OVERVIEW: Thrilling Pool finale showed SA value of being in Champions Cup

Anyone wondering about the value in the long term of South African rugby being part of the elite Investec Champions Cup should have been convinced by watching the thrilling final round of the pool stages.

Ironically, it was at the stage that the local teams exited the competition, with the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Vodacom Bulls dropping to the Challenge Cup, and the DHL Stormers out of this year’s edition of EPCR rugby altogether, that it really took off. The top French teams provided a masterclass on how rugby should be played and what the SA teams should aspire to, while others, such as the more lowly French club, Castres, provided the raw passion and emotion that is a signature of the European competition.

It is marketed as the top club competition in the world, and the French giants underlined that with performances that were quite simply from another planet.

There is bound to be a long post-mortem into the Sharks’ humiliating experience at the hands of the growing French giant that is the Bordeaux Begles. Two seasons ago, the Sharks won an away game against Bordeaux, and for 11 heady minutes it looked like they were going to repeat it against all the odds.

Two good tries put them 12-0 ahead and it quietened the electric atmosphere at the filled-to-capacity Stade Chaban-Delmas. But then it all unravelled for the Sharks and with French wing Damian Penaud providing a challenge to those who think his countryman Antoine Dupont is the GOAT (Greatest of all time) with six tries, the hosts dished out a rugby lesson.

FRENCH CLUB RUGBY IS ON A DIFFERENT LEVEL

It was a chastening experience for the Sharks, but given that the Durbanites weren’t the first ostensibly rated team to concede more than 60 points to Bordeaux, you have to ask the question - is everyone else really that bad, or are Bordeaux just particularly good?

That French rugby is on a different level was demonstrated in the game that came after the final whistle in Bordeaux. Toulouse were playing a strong Leicester Tigers, with Springbok flyhalf Handre Pollard among other top international players in tow, in a game that would determine whether Leicester get home advantage in the round of 16.

Leicester, captained by Argentina skipper Julian Montoya, were monstered by Dupont and the rest of the champion unit to the extent that they were trailing 42-0 at halftime. By fulltime, Toulouse had gone beyond the 66 points scored by their countrymen in Bordeaux. They hit 80.

Yes, you can come down on the opposition and throw brickbats at them and accuse them of falling apart, but you also have to marvel at the sublime blend of skill and power packed by these uniquely gifted French teams. Both Bordeaux and Toulouse played to a level that really went beyond any fitting superlatives.

NOT COMPARING APPLES WITH APPLES

Of course, as Vodacom Bulls coach Jake White might point out, comparing the South African sides with the elite French teams is not comparing apples with apples. There’s a massive difference in player budget, with the French teams not just driven by the best that country can offer but also in many cases the best the rest of the world can offer.

It’s not just the top French teams of the moment either. The Racing 92 team that beat the DHL Stormers by nine points at the La Defense Arena in Paris on Saturday night had former England captain and British and Irish Lions star Owen Farrell at flyhalf, but it was two big Fijians outside him that really won the game for their team. Former Stormers No 8 Hacjivah Dayimani was in that position for Racing. And Racing are languishing at present in the Top 14.

But there appear to be fewer overseas stars driving the French teams than there were. Mainly because there are more French produced stars coming through, with the effect being much like the IPL has had on Indian cricket and for that matter the BetwaySA20 has had on SA cricket. Meaning that playing with and against international stars on a regular basis has to improve you.

SA has a veritable conveyor belt of talent coming through so the local teams, without quite the financial clout to attract the Galactico stars that the French clubs can, have to adopt a different approach. While the local sides have struggled this year, mainly because they were set back at the start of the competition and were always chasing the game after that, the upside is that talented youngsters like the Sharks’ exciting 20-year-old Jurenzo Julius have now tasted Champions Cup rugby.

So South Africans may just have to be patient in waiting for their teams to make up the yawning gap that has been opened up by the big-budget French teams. If there is patience, it should be rewarded, for this weekend did underline what a wonderful competition the Champions Cup is, with tight and tense finishes mixed with heroic David v Goliath efforts in a weekend where there was high jeopardy from the start, with Ulster forwarding their case with their big win over Exeter on Friday, through to the Sale Sharks making it by thrashing Toulon in the last game on Sunday.

BENETTON AND CASTRES SHOWED ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

The URC team from Treviso in Italy, Benetton, led the way on Saturday by reminding us, as the Stormers did last year, that the top French teams can be upset on a given day by beating La Rochelle. Few would have seen their win over the two-time champions coming, and until a second string Castres beat a full strength Saracens at Saracens on Sunday, that was the upset of the weekend.

The Castres and Benetton performances were examples of what makes the Champions Cup so special, with players going onto a test match footing in front of passionate fans and digging deep, going way beyond what you’d imagine a human being is capable of when it comes to physical effort.

While the Bulls were effectively playing a dead rubber at Loftus when they beat Stade Francais, and as a result there were only 10 000 people at Loftus and vast tracts of open space evident on the television screens, the crowds in Durban and Cape Town the week before did provide an indication that local fans are starting to connect with the competition.

But not yet to the extent that the overseas crowds are, that will come with time. The heady atmosphere we witnessed in Bordeaux, and the previous evening when Leinster provided one of the statement performances of the weekend by thumping Bath in Dublin, with the Harlequins game against Glasgow Warriors also right up there, provided South Africans with a glimpse of what continued engagement with the Champions Cup can bring.

It’s going to require a lot of hard work across the board, but if they achieve the growth of depth necessary to compete for silverware in the Champions Cup, what comes with that success both for the protagonists and their supporters will make the wait worthwhile.

FOURTH ROUND INVESTEC CHAMPIONS CUP RESULTS

Ulster 52 Exeter Chiefs 24

Vodacom Bulls 48 Stade Francais 7

Northampton Saints 34 Munster 32

Clermont-Auvergne 33 Bristol Bears 26

Leinster 47 Bath 21

Benetton 32 La Rochelle 25

Racing 92 31 DHL Stormers 22

Harlequins 24 Glasgow Warriors 7

Bordeaux Begles 66 Hollywoodbets Sharks 12

Saracens 24 Castres 32

Toulouse 80 Leicester Tigers 12