The Hollywoodbets Sharks would much rather be playing in the Investec Champions Cup but their demotion to the EPCR Challenge Cup this season does come with some benefits, such as the opportunity to give some top players a break and fringe players an opportunity this weekend.
The Sharks have flown to Lyon for their opening game in a competition they won in 2024 but which they showed little appetite to go all out for when they found themselves competing in the knockout phases of Europe’s secondary competition after making the drop from the Champions Cup at the end of the group phase the following season.
The Sharks enjoyed winning the Challenge Cup at the home of the Tottenham Hotspur English Premier League football team but it was a means to an end - they were listing near the bottom of the Vodacom URC that season and winning the Challenge Cup became the only means to qualify for the next Champions Cup.
MATCH WEEK 🦈 The Hollywoodbets Sharks are off to France for the EPCR Challenge Cup. 🆚 @LeLOURugby 📍 Matmut Stadium, Lyon 📅 Saturday, 17 October ⏰ 14:00 CAT #SharksRugbyClub #BlackWhiteForever #HollywoodbetsSharks #ChallengeCupRugby https://t.co/k6Fa7ts07f
— Sharks Rugby Club (@SharksRugby) October 13, 2026
Playing the Friday night final as a curtain-raiser to the Saturday main event final between Toulouse and Leinster whet the appetites for proper European success, but the Sharks were not fooled into believing it was the real deal.
ROTATION FOR DEVELOPMENT DOESN’T LESSEN DRIVE TO WIN
John Plumtree was the Sharks coach when the Sharks won the Challenge Cup, effectively making history by becoming the first South African team to win an EPCR competition, but has subsequently been replaced by JP Pietersen.
The new coach said in an interview with supersport.com before the kick-off to the current season that the Challenge Cup games would be used as a chance to rotate selections and thereby grow depth and the playing capacity of individual players.
At the same time, he said the Sharks would be going all out to win it.
“We go all out in all the competitions we compete in,” said Pietersen.
Of course he had to say that, but at the same time he wasn’t being duplicitous - the Sharks going for silverware while spreading their depth will serve a purpose.
And if they did well in the Challenge Cup, it would confirm the hoped for improvement to the Sharks depth that has started to happen subsequent to a change in the personnel and structure that has driven the club’s recruitment strategy in past years and which proved problematic to a succession of coaches who came through the revolving door at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
Already Pietersen has given some indication of where the Lyon game might stand when explaining one of his selections for last week’s URC derby against the DHL Stormers in Cape Town.
He said the plan was always to give former Junior Bok flank Matt Ramao a chance to start successive games, with the Lyon fixture being the second one.
AN INVALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
For Ramao and those Sharks players who will be backing up in Lyon from their Cape Town experience, where the Sharks were dominated to an even greater extent than their eventual 17 point losing margin might have indicated, the trip to France offers a chance for some redemption.
Certainly playing against French teams in France is a useful part of any young player’s learning curve and Pietersen has spoken about how the experience of playing in EPCR competitions being built up by a large swathe of South African players has to have the long term effect of improving the country’s performance.
It may be the Challenge Cup now, but Lyon are a long established EPCR team and venue and young players like Ramao, Lili Bester if he plays and Zekhethelo Siyaya will be able to draw on that experience when, as hopefully should happen if they make the promised improvements in the URC that their early form suggests, they get to play Champions Cup in future.
NOT EXPECTING REPEAT OF LAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER SCENARIO
“We have sent changed up teams in the past and have struggled but the players are getting used to playing in those games, and someone like Matt Ramao is not a new player anymore, so I don’t think we will be going as lambs to the slaughter,” said Pietersen.
The Sharks have fitted that description in the past when travelling to EPCR games where there is a logistical challenge involved around timing of URC games or return Champions Cup/Challenge Cup games in Durban because of a glaring chasm between the first choice teams and second choice teams.
"Hey Siri, how do you say Training Session For Lou Rugby" in French? 💭 #SharksRugbyClub #BlackWhiteForever #HollywoodbetsSharks #ChallengeCupRugby https://t.co/ttySrB9T0K
— Sharks Rugby Club (@SharksRugby) October 13, 2026
Both the names on the squad sheet and the early season performances, meaning the ones before the Springboks returned, suggest that has changed and that rotation of selection won’t carry quite the same perils as it did before.
At the very least the performances in the Challenge Cup will answer questions in addition to offering opportunities.
The Sharks’ squad for the Lyon game will be announced on Wednesday morning and the smart money will be on top Boks and other stalwart starters who have a heavy workload in the URC and for the Boks ahead of them being rested for this one.