There was a marked contrast in the way the top two SA teams that were remaining in the Challenge Cup treated their round of 16 games at the weekend and it told us which of the Bulls and Sharks is more desperate to win a trophy for the sake of it being a trophy.
The Sharks have won two trophies in the past 12 months. The first was the Challenge Cup, which was a means for them to get into this season’s edition of the elite Champions Cup, which is the competition all the teams should want to be part of as it is where all the prestige is. As an illustration of that, the Sharks won the final against a team ranked lower than eighth in England the night before the main event, being the Champions Cup final, in front of half the number of fans.
While the trophy was meaningful for what it got his team, meaning entry into the top competition, the Sharks captain in that game, Eben Etzebeth, admitted he didn’t want to be playing in the curtain-raiser again. He wanted to have the experience of playing for the main European prize.
That the Sharks weren’t quite ready to make that challenge this year, and their defence coach admitted ahead of Sunday’s game in Lyon that they are still getting used to having to compete across two fronts.
With the Sharks due to play tough derbies against the Bulls and Stormers in the weeks immediately after his team had to go to England to play Leicester Tigers in a Champions Cup pool game, and with injuries to frontline players mounting up, coach John Plumtree had little choice but to go understrength for that game.
And with the most influential players on the respective components of the team, Etzebeth at forward and André Esterhuizen at the back, both missing when Toulouse arrived in Durban in January, the Sharks were always going to be up against it. Toulouse still had their now injured talisman Dupont in the team, and ultimately the Sharks acquitted themselves well but lost 20-8.
Then it was Bordeaux-Begles away in their bid to make the Champions Cup round of 16 and, with the key players still missing, that was always going to be a bridge too far. The consequence of that was like the Bulls, the Sharks were effectively demoted to the Challenge Cup, while the Stormers finished last in their pool so didn’t make it at all.
The Sharks have won the Challenge Cup and they’ve also, almost as an afterthought, won the Currie Cup. Plumtree felt at the time that the tough knock-out phase of the domestic competition would come back and bite him. And given the injury crisis across all ranks of his squad that hit later, maybe it did.
The celebrations had to be short-lived for the real business of the URC started immediately. Plumtree has described the URC trophy as a big trophy, and that would have directed his decision to send a young and understrength team to Lyon.
Maybe the Sharks youngsters surprised us on Sunday evening but the Sharks selection showed a lack of ambition in that competition. They’ve already won it and its standing is such that it should really be renamed the Consolation Cup. It’s a similar level to a third place playoff in a World Cup — it’s only relevant to the team that really wants or needs third, everyone else forgets.
Which is really where the Bulls are now and why their director of rugby Jake White has made no secret of the fact he is going all in for the Challenge Cup. White has won trophies with the Bulls, but they were a long time ago now and have a Covid asterisk next to them.
When White was asked at a postmatch press conference after a Stormers league win over his team in early 2022 whether the SA Shield should mean anything to the Stormers, White chided the questioner by stating “The Stormers need a trophy, any trophy will do.”
That is where he is now. For White, a trophy for the Loftus cabinet is important for it will bolster confidence the next time his team is in the mix and playing in a final.
Whatever the case, fair play to White for going all out, an approach that saw them score a good away win over Bayonne, for if you are playing in a competition you might as well try to win it and the schedule this time helps White in the sense that by beating Bayonne they have turned a one match trip into effectively a four game tour (they have two overseas URC games scheduled next).
Plus White with his rotational selection policy is arguably building the depth to be able to compete in two competitions. Just the URC and Challenge Cup is the level if trophies are the currency, and not yet the URC and Champions Cup. Winning the former will be a stepping stone to getting to the latter.
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