GAVIN RICH | South African sides fall short again, but Champions Cup gap is closing

“Once again there are no South African teams going deep in the competition.”

That line was in one of the UK newspapers, referring to the Champions Cup, which will go into the quarterfinal weekend without any representation from this country.

There is, though, far more to the story this time than what has been a repeated refrain through most of South Africa’s participation in the European elite competition. This time it wasn’t a case of the teams disrespecting the competition, as they have been accused of doing in the past.

There was no lack of passion and commitment in the efforts of both the Bulls and Stormers as they went toe-to-toe with, in one case, historical giants in the European competition, Toulon, and in the other, the team of the moment, Glasgow.

It was impossible not to note how gutted the Stormers were after they were effectively robbed by a series of refereeing calls towards the end of the game against Toulon at Stade Mayol.

The Stormers lost by one point and the Bulls by four in Glasgow after dominating territory for long periods but being unable to convert it. That’s how close it came to the local focus homing in on a Cape Town quarterfinal between the Stormers and the Bulls.

There’s surely no better way of putting the European competition on the local map than a north and south shootout in front of what would surely have been a packed stadium, with the winner laying claim to being the first South African team to advance to a Champions Cup semifinal.

But we will have to wait at least another year before seeing a South African team finally make a mark in the elite club competition and, in doing so, sell it to South African eyes. There’s still a lot of confusion among local rugby followers regarding discerning which competition is which.

Certainly, the URC is still the competition a local team is most likely to win. The Stormers have won it once and been in two finals, and the Bulls have been in three. So while someone such as Stormers coach John Dobson was inconsolable after his team’s loss, there was also the reality that maybe his team had dodged a bullet.

Had they won, this is the scenario they’d be looking at heading into the business end of the season — a Champions Cup quarterfinal in Glasgow on Saturday, and then they’d fly home to play Connacht in the URC just a few days later, with Glasgow then due to visit for a top-of-the-log URC clash a week later.

Were the Stormers to win their quarterfinal in Glasgow this week, they’d then have a Champions Cup semifinal against Leinster a week after the Glasgow URC game, followed by a tough last two URC games overseas against Ulster and Cardiff to determine their finishing position on the URC log.

Do they have the depth to compete on two fronts? I don’t think so, not with the travel hurdles that the South African teams have to deal with. Actually, even Glasgow, who doesn’t have as much travel, will struggle to properly compete for both trophies.

Glasgow are due in Joburg after this weekend’s quarterfinal against Toulon and play the Stormers a week later, followed probably by a Champions Cup semifinal in Glasgow. Something surely has to give for them, as they don’t have the huge depth of the top French clubs.

But the South African challenge is getting closer, and it was interesting to look at who the key performers were in some of the games. Springbok prop Thomas du Toit stole the headlines overseas for his role in turning around Bath’s game against Saracens in the last 40 minutes.

David Ribbans, who has played for England but will qualify for the Boks next year, was the standout player in Toulon.

Du Toit is headed back to the Sharks next season, and if I were the Stormers, I’d break the bank to lure Ribbans back to Cape Town.

We know they are in the market for a lock because they recently lost out in a quest to lure Cobus Wiese from the Bulls.