STRIKING IT RICH: On why SA needs the Champions Cup

WE ARE MISSING THE BIGGEST WEEKEND OF THE CLUB SEASON

There’s been a lot of copy written on the UK media platforms I subscribe to over the past months on the Investec Champions Cup, but this week, the biggest of the season, there was a noticeable drop off. From plentiful to almost nothing.

There is nothing weird about that. The English interest in the competition died when the Bath challenge died in the semifinal stage. And so it goes. When the Springboks were knocked out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand with considerable help from referee Bryce Lawrence, my colleague Brenden Nel and I stayed on until the end. Meaning for the fortnight, the Boks weren’t there. But the demand for copy from back home was not nearly as intense.

It worked for me because it gave me time to work on Peter de Villiers’ book, Politically Incorrect. I started writing a few days after the Boks exited and I had almost the entire book done by the time I arrived home. If the Champions Cup was like a World Cup and it required me to be in another country for its duration, I could have written several books since the South African teams made their exit, which was on the Easter weekend in the round of 16.

The Stormers, Bulls and Sharks have all played one Champions Cup quarterfinal, but generally round of 16 has been as far as they’ve got - and last season there was no SA participation beyond the group phase.

So, with this weekend being the flagship of the Champions Cup, is it really a surprise that it is struggling to become the draw it should be in this country? The English interest ended at the semifinal stage, the South African at the round of 16. That was long before the main event, the weekend that is the biggest sell.

Those who do watch the finals weekend, which incorporates Friday night’s EPCR Challenge Cup showdown between Ulster, who are desperate to break a 20-year trophy drought, and Montpellier, followed by the main event of Bordeaux-Begles looking to retain the trophy they won for the first time last year from a hungry Leinster, will get why this country should want to be there.

MAKING CHAMPIONS CUP A BIG PART OF THE URC’S RAISON D’ETRE

So those who knew what SARU president Mark Alexander had actually said in his Cape Town press conference knew when they saw it that the story about this country wanting to withdraw from the EPCR competitions was fake news. Or maybe, to put it more politely, it was a misinterpretation by someone based in England of what was said many thousands of kilometres away.

Whether it was a deliberate misinterpretation or not, only the writer would know, but after witnessing the fuss the English media made of what Springbok hooker Bongi Mbonambi may or may not have said to England flanker Tom Curry in a week where they should have been focused on a World Cup final between the Springboks and All Blacks, I would say it is par for the course.

What Alexander actually said at that Cape Town press conference was that there will be a review of all competitions in July. Which you’d imagine should be the case every year. There was no mention of the Champions Cup, and sure enough, the next morning, SA Rugby put out a press release confirming my impression that the UK media were jumping the gun.

This country leaving the Champions Cup would make no sense, and it goes well beyond just the fact that SA has now paid the significant amount of money required to become full shareholders in the EPCR. It relates to the overriding narrative of what has become known as the bread and butter competition for SA teams - the Vodacom URC.

The fuss around the Lions finally clinching a place in the top eight last week was not driven by them being part of the URC playoffs. Winning a passage to Leinster to play a quarterfinal is hardly something to be excited about, but finally getting to sit at the top table rather than be limited to the secondary EPCR Challenge Cup was.

In the same vein, the Sharks’ big miss this season was not failing to make the URC playoffs, but failing to qualify for the Champions Cup. Long ago, through the words of their then CEO Ed Coetzee, the Sharks made it known that their aim wasn’t to win the URC, but to win the Champions Cup. But you can’t get to challenge for the Champions Cup if you don’t shape in the URC.

Even in the first season of URC, when SA was yet to become part of the Champions Cup, much of the goal-setting of John Dobson and his Stormers team that went on to win the inaugural title revolved around making it into the following season’s Champions Cup.

As it stands, the top eight of the 16 teams in the URC go into the Champions Cup. What would happen if the SA teams weren’t part of the Champions Cup? The URC is a fine competition, but the Champions Cup is the big one. It is very much the URC’s reason for being.

RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP AND CURRIE CUP RESCHEDULING SHOULD BE A PRIORITY

The player welfare issues that the SARU president referred to at his media conference are not rooted in this country’s commitment to participating on two European fronts, taxing and logistically challenging though it undeniably is, but are the 12-month season resulting from the simultaneous commitment to the southern hemisphere season at international level and northern hemisphere at club level.

Connected to that is the scheduling of the Currie Cup into a window which, because of our alignment to the northern hemisphere international club competitions, should now be the SA off-season.

Playing the Currie Cup from July through to September has never made sense to anyone aside from sponsors who want an open window for the competition to be showcased in. When Alexander refers to competition reviews, the rescheduling of the Currie Cup would surely be more of a priority than reassessing the commitment to the EPCR competitions, of which SA is now finally a fully paid-up trustee.

It is beyond the remit of local administrators, but an even bigger priority is surely for SA Rugby to become more forceful with its Sanzaar partners in pressing for the Rugby Championship to be rescheduled into the same window as the Six Nations. As it stands, the Springboks are involved in the Rugby Championship from August through to the beginning of October, which is when they should be having their off-season and pre-season.

Playing international rugby in February through to March would be a massive change for New Zealand and Australia, and you can understand their reticence, but what is the Championship without the Springboks? The Aussies are more aligned with the thinking than they were, so maybe a little brinkmanship could swing the final stumbling block, which is the Kiwis.

THE CHALLENGE TO COMPETE ON TWO FRONTS CREATES DEPTH

It’s unlikely to be the main reason that English scribes want SA out of the Champions Cup, but there is also the not insignificant potential that competing across two fronts has for driving this country towards a position of sustained dominance of the global game.

Already, it is noticeable that the SA teams have made significant improvements to their depth, something that has to happen to meet the demands of playing in both the URC and the Champions Cup. It is just logistically impossible to play the same team in both.

There are some English pundits who have asked “Why should we be helping South Africa?” And it is a fair point. But if SA has paid up and are shareholders in the Champions Cup, I am afraid, it is what it is. If this country doesn’t want to be part of the Champions Cup, then the SA administrators will make that decision. No one else.

But that decision is highly unlikely to be forthcoming because being part of the URC and the Champions Cup, and as already outlined, you can’t really have one without the other, is going to contribute to the Boks becoming even more formidable than they already are.

It may seem like pie in the sky, and the disparity in financial wealth between overseas clubs and SA clubs has been discussed here before, but SA is such a fertile breeding ground for rugby talent, and the pipelines are finally working effectively, that a bit of patience will, in time, lead to the local teams being able to be competitive on both fronts. To the benefit of the national team.

FORGET THE DISGRUNTLED FANS, WHAT ABOUT THE PROTEAS?

The Springboks have a tough start to their 2026 international season as they host England in their first-ever Nations Cup fixture. The timing isn’t great, in the sense that you’d imagine the Boks would have preferred their home Nations Cup leg to be reversed - as in start with Wales, then play Scotland, and then England, who are the toughest of the three opponents.

The Boks could be more vulnerable in the first official international of the year. But what does make it easier for the Boks is the fact that they will be playing the game at home, and it will be at Ellis Park. Apart from the altitude, they also have a passionate and, at times, aggressive crowd urging them on. How many points is that support worth for the Boks? It could be as much as 10.

But now imagine that SA Rugby sold out Ellis Park for the game not to SA fans, but to mostly English supporters. How big would the home ground advantage for the Boks be then? I ask the question because that is effectively what has been done to any advantage the Proteas might have enjoyed in the potentially deciding New Year's test against England at Newlands.

I was at all five days of the last New Year's test featuring England in 2019. It already then felt like it was a home game for England, and for that game, the local governing body did make tickets available to locals. Which they haven’t yet for the forthcoming New Year’s test in January 2027, to the rightful chagrin of Capetonians who are known for their support of the longest cricketing format.

Yes, CSA is need to make money, but administrators are here to serve and not just chase the bucks, and you play a dangerous game when you disrespect what should be your guaranteed market. This is effectively the case when you sell out the tickets to foreigners and corporate concerns before the advertised opening time for the local public.

I knew the furore was coming because I was contacted by an Australian tour operator some time ago to help with identifying suitable hotels for his tour group to stay in during the Australian tests in Gqeberha and Durban in October.

I did that, but was later told that they had to cancel the bookings in some of the hotels that I had suggested because they weren’t the hotels specified by the tour company that SA cricket was aligned to.

They coughed up because they had no choice and also paid for day tickets that were priced way beyond what I imagine tickets will be for five-day games in Durban and Gqeberha in October. I am sure it all left a bitter taste in the mouths of our foreign visitors.

Capetonians can still go to the Newlands test against England - if they are prepared to buy one of the tour packages that will get them two nights in a Cape Town hotel, which obviously we don’t need if we live here, and they are prepared to part with R13 000 for one day of play. Sorry, but that’s not geared towards making the Proteas accessible to their local supporters.

By all means, welcome the Barmy Army, it is what makes an England game special, but don’t forget the people who make your business what it is!

A WORD OF CAUTION

After the New Year game in 2000, I wrote a newspaper column based on my experience of being at Newlands when it felt like it was an English venue, in which I related it to rugby. A British and Irish Lions tour was scheduled for here the following year, and in the column, I cautioned our rugby administrators against making the mistake of not making enough tickets available to locals.

That was based on my experience of the 2009 Lions tour, when mates in Durban who had always gone to every Kings Park test since they were kids couldn’t get tickets to watch the first match of the series. They were incensed about that, but ended up going to watch the game at a venue in Umhlanga Rocks.

They enjoyed that experience so much that when the All Blacks came to Durban later that same season to play a Tri-Nations game, they spurned the opportunity to go to Kings Park and instead went back to Umhlanga Rocks. They were happy to do the same for every test match for years after that, and certainly weren’t disappointed that they weren’t at Kings Park when Allister Coetzee’s team lost 57-15 to the All Blacks in 2016.

It might seem odd to be so cautious about rugby at this time when the Boks are world champions and every test is sold out, but there is a reason I mention that 2016 game. And as Covid should have taught us, it isn’t just the danger of the team slipping back into bad old ways that should inspire administrators to keep their regular supporters happy.

I well remember holiday resorts normally priced out of the market for locals and only affordable to overseas visitors, dropping prices and trying to appeal to the local market when Covid curtailed international travel.

My thoughts were, "Ja, you guys suddenly care about us now, but you don’t in normal times, so you can get lost." There may be regular New Year's test attendees who might have a similar attitude next time they get a mail into their inbox, as I do regularly, asking them to get behind the Proteas and attend a game that the Barmy Army wouldn’t be interested in.

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