As the stars aligned for French club Bordeaux-Begles to celebrate their first Investec Champions’ Cup on Saturday night, a new challenge was also revealed that will excite South African rugby fans hungry for trophies.
EPCR Chairman Dominic McKay announced plans for a World Club Cup in 2028 that is likely to include the top eight sides in the Champions’ Cup, testing their strength against eight sides made up from Super Rugby Pacific and the Japanese league.
Now if it was played this season, there wouldn’t be any South African involvement given the performance of local sides in this year’s tournament, but the news of a bigger cup competition with more bragging rights will certainly alter the approach to the Investec Champions’ Cup for South African teams in the near future.
The prospect of not only competing against the best in the world, but also the nostalgia of Super Rugby rivalries being reignited would have brought smiles to the faces of many coaches across the country as the age-old debate about which hemisphere’s competition is stronger can be settled for a while.
“It’s great to be in Cardiff celebrating the 30th season of the Investec Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup,” McKay said.
“We’ve had some great discussions over the course of the weekend talking about the future of our sport and particularly some exciting projects that relate to EPCR.
“One of those projects is the Rugby World Club Cup. This is something we’ve spoken about at EPCR for the last two or three years – we’ve been trying to work our way through this project to see if we can deliver it.
“And over the last few days we’ve had great meetings with our Board, great meetings with our General Assembly, who represent the three leagues and stakeholders from seven unions, and everyone is unanimous about wanting to deliver a World Club Cup – through EPCR.”
EPIC FINAL MATCH
The announcement came against the backdrop of an epic final match for the season, as Bordeaux-Begles’ stars came together to stave off a brave fight by Northampton Saints, and while the French side threatened several times to break away and settle the final, the Saints’ fightback was so good that the game wasn’t settled until the last few minutes, providing the perfect backdrop for the occasion.
Bordeaux coach Yannick Bru, who was at the Hollywoodbets Sharks two seasons ago, was a proud man afterwards, even though he had already won the title three times with Toulouse before.
“These are really special moments. The feeling is tenfold compared to winning as a player”, he explained after the 28-20 victory.
“This title represents a whole team effort for the last decade. UBB are heading in a really good direction.”
Northampton coach Phil Dowson was disappointed, but still proud, especially after his side had recorded firsts in defeating Leinster in Dublin and earlier the season the Vodacom Bulls at Loftus Versfeld.
"There were loads of fight, and that sums us up this year", Dingwall said. "We missed a lot of opportunities, there are a lot of learnings. This'll motivate us for next year".
"I want to credit UBB. The performance they had - they were deserved winners. But I’m immensely proud of our boys. There are elements we could’ve done better, but that comes with time.
"UBB defended very well, their kicking game made us work really hard.”
PENAUD SEALED THE DEAL
Two tries from Player of the tournament Damien Penaud sealed the deal for Bordeaux, and between him and his potent strike partner Louis Bielle-Biarrey they crossed the line 22 times in the season.
On Friday night former Springbok assistant coach Johann van Graan’s Bath side provided a ruthless performance to win their second trophy of the season as they demolished Olympique Lyon 37-12.
Van Graan’s team - which also won the Premiership Cup earlier in the season and finished top of the Premiership standings, now have the chance to have a perfect season if they can win the Premiership as well in the next few weeks.
Considering Bath were last in the Premiership when he arrived, the hard-working coach has transformed them incredibly well and has emerged as a potential future Springbok coach with his results so far.
It provided a fitting end to their EPCR season after the disappointment of losing out in the Champions’ Cup pool rounds earlier in the competition.
Afterwards man of the match Ben Spencer believed something special is brewing in the group of players under Van Graan.
“I don’t want to speak about individual stuff, I want to talk about the group and what we’ve been through”, he started.
“Tonight’s performance is a long time coming. It was unbelievable to see the fight, the hunger… I couldn’t be prouder to lead this group tonight”.
But as the EPCR season finished, the announcement of the Club World Cup provided some early incentive in planning for next season. And for the coaches involved, another trophy to aim for.