CHAMPIONS CUP PREVIEW: Only the best get to compete

When the Hollywoodbets Sharks won the Challenge Cup last year it was a landmark breakthrough for South African teams in an EPCR competition, but for coach John Plumtree and his players it was just a case of whetting the appetite for the real deal.

The Investec Champions Cup is where the prestige is, where the emotion is, and most of the players who have played across many different competitions in the world will be in agreement that winning the competition is the pinnacle of achievement when it comes to club/provincial competitions globally.

You just have to look at the legendary coaches who have guided teams to success in the European competition to understand the role it plays in creating standing and status, and the gravitas it has for both the players and those who mentor them.

Calling out their names is like calling out a who’s who of the world’s top coaches over the past few decades - Ian McGeechan and Warren Gatland jump out at you as coaches who have been successful in charge of the British and Irish Lions. Then there’s former Wallaby coach Michael Cheika, who guided Leinster to one of the Irish provinces four titles.

Then there’s former Ireland and current Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt, who first made his name winning the Champions Cup under its then guise as the Heineken Cup, France’s Bernard Laporte, while Ronan O’Gara is arguably a future top international coach. Dean Richards, who led Leicester Tigers to two titles, Mark McCall who was successful at Saracens, are two other coaches who were highly regarded and well known within the coaching industry.

SOMETHING FOR JAKE TO ADD TO HIS CV

There are no South African coaches on that list but Jake White and John Dobson will be hoping to change that, and while he is a Kiwi by birth and was an assistant at the All Blacks, Plumtree will consider himself a naturalised South African after his many years both playing and coaching in Durban.

White has of course won the Rugby World Cup but would love to add the Champions Cup to his impressive CV. The closest he has come was last year’s quarterfinal, which is also as far as Dobson has got (his team lost to Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park in the 2023 quarterfinal), while Plumtree got a small taste of success when his team won the Challenge Cup, which secured his team’s place in this year’s competition, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in May.

Of the South African teams, it is the Sharks who are arguably in the toughest group. They find themselves in Pool 1, which also features the reigning champions and six time winners Toulouse. The French giants, hopefully with Antoine du Pont in tow, are set to visit Hollywoodbets Kings Park on 11 January, and with both teams having a core of players who have excelled for France and the Boks respectively, it could be the closest thing you can get right now to a re-enactment of last year’s World Cup quarterfinal epic between the two great rugby nations.

The other teams in their Pool are Bordeaux Begles, rated as the coming team in the French leagues, former Champions Cup winners Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers, and the Irish province Ulster. Teams from the same league don’t meet in the early stages of the competition, so the Sharks won’t be playing Ulster, but the two teams will be vying for the placings on the group log that will put them into the Round of 16 in April.

NO SUCH THING AS AN EASY POOL

The Bulls have English champions Northampton Saints to contend with in their group, along with two time Champions Cup winners Saracens. The Bulls beat Saracens in Pretoria last year, but Saracens will be eager to avenge that result when they start their respective campaigns at the Saracens homeground in Barnet on Saturday night.

There is no such thing as an easy group in the Champions Cup, as shown by Pool 4, where the Stormers find themselves vying with newly crowned URC champions Glasgow Warriors, Racing 92, Sale Sharks, Toulon and Harlequins. The mighty Leinster and the recent two time champions, La Rochelle, once again find themselves in the same group - Pool 2.

With URC stalwarts Benetton entering the mix this season because of their good finish in 2023//2024, there’s a healthy spread of nations represented in the competition this year, with only Wales of the established northern nations missing. That was because when the Sharks won the Challenge Cup, the Ospreys’ eighth placed finish on the URC log wasn’t enough. This is an exacting competition, and only the best get to compete.

Those that don’t make it to the top half of their leagues, as the Sharks showed last year, can get to be part of it by winning the Challenge Cup, which also kicks off at the weekend.

Weekend first round Pool fixtures

Bath v La Rochelle (Friday 22.00)

Hollywoodbets Sharks v Exeter Chiefs (Saturday 15.00)

Clermont-Auvergne v Benetton (Saturday 15.00)

DHL Stormers v Toulon (Saturday 17.15)

Northampton Saints v Castres Olympique (Saturday 17.15)

Munster v Stade Francais (Saturday 19.30)

Saracens v Vodacom Bulls (Saturday 19.30)

Glasgow Warriors v Sale Sharks (Saturday 22.00)

Racing 92 v Harlequins (Saturday 22.00)

Bordeaux Begles v Leicester Tigers (Sunday 15.00)

Toulouse v Ulster (Sunday 17.15)

Bristol Bears v Leinster (Sunday 19.30)

EPCR Challenge Cup fixtures

Dragons v Montpellier (Friday 22.00)

Gloucester v Edinburgh (Friday 22.00)

Black Lion v Vannes (Saturday 15.00)

Bayonne v Scarlets (Saturday 15.00)

Lyon v Cardiff (Saturday 17.15)

Connacht v Zebre (Saturday 22.00)

Toyota Cheetahs v Perpignan (Sunday 15.00)

Pau v Newcastle Falcons (Sunday 15.00)

Ospreys v Emirates Lions (Sunday 17.15)