How and why SA teams should be much more competitive in next season’s Champions Cup

Played 12, won three, lost nine.

It was not a pretty sight for South African teams in the Champions Cup this season, and none of them have reached the play-offs – after the Bulls (quarter-finals) and Stormers (round of 16) made it through the pool stages last season.

We’ve heard from the coaches and players about the challenges of playing in Europe’s top competition – the travel, player budgets, injuries, etc. Those are all valid concerns, and many of those reasons are what rugby people like to term “uncontrollables” – they can’t do anything about it.

Bulls boss Jake White has stated many times that he would love to have old Pretoria stalwarts such as Handré Pollard, RG Snyman, Lood de Jager, Jesse Kriel, Jan Serfontein, Ivan van Zyl, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Hanro and Wiaan Liebenberg, Madosh Tambwe and many others back at Loftus Versfeld.

But for many reasons, mainly financial, that’s not possible – and that goes for the other SA franchises as well.

However, there are a number of factors that are within each team’s “control”, which can ensure that the Sharks, Stormers and Bulls are much more competitive in next season’s Champions Cup (which they will hopefully qualify for).

The first immediate change that can be made is the mindset of each team towards the competition. The Champions Cup is the holy grail of club rugby – much like the Champions League in football.

Yet, I get the feeling that the United Rugby Championship is the main priority for the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks, considering the kind of selection decisions that have been made in both seasons. Last year, of course, the Bulls picked a second-string side for their quarter-final against Northampton, and subsequently lost 59-22.

Just in the past weekend, the Stormers left big guns such as Manie Libbok and Warrick Gelant in the stands (and Deon Fourie at home), and went down 31-22 to Racing 92 in Paris in a game where they needed just a log point to reach the play-offs.

As it turned out, the Cape side had enough opportunities to win the game anyway, and probably would have done so if they had their fielded strongest possible team.

So, prioritising the Champions Cup games should be a major shift that the SA teams need to make. This competition is effectively a knockout event, where every single game is of critical importance.

In contrast, the URC is a league season stretching from September to May, with the play-offs and final in June. So, there is always an opportunity to catch up in the URC, as the Stormers did in the inaugural season after a difficult start to win the title in the end.

But the critical period in the Champions Cup are the pool games in December and January, and that is where the SA teams need to have their best possible players available.

The other curve-ball in that scenario is the Springbok Tests in July, the Rugby Championship from August to late September, and then the November tour to Europe.

That led to a crazy situation at the Bulls late last year, where someone like Canan Moodie spent nine weeks in Europe after a URC Bulls tour, a four-week Bok tour, and then another a few weeks with the Bulls.

So, for example in the Moodie situation, he could’ve been spared the first Bulls trip.

As White said after last weekend’s 48-7 win over Stade Francais at Loftus, the Bulls are unlikely to face such a scenario again next season.

Considering the Bok schedule this year, the SA franchises may have some relief for their top players. The world champions are facing Italy and Georgia in three July Tests, where second-stringers can be chosen by Rassie Erasmus, with the priority being the two All Black Tests in New Zealand in September.

During that period, the URC must take a back seat for the top players, which will also help develop the franchises’ depth, so that the best team can be fielded in the Champions Cup in December and January.

Ensuring that happens and qualifying for the last-16 and quarter-finals at least will also quieten those dissenting European voices who are critical of South Africa’s participation in their competitions.