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It’s about more than just the teams in SA's quest to be noticed

rugby12 January 2024 07:33| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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The second phase of the pool leg of the Investec Champions Cup arrives with the South African teams hungry for the victories that will earn a passage to the round of 16 but it might require more than just the players to do their bit if local rugby is to lay down a marker in the competition.

The Vodacom Bulls and the DHL Stormers have two games in which to secure their top-four positions to ensure an advance to the next round, with the Stormers starting at home to the Sale Sharks on Saturday while the Bulls are away to Bristol Bears.

Next weekend the teams will face the reverse scenario, with the Bulls at home to the high-riding French team, Bordeaux Begles, while the Stormers will be travelling to Paris to face Stade Francais.

LANDMARK HOME WINS SET THE LOCAL TEAMS UP

Thanks to landmark wins in their first home games, both teams have a good chance of advancing. The Bulls kept their unbeaten record in the competition on South African soil intact with their good win over Saracens in round one, while the Stormers produced an epic example of what guts and resilience can do when they upset champions LaRochelle at the DHL Stadium in round two.

In the two away games played by the teams so far, under-strength units have advertised the depth available to South African rugby by pushing top teams on their home grounds. The Stormers were unlucky not to leave Welford Road with at least a bonus point from their clash with Leicester Tigers, while the Bulls were one penalty kick away from beating Lyon.

The coaches have had to box clever with their selections to get around logistical challenges, hence them not sending their top teams to the overseas games they’ve played thus far. But there’s no denying the commitment to the cause, and Jake White’s decision to give his Springboks their mandatory rest now rather than next month, as the Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks are likely to do, also doesn’t entail that much risk.

You’d expect the Bulls to have a good chance of winning against Bordeaux with altitude on their side at Loftus, even without the likes of Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Marco van Staden.

White is also quite right when he says the last mentioned player is interchangeable with regular skipper Marcell Coetzee, who is ready to give it a full go again after missing a few weeks through suspension.

SA RUGBY PUBLIC NEEDS TO HELP MAKE A STATEMENT

It is true though that were it not for the travel challenge, the South African sides might have made more of an early statement and have been more noticed. A full-strength Stormers team might well have returned from Leicester with the four points for a win, and the Bulls would almost certainly have done the same from Lyon.

So we can’t list the South African challenge among the teams that are unbeaten, a group which at the moment is made up of Leinster, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and four English teams. And that might explain why there isn’t often much mention of the South African challenge in the overseas media. It does appear that the challenge from this country is yet to be taken seriously despite the Stormers beating the champions.

What really needs to happen though for the South African participation in the European elite competition to attract overseas attention for positive reasons is for the public to show their support and buy-in by turning out for the games in the same numbers that the festive season Vodacom United Rugby Championship derbies attracted.

There was a sparse crowd on an admittedly particularly hot Cape summer’s afternoon at the DHL Stadium to see the Stormers’ historic win over LaRochelle, and Stormers coach John Dobson struggled afterwards to hide his disappointment. He might have been right in reasoning that fans had four big rugby weekends in a row - the Cape Town Sevens at the same venue, the LaRochelle game and then two festive season URC derbies required fans to choose which events to be at.

But it did give some fuel to overseas critics who are negative about South Africa’s inclusion in a European competition and who argue that this country should just upgrade the Currie Cup and focus on that when they saw so much open space in evidence on the open stand at DHL Stadium. That part of the stadium, which happens to get the most focus from the television cameras, was less populated than the shaded parts of the ground, and for good reason.

But still, a crowd of 11 000 didn’t send out the message that there’s been massive buy-in from the South African public, and the crowd at Loftus for the Saracens game the previous week could have been bigger too. Last year what excited the overseas media and fans was the big crowd that turned out for the Stormers’ home round of 16 game against Harlequins.

BULLS HAVE SLIGHTLY LESS TO DO THAN STORMERS

A big turnout and a good Stormers win in the match against Sale on Saturday might just make the statement that could win over a few people to the value of having South Africans playing in the competition. It will also, but not quite, secure the Stormers their place in the next round - I say not quite because it still might require a bonus point at minimum from their trip to Stade Francais.

It will be an achievement for the Stormers to get out of what has rightly been described as a group of depth by Dobson. The Bulls have slightly less to do in their remaining games because they picked up a losing bonus point in Lyon. But remember that the higher you finish in your respective pool, the easier your game in the next round might be, and of course home ground advantage is up for grabs too.

SA TEAMS SOARING IN CHALLENGE CUP

So there’s plenty to play for in the Champions Cup, and for the three South African teams participating in the Challenge Cup too. The Sharks are the only local team to have lost in that competition, but then that was to their fellow South African side, the Toyota Cheetahs, who this weekend play a home game in what is expected to be a 20 000 crowd in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon.

The Cheetahs easily beat Zebre away in their first game before turning in a strong performance in their only appearance in Bloemfontein against the Sharks, with opposition coach John Plumtree admitting afterwards that he’d been surprised by the talent the Cheetahs, who do not play in the URC, have available to them.

Making it into the round of 16 is a done deal for the Cheetahs, but another win will ensure they top their group and thus have an easier passage through the knock-outs. In theory anyway.

The Emirates Lions have served notice of their rise with a run of victories across both competitions and while they have sent a second-string team to Montpellier for their late-night game on Saturday, they got away with it when they went to France understrength in the first round. It is in fact a smart move on the part of coach Cash van Rooyen as player management is going to be crucial to the Lions’ chances of maintaining the strong challenge for the top-eight position in the URC that will see them playing Champions Cup rugby next season.

SA team Investec Champions Cup previews

Bristol Bears v Vodacom Bulls (Bristol, Saturday 17.15)

South Africans might remember the Bristol Bears from their convincing win over a South African A-Team when the Springboks were touring in November 2022. The hosts are fifth on the log, currently out of the bracket for teams that will advance to the round of 16, but you need to look at the fine print - Bristol have the same number of points as the Bulls (5), so they will move into a strong position in pool 1 should they win. The Bulls have left their Springboks behind but the way a mix-and-match team pushed Lyon in their second-round game should give the Pretoria side confidence. A bonus point from this game will leave them just needing a win against Bordeaux at Loftus to advance.

DHL Stormers v Sale Sharks (Cape Town, Saturday 19.30)

The Stormers team, like all the others, will only be named on Friday afternoon, but we do know that John Dobson will go full strength for a game he reckons could be as tough as the one his men played against LaRochelle in December. That late win, secured with a last-gasp touchline conversion from Manie Libbok, ensured the Stormers remain in the hunt for the round of 16 and they will not want to waste the massive effort they put in there by blowing it against a Sale team that will be without England flyhalf George Ford due to injury but which could include a smattering of other star players, including the Du Preez trio of brothers who used to front the Sharks. The Stormers have picked up some winning momentum through the URC derby phase and should be fancied to do what is needed.

Rest of Champions Cup fixtures

Friday

Northampton Saints v Bayonne (22.00)

Saturday

Exeter Chiefs v Glasgow Warriors (15.00)

Lyon v Connacht (15.00)

Toulon v Munster (17.15)

Leinster v Stade Francais (19.30)

Ulster v Toulouse (22.00)

Cardiff Rugby v Harlequeins (22.00)

Sunday

Bath v Racing 92 (15.00)

La Rochelle v Leicester Tigers (17.15)

Bordeaux Begles v Saracens (19.30)

EPCR Challenge Cup

Friday

Newcastle v Benetton (22.00)

?Ospreys v Perpignan (22.00)

Saturday

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Oyonnax (15.00)

Clermont Auvergne v Scarlets (15.00)

Castres v Black Lion (17.15)

Zebre v Dragons (17.15)

Edinburgh v Gloucester (19.30)

Montpellier v Emirates Lions (22.00)

Sunday

Toyota Cheetahs v Pau (15.00)