SA challenge still needs to arrive

The South African Investec Champions Cup challenge ended at the weekend like it started at the beginning of December - with an understrength team getting learnings and gaining experience of the competition in defeat.

If the local participation in the competition is to be taken seriously and the South African teams are ever going to feel they are in Europe to stay, it has to start becoming about more than gaining experience. This is easier said than done given the logistical obstacles faced by the travel demands, particularly when you get to the playoff phase of the competition.

While there were some big wins scored during the second year of South Africa's participation, such as the DHL Stormers beating La Rochelle and the Vodacom Bulls doing the same to Saracens, those were all achieved at home, where the fortress remained impregnable until the Stormers' one-point round-of-16 defeat last week.

What was never realistic though were the chances of a South African team going all the way, something that will require a sharp learning curve for the wider group of players that both the Bulls and Stormers gave opportunities to in this season's competition.

It was the Stormers that kicked off the South African campaign at Welford Road on 8 December, with their second-string team doing really well and being unlucky not to at least get a bonus point out of the game. Had they managed the point that was the very least of what they deserved, they would have avoided La Rochelle in the round of 16 and would almost certainly have played a quarterfinal this past weekend.

Instead, the Vodacom Bulls were the only South African team to advance to the point that the Hollywoodbets Sharks and the Stormers exited last year, and they went in at Franklin Gardens to play Gallagher Premiership leaders Northampton Saints at the weekend with a side that was as understrength as the one the Stormers fielded in December. The end scoreline wasn’t as close as the one at Welford Road, but there were nonetheless positives that Bulls coach Jake White would have taken out of it.

Positives such as the return to fitness and form of No 8 Cameron Hanekom. The defence was all over the place, as you might expect when you choose a changed-up team featuring so many players coming back from injury, but the Bulls did have their moments on attack.

NOT MUCH CHOICE

In both instances detailed above of South African sides going into Champions Cup games under-strength, and the Bulls also did it when they lost narrowly to Lyon in Lyon in mid-December, the coaches didn’t have much choice. Or, perhaps to put it more accurately, they faced a dilemma over a potential compromise.

For the Stormers, there was the reality that they were playing La Rochelle just six days after the Welford Road trip. The game was in Cape Town. Logistically, giving both games what coach John Dobson would call the Full Metal Jacket wasn’t an option. And in White’s case, his team has a big Vodacom United Rugby Championship game to look forward to at Loftus this weekend.

Again, he didn’t have many options given that, like the Stormers would have been had they got through last week and made it to a quarterfinal against Leinster, he had so many squad members with niggles and generally showing the effects of what has been a busy period of games.

With Leinster also featuring in the Bulls’ Champions Cup future if the Bulls had got through their quarterfinal, the reality is that the URC front-runners made the chances of a South African team going to the final very remote. Particularly given the way that Leinster savaged a La Rochelle team no doubt feeling the effects of their trip to Cape Town in the AVIVA Stadium quarterfinal.

So in the final analysis, you’d have to say that the South African challenge probably ended when it was always going to end. Hopefully, the experience gained by the players who profited from their coaches spreading the selection net and improving the depth of the squad that has experience of Champions Cup play will pay off next year, which will be South Africa’s third appearance in the elite European competition.

THE EXCUSE IS VALID BUT CAN’T CONTINUE

Both the South African coaches will know that the local challenge in the competition will have to become stronger if this country’s participation is to be taken seriously. Right now the excuse, which is that the local sides are learning, is valid, but it can’t continue like that for much longer, particularly not when it appears the European rugby cognoscenti are questioning the value of having South Africa playing in their competition.

Given what is required to win the Champions Cup, with Toulouse probably being more of a representation of the French national team than La Rochelle, who are like a World XV drawn from all parts, it is the Sharks who represent South Africa’s more realistic hope of more immediate success.

They took a significant further step towards getting into next season’s Champions Cup, which is the necessary first step for them after they failed to make it into this year’s competition, when they beat Edinburgh in their quarterfinal in Durban. But it gets tougher from here as they have to play their remaining games away, starting with a potentially perilous semifinal against Clermont Auvergne on 4 May.

The Sharks do now have momentum though, with the Edinburgh triumph being their fourth win in succession, and it will be interesting to see how coach John Plumtree plays it as his team return to the URC over the next two weeks. Plumtree made it clear in the last two URC games that he was using them to get momentum for the Challenge Cup. But his top players might now need a rest, so does he sacrifice the winning momentum to ensure good player management and a fresh team for the semifinal?

Weekend Investec Champions Cup results

Bordeaux Begles 41 Harlequins 42

Leinster 40 La Rochelle 13

Northampton Saints 59 Vodacom Bulls 22

Toulouse 64 Exeter Chiefs 26

Investec Cup semifinals

Leinster v Northampton Saints (4 May, 18.30)

Toulouse v Harlequins (5 May, 16.00)

EPCR Challenge Cup results

Benetton 39 Connacht 24

Hollywoodbets Sharks 36 Edinburgh 30

Clermont Auvergne 53 Uster 14

Gloucester 23 Ospreys 13

Challenge Cup semifinals

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Clermont Auvergne (4 May, 13.30)

Gloucester v Benetton (4 May, 16.00)