in Gqeberha next week. #BAYvSTO #inittogether pic.twitter.com/tRNE4I7Eap
— DHL Stormers (@THESTORMERS) December 5, 2025

STORMERS AIMING FOR HOME PLAYOFF

Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has made it clear his team’s objective is to host at least a round of 16 game, if not beyond that, and if they beat La Rochelle in Gqeberha on Saturday they will have taken a significant stride towards making sure that DHL Stadium will be hosting Champions Cup playoff fixtures.

Which in turn could prove the positive jolt the Champions Cup needs in this country. No matter how good the marketing is or isn’t, it is success that sells a competition, and there hasn’t been much of that from a local perspective in the competition.

The Stormers themselves never even made it out of their Pool last season, and the Sharks and Bulls dropped to the Challenge Cup. That isn’t going to inspire people to go to the stadiums. But Stormers’ win over Bayonne may have been the first step in changing the narrative.

Saturday’s game isn’t at their regular home, but the people of Gqeberha have supported them well in the past, and if they win against La Rochelle they will be playing for a home playoff when they do get to play at the DHL Stadium against Leicester Tigers in January.

Weekend Investec Champions Cup results

Bayonne 17 DHL Stormers 26

Sale 21 Glasgow Warriors 26

Saracens 47 Clermont Auvergne 10

Vodacom Bulls 33 Bordeaux-Begles 46

La Rochelle 39 Leicester Tigers 20

Leinster 45 Harlequins 28

Scarlets 16 Bristol Bears 17

Bath 40 Munster 14

Pau 27 Northampton 36

Edinburgh 33 Toulon 20

Gloucester 34 Castres 14