The Bulls’ defeat at the hands of Edinburgh brought an end to a disastrous season for SA teams in the EPCR competitions, and if the slide continues questions will have to be asked about the value derived from their participation.
That it was the worst season yet doesn’t require debate. At least in the first two seasons that the local sides played in the European Cup competitions there was representation in the quarterfinals of the elite Champions Cup. The Stormers and Sharks got that far in 2022/23, and the Bulls managed it last year.
This time around no SA side made the Champions Cup knockouts. No team left the group stage. I had a conversation with someone aligned to the Bulls who spoke about what might have been for the Bulls in Edinburgh had it not been for their slow start.
My response was that “what might have been” was only a place in the semifinal of a nothing competition. This column dealt last week with why Bulls director of rugby Jake White was chasing the Challenge Cup trophy. Like Newcastle United’s win in the English League Cup final a few weeks ago, any trophy is worth celebrating after a silverware drought.
But the Sharks’ selection for their round of 16 Challenge Cup game summed up where it stands. They went into their game against Lyon as the reigning champions yet with an understrength young team. Their lack of hunger to relive the experience of winning the Challenge Cup put last year’s achievement into perspective. The secondary competition was just a means for the Sharks to get into the first-tier competition, no more than that.
They didn’t need it this year so they didn’t play for it. And rightly not. The Challenge Cup only exists to give the teams not good enough to be in the more prestigious competition something to play for. It’s a plate event. Top players who have won trophies, which many of the Sharks have done with the Springboks, would be selling themselves short if they regarded the Challenge Cup as anything near a pinnacle of achievement and something to play for.
The SA teams, certainly the top sides the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers, need to be in the Champions Cup, where the prestige and glory is, or frankly there is no point in playing in the EPCR competition. Perhaps there’s a place there for the Lions and the Cheetahs, though I’d argue that given the logistical challenges of crossing the equator so frequently, even for the Lions playing in the Challenge Cup is a millstone around the neck.
The Sharks prioritised the URC as it is a bigger trophy and they are in the mix to win it this year as they head into the final phase of four league fixtures. Being still engaged in the Challenge Cup playoffs would have got in the way of that ambition.
Not that there’s much chance of any local team winning the URC this year either given the outstanding masterclass Leinster gave Glasgow Warriors in their Champions Cup quarterfinal. Leinster have made a habit of slipping in the URC playoffs, but it is hard to see them imploding again this year.
It wasn’t a Mickey Mouse team they beat 52-0 in Dublin. It was the team now placed second in the URC, a team that are the reigning champions in the competition. They are a team brimful of international players and yet Leinster made them look decidedly second rate, just like they did a useful Harlequins team the week before, when they also posted a score above 50.
Leinster are setting the benchmark for what the SA sides need to become if they want to have a realistic chance of mixing it with the upper echelon of teams, all of them French aside from Leinster, in the Champions Cup.
It will take a lot to get to Leinster’s level and it won’t happen overnight but a start would be if this time next year, if the SA teams again exit from the EPCR at this point, we are lamenting Champions Cup losses rather than Challenge Cup defeats. Having at least one team get to that stage of the elite competition should be the base requirement, though that would have been thought of as aiming low before this season’s abjectly embarrassing performances.
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