CHAMPIONS CUP: Sharks are in it to win it

There is one good reason that the South African progress in the prestigious Investec Champions Cup should take a massive step forward this season - the Hollywoodbets Sharks are participating in it.

The Sharks missed out on playing in the Champions Cup last year due their failure to finish higher than eighth in the 2022/23 edition of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

The Welsh teams were guaranteed a spot in the European competition at that point, a ruling that has changed, and that was why their eighth place wasn’t good enough.

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Had it just been decided by URC placings, the Sharks, with a 14th place finish in 2023/2024, would have suffered a similar fate going into this season, but they were thrown a lifeline by their winning of the EPCR Challenge Cup.

It was the chance of returning to the Champions Cup that incentivised them in the secondary European competition, and it was the hunger to play in a competition that Eben Etzebeth in particular spoke so highly of after participating in it for Toulon that drove them to their Challenge Cup semifinal and final wins over Clermont and Gloucester respectively.

Sharks coach John Plumtree has demanded a better performance in the URC this season, and he’s got it, with the drought breaking win over the Stormers in Durban at the weekend lifting his team briefly into the top four, a position they have not held since a stage of the inaugural season.

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They were subsequently overtaken by Cardiff and the Emirates Lions, but their current sixth position also needs to be put into context - they have played a game less than Cardiff, and trail the Welsh outfit by just two points, while they are level with the Lions on points and just trail them on points difference.

DURBANITES WILL BE AT FULL STRENGTH ENTIRE WAY

It also requires reminding that the Sharks’ overseas tour, where they lost two of their three games, was undertaken by an understrength team.

And being understrength because of national calls means a lot more to the Sharks than it does to other teams because of the number of Springboks on their books.

And it is their star-studded, marquee quality that makes the Sharks the biggest challenger from South Africa in this season’s Champions Cup.

Whereas parts of the URC are played under-strength, the Champions Cup is always played at full strength, and the Sharks will be going into it with a team dominated by World Cup winners.

Two Bok forward stalwarts in the form of Etzebeth and Bongi Mbonambi missed the narrow win over the Stormers but should be back in the coming weeks, if not for Saturday’s Pool opener against Exeter Chiefs at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.

The team would have been stung by the way they were dominated at forward by the Stormers, but will expect to redress that when Etzebeth and Mbonambi are in tow.

Even without those two though the Sharks, thanks to the off-season recruiting that brought Jason Jenkins and Andre Esterhuizen to Durban, have depth in key areas that they didn’t before.

Jenkins, as he showed for the Bulls and Leinster, brings big impact when he is fit, while Esterhuizen was one of the saviours for the Sharks against the Stormers because of his ability to turn bad ball into good ball.

Plumtree’s decision to move Bok captain Siya Kolisi from flank to No 8 was also a smart move in that it makes room for the tireless specialist openside flank James Venter, and with Phepsi Buthelezi and Emmanuel Tshituka among the replacements, the Sharks have a dynamic and powerful bench.

TWO REALLY DECENT FLYHALVES 

One of the key areas where the Sharks have moved forward from their first appearance in the Champions Cup two years ago, when they made the quarterfinal where they lost away to Toulouse in a game that was quite competitive before the French giants pulled away in the last quarter, is at flyhalf.

Curwin Bosch was much loved by those who enjoyed what a kicking flyhalf could bring but unfortunately the former Eastern Province school boy star had serious flaws to his allround game that were exposed by the best teams.

Siya Masuku’s penchant for lining up a lot closer to the gainline made a big difference for the Sharks in the second half of last season and he was one of the heroes of the Challenge Cup triumph, with his game management and his calm demeanour when lining up place-kicks getting the Sharks out of a hole in the semifinal against Clermont.

Yet Masuku isn’t the only star quality flyhalf on the Sharks’ books. Jordan Hendrikse was playing fullback when he slotted the monster penalty that won the Sharks the Carling Currie Cup in the Johannesburg final in September, but the return of Bok frontline No 15 Apehele Fassi has seen him move to flyhalf, where he excelled for the Boks in their last test match of the year in Cardiff.

The growth of Fassi is another reason why the Sharks should be upbeat about their chances of taking South Africa deeper into the competition than any South African team has managed up to now.

Others are the growth of the Sharks team culture in the time Plumtree has been in charge, something that was never better advertised than when they won their tight Challenge Cup semifinal at the Stoop last year.

The experience of winning the Challenge Cup and then winning another trophy in the form of the Currie Cup means the Sharks take a trophy winning habit into their challenge for European glory, not to mention the leadership of celebrated international winners like Etzebeth, Kolisi, Mbonambi and Lukhanyo Am.

This is not a year where the Sharks are in the Champions Cup to make up the numbers - they are in it to win it.

BULLS AND STORMERS HAVE GROWN EXPERIENCE

Whether the other two South African teams, the Vodacom Bulls and the DHL Stormers, have similar ambition is something that will become clearer with time, but one thing they do have on the Sharks is the extra season they have had in the competition and the experience that will bring.

The Bulls made the quarterfinal for the first time last season but surrendered due to the logistics of having to play overseas at a critical juncture of their strong URC challenge, a competition where they eventually ended up contesting the final.

The Stormers, who were the inaugural URC champions in 2022, also put up a very creditable showing last year if you consider they were lumped in the so-called ‘Pool of Death’ alongside the likes of the then champions La Rochelle, perennial finalists Leinster, Leicester Tigers, Stade Francais and Sale Sharks. Getting out of that group and into the Round of 16 clash was an achievement in itself.

The Stormers beat La Rochelle in the pool phase and that was rightly seen as a statement performance.

Their exit was at the hands of the same team by the narrowest of margins in Cape Town, with Manie Libbok missing what would have been a match winning conversion with the last act of the game.

Their performances against La Rochelle in particular but also with their second string team at Welford Road in defeat to a star studded Leicester Tigers team will give the Stormers some confidence that they can go further this year, but much will depend on how quickly some key players return from injury.

They will be starting against Toulon in Gqeberha on Saturday without a phalanx of Boks including Salmaan Moerat, Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse, Evan Roos and Deon Fourie.

The last mentioned is due back shortly before Christmas, while Malherbe and Moerat will return before that. Roos is due back at the end of December, which will be in time for the two Champions Cup games scheduled for January, but Willemse won’t be back until February while there are doubts over whether Kitshoff will ever play again due to a neck injury that has required surgery.

Both the Stormers and Bulls should challenge better than they have before, but of the local teams it is definitely the Sharks who have the most realistic chance of going all the way.

WEEKEND CHAMPIONS CUP GAMES FEATURING SA TEAM

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Exeter Chiefs (Durban, Saturday 15.00)

DHL Stormers v Toulon (Gqeberha, Saturday 17.15)

Saracens v Vodacom Bulls (Barnet, Saturday 19.30)

FULL SCHEDULE FOR SA TEAM AFTER THIS:

SHARKS

Leicester v Sharks (Leicester, Saturday 14 December, 19.30)

Sharks v Toulouse (Durban, Saturday 11 January, 17.15)

Bordeaux Begles v Sharks (Bordeaux, Sunday 19 January, 15.00)

STORMERS

Harlequins v Stormers (London, Saturday 14 December, 22.00)

Stormers v Sale (Cape Town, Saturday 11 January, 15.00)