CHAMPIONS CUP: Good start and home wins crucial to SA improvement

Last season was a disastrous one for the South African teams in the Investec Champions Cup and the failure of any teams to make it through to the round of 16 phase was mostly down to their poor starts in the competition.

Indeed, while the Hollywoodbets Sharks did start well at home against Exeter Chiefs, it went pear-shaped for them after that, while both the DHL Stormers and the Vodacom Bulls saw their hopes disappear after the first two rounds.

The Bulls lost to Saracens away during a massive storm in the first round before being upset at home by Northampton Saints, while the Stormers suffered a narrow defeat in the opener to Toulon in Gqeberha and then got well beaten by Harlequins in London.

It is instructive though when assessing the chances of the local teams in the new edition of the elite European competition that starts at the weekend, and deciding which of them might have the best chance of progressing far into the competition, to look at the factors that contributed to last season’s disasters.

NOT USING HOME ADVANTAGE

Firstly, while the people of Gqeberha turn out in their droves to support the Stormers just because that region is so starved of top rugby, and their venue is far superior to the Danie Craven Stadium or other alternative venues, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is not their home ground.

They are far more familiar with their spiritual home, DHL Stadium, and it is there, in front of the people of Cape Town, that they have a particularly formidable record.

So the fact that they will start their campaign again in the Eastern Cape, this time against La Rochelle, against whom they played two epic games the season before last, immediately puts them a bit on the back foot.

They’ve never been beaten at the DHL Stadium in a Champions Cup Pool game, but their first home game will be at a stadium where in this competition they have played once and lost once.

Frankly it’s not good enough and if the Champions Cup is to be successfully sold to the Cape Town rugby public as the big competition it is, that is something that has to be worked out between the owners of DHL Stadium and their main tenants to prevent this situation being repeated. It’s not a clash with the Cape Town Sevens this time.

As it stands the Stormers’ only game in Cape Town is the last game of the Pool phase against Leicester Tigers in mid-January, so the Stormers will be hoping they can make the strong start that they need to make that a meaningful stepping stone to a possible home playoff game rather than the desperate fight for survival that the last game of last year’s campaign was.

LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE

They have a few things loaded in their favour this time, and this is where the other two big factors come in - the position on the log in the primary competition, the Vodacom URC, has an impact on how strongly the SA sides can compete in their early Champions Cup games, and then there’s the logistics.

Let's start with logistics first. Unlike the Sharks, who play in Toulouse on Sunday and then have to be in Durban just six days later to host Saracens, the fixture list is this time the Stormers’ friend.

In the sense that they open against Bayonne on Friday night, which is a short turnaround from their last URC game against Munster last Saturday, but a longish eight day turnaround before they have to get to Gqeberha to play La Rochelle.

That means that the Stormers, although they won’t have three key Springboks in Damian Willemse, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Cobus Reinach, who do need a rest after a long tour, will be able to go all out against Bayonne safe in the knowledge that regardless what happens they have enough time to regroup and prepare for the game against the two time champions.

For the Bulls it is a similar story, in the sense that their admittedly tough opener at Loftus on Saturday against the new champions Bordeaux-Begles also precedes an eight day turnaround before they play Northampton Saints in Northampton the following Sunday.

Yet if that seems to suggest the Bulls have an advantage over the Stormers and Sharks it isn’t really, and this cues the other factor mentioned - the Bulls are struggling on the URC log and are set to play the Sharks in a crucial derby in that competition in Durban six days after the Northampton game.

So what is Bulls coach Johan Ackermann going to do? The smart money would suggest he will send a second string team to Northampton so that he can have a fresh full strength team for the Hollywoodbets Kings Park derby.

The overseas critics might complain about that, but it is just a reality of South Africa’s commitment to two international competitions at this time when not all the overseas clubs, and it is understood mainly the French, are sympathetic to the request for the SA teams to play their overseas Pool games in one two week block.

SACRIFICE WAS BIG FACTOR IN LAST YEAR’S DISASTER

Going in and out of the northern hemisphere for one game between a home Championship Cup clash and a massive URC derby just doesn’t work, and something has to be sacrificed.

And the need to sacrifice for logistical reasons does pretty much sum up why last year’s Championship campaign was so awful for local teams. The Stormers were languishing on the URC log this time last year so ahead of the festive season derbies they had little choice but to send an understrength team to Harlequins. Which resulted in a big defeat.

The same was true for the Sharks, who after beating Exeter in their home opener had to balance up the away game against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road against their home derby against the Bulls. Again, it was no debate - the Sharks were in a tight race for a top four spot in the URC, and beating the Bulls was a non-negotiable.

So a weakened team went to Leicester, they got thrashed, and to some extent it was after that game that their season unravelled a bit even though they did manage a third place URC finish and made the semifinal.

The Sharks’ problem last year in the Champions Cup was that they were in the same group as Toulouse, and they are one team you can’t feel you have a particular advantage over in a home game.

Toulouse had Antoine Dupont playing for them, the Sharks were without injured Boks like Eben Etzebeth, Andre Esferhuizen and Aphelele Fassi, and when they lost that game that was their Champions Cup challenge done.

LOG POSITION SUGGESTS STORMERS AS TOP CHALLENGERS

Looking at all the above it is the Stormers who are this season the local team most likely to advance to the playoffs. Apart from their eight day turnaround from their opener away and first home game, they are in a comfortable position on the URC log and won’t be under quite as much pressure in their 20 December home URC derby against the Lions as the Sharks and Bulls will be in Durban.

Which means they are more likely to be at strength and going for broke over the next two weekends.

They also arguably have a lot more depth now than they had last year, mainly just because young players have developed so well since last December - think Vernon Matongo who made his debut in the big defeat at Harlequins and Paul de Villiers, who is now emerging as one of this country’s top young loose-forwards.

The Bulls have depth too but with the likelihood that they are going to be going to Northampton under-strength, this week’s game against Bordeaux is a must win. If they don’t get that right it will be an uphill struggle from there.

South African schedule in Investec Champions Cup (Pool phase)

Vodacom Bulls

Bordeaux Begles (Pretoria, Saturday 6 December, 5:15pm)

Northampton Saints (Northampton, Sunday 14 December, 5:15pm)

Bristol (Pretoria, Saturday 10 January, 3pm)

Pau (Pau, Friday 16 January, 10pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks

Toulouse (Toulouse, Sunday 7 December, 5:15pm)

Saracens (Durban, Saturday 13 December, 5:15pm)

Sale Sharks (Sale, Saturday 10 January, 7:30pm)

Clermont-Auvergne (Durban, Saturday 17 January, 3pm)

DHL Stormers

Bayonne (Bayonne, Friday 5 December, 10pm)

La Rochelle (Gqeberha, Saturday 13 December, 3pm)

Harlequins (London, Sunday 11 January 3pm)

Leicester Tigers (Cape Town, Saturday 17 January, 5:15pm)