The Bulls, on balance, have the greatest depth of the South African squads and they would have fancied themselves to beat Northampton Saints at home, send a decent match 23 to Castres and complete their commitments at home to Stade.
Somehow they contrived to lose a match to the Saints that was there for the winning. The Bulls created so many try-scoring opportunities, only to be denied by the intervention of the TMO, ill-discipline, inaccurate finishing and lost opportunities. Saints, by contrast, got a sniff and struck.
The Stormers were bedevilled with injury and when they lost in a ‘home’ match, played in another South African province, to French giants Toulon, they had a starting XV of players unavailable, including the core of their current Test Springboks.
The Sharks, when hosting the defending champions, tournament favourites and six times winners Toulouse, started without their Springbok fullback, Springbok inside centre and Springbok lock, who in Eben Etzebeth just happens to be the most capped Springbok in the history of the game.
I analysed the quality of the likes of Leinster, Toulon, Toulouse, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, who are among the favourites for the title.
Toulouse had 20-plus international players in their squad against the Sharks, Leinster travelled to La Rochelle with 21 internationals in their 23 and Bordeaux and La Rochelle’s match 23s read like a World XV.
This is what South African teams have to conquer in the future while ensuring they play themselves into a position to host URC play-off matches.
Leinster, alongside Toulouse, are without comparison in squad depth and they have not won a final, Champions Cup or URC, in the past three years. They failed in every Champions Cup final, twice to La Rochelle and once to Toulouse and stumbled in three successive URC semifinals, at home to the Bulls, at home to Munster and away to the Bulls.
Leinster’s failure to win any of the two titles, with THAT playing squad, highlights the magnitude of the challenge to be successful in both competitions in the same season.
Toulouse, Champions Cup and Top 14, did it last season. That is the exception and not the norm — and look at their squad.
South Africa, right now, largely have overachieved since the move north four seasons ago, but there has to be greater player investment of seasoned South African players, back to South Africa, and strategic identification of some marquee non-South African players.
Cobus Reinach’s return from Montpellier to South Africa, where he will play out of Cape Town for the Stormers, is a coup for the club and South African rugby. More of the same please, with a few top French and Argentinian players, a handful from the Pacific Islanders and at least one big name for each of the URC quartet from New Zealand.
That would make South African clubs proper Champions Cup contenders and not title pretenders in the guise of play-off contenders.
Keo Uncut
MARK KEOHANE | Bring back more experienced SA players if a local team is to win Investec Champions Cup
A failure to bolster squads will mean our best will invariably be top eight achievers, at best
Image: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images
Bring back more experienced South African players. And why not add the option of each of South Africa’s competing quintet having the option to sign non-South African players to strengthen squad depths.
This is the feeling of all South Africa’s leading coaches.
If a South African team is to win the Investec Champions Cup in the next three to five years, it is going to demand these squads are loaded with a mixture of youth, experience and grizzled Test players.
A failure to beef up squads will mean South Africa’s best will invariably be top eight achievers, at best.
I spent this week going through the history of the Champions Cup. It has been the premier title in Europe since its inception 30 years ago. Now, with the South African team competing for the third season it is more a global club knockout competition than it is Europe.
The travel to South Africa, even if for one Pool match, is significant in determining play-off places for the teams from up north. For the South African teams, of which three are in this season’s Champions Cup and two are in the EPC Challenge Cup, the best hope is an away last 16 play-off.
Anything beyond this is a commercial bonus, but a coach killer because it would mean travelling overseas for a quarterfinal, where away teams simply don’t win, and then trying to balance the demands of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship, which is the league that pays the bills and gets a club into the Champions Cup.
I would say the Sharks and Stormers, given the schedule and injury situations, have had it the toughest of the competing trio in the Champions Cup. The Bulls, who have to beat Stade Francais in Pretoria, will probably be the most disappointed with a failure to produce results in their three pool matches.
The Bulls, on balance, have the greatest depth of the South African squads and they would have fancied themselves to beat Northampton Saints at home, send a decent match 23 to Castres and complete their commitments at home to Stade.
Somehow they contrived to lose a match to the Saints that was there for the winning. The Bulls created so many try-scoring opportunities, only to be denied by the intervention of the TMO, ill-discipline, inaccurate finishing and lost opportunities. Saints, by contrast, got a sniff and struck.
The Stormers were bedevilled with injury and when they lost in a ‘home’ match, played in another South African province, to French giants Toulon, they had a starting XV of players unavailable, including the core of their current Test Springboks.
The Sharks, when hosting the defending champions, tournament favourites and six times winners Toulouse, started without their Springbok fullback, Springbok inside centre and Springbok lock, who in Eben Etzebeth just happens to be the most capped Springbok in the history of the game.
I analysed the quality of the likes of Leinster, Toulon, Toulouse, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, who are among the favourites for the title.
Toulouse had 20-plus international players in their squad against the Sharks, Leinster travelled to La Rochelle with 21 internationals in their 23 and Bordeaux and La Rochelle’s match 23s read like a World XV.
This is what South African teams have to conquer in the future while ensuring they play themselves into a position to host URC play-off matches.
Leinster, alongside Toulouse, are without comparison in squad depth and they have not won a final, Champions Cup or URC, in the past three years. They failed in every Champions Cup final, twice to La Rochelle and once to Toulouse and stumbled in three successive URC semifinals, at home to the Bulls, at home to Munster and away to the Bulls.
Leinster’s failure to win any of the two titles, with THAT playing squad, highlights the magnitude of the challenge to be successful in both competitions in the same season.
Toulouse, Champions Cup and Top 14, did it last season. That is the exception and not the norm — and look at their squad.
South Africa, right now, largely have overachieved since the move north four seasons ago, but there has to be greater player investment of seasoned South African players, back to South Africa, and strategic identification of some marquee non-South African players.
Cobus Reinach’s return from Montpellier to South Africa, where he will play out of Cape Town for the Stormers, is a coup for the club and South African rugby. More of the same please, with a few top French and Argentinian players, a handful from the Pacific Islanders and at least one big name for each of the URC quartet from New Zealand.
That would make South African clubs proper Champions Cup contenders and not title pretenders in the guise of play-off contenders.
READ MORE:
MARK KEOHANE | 17 frontline players injured at once — it was never going to be the Stormers we know
MARK KEOHANE | It’s not over yet: SA rugby players show why they’re winners, not whiners
MARK KEOHANE | Stormers are light on Bok players but heavy on pluck
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