The Cell C Sharks and Vodacom Bulls are in real danger of not qualifying for next season’s Heineken Champions’ Cup, even if they win their matches this weekend.
The possibility that a club from the Vodacom United Rugby Championship could win the EPCR Challenge Cup has made an already tight playoff race even tighter when it comes to the Champions’ Cup qualification.
While the competition rules state that the four Shield winners will qualify for the Champions’ Cup, as well as the next four best teams, there is also a rule that gives automatic qualification to the teams that win both the Champions’ Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup.
With three URC sides still in the running in the EPCR Challenge Cup, it is not impossible that one of them would win the competition in the coming weeks and thereby attain automatic qualification for the Champions’ Cup as well.
If that scenario happens, it would mean that there would be one less qualification place on offer as teams head into the final round of the URC league phase this weekend.
At the moment three of the four shields have been decided with Leinster, the DHL Stormers and Glasgow Warriors all winning their respective shields already this season, while the Welsh shield will come down to the wire this weekend when Cardiff and Ospreys battle it out for title honours there and a place in the Champions’ Cup.
Glasgow are one of the three teams still in contention for the Challenge Cup with Benetton and Scarlets the other two. Both the latter two teams have no chance of winning their respective shields, so a win for either the Italian side or the Welsh team would see them qualify automatically for the Champions’ Cup.
Scarlets play Glasgow Warriors on the 29th of April, while Benetton play Toulon on the 30th of April.
If that scenario comes to pass, it would heighten the pressure on the sixth, seventh and eighth placed sides in the URC this weekend - namely the Cell C Sharks, Vodacom Bulls and Connacht.
Connacht face Glasgow this weekend so both the Bulls and Sharks will be hoping that Franco Smith’s side does them a favour and stops Connacht, preferably also denying them a bonus point in the process.
The Sharks have a tough game against Munster, the latter full of confidence after stopping the Stormers’ unbeaten run while the Bulls face unbeaten log leaders Leinster this weekend in a double-header with the Lions-Zebre game at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
With the Welsh sides out of the top eight, it means only the top seven will qualify for the Champions’ Cup.
The Sharks are in the most precarious position on 46 points, while the Bulls have 48 and Connacht 49. If both the South African sides win, they will then face an anxious wait to see what Connacht do against Glasgow before knowing who will qualify for the Champions’ Cup next season.
There is one other scenario that could work in the favour of at least one of the two South African sides - and that is if runaway URC leaders Leinster win the Champions’ Cup, then it would return to normal and the EPCR Challenge win would not make a difference.
But as it stands, URC success in the EPCR Challenge Cup could see that both the Bulls and Sharks could miss out of Champions’ Cup qualification, which would be a travesty from their point of view.