Eben confident strong URC showing will boost SA's next Champions Cup challenge

The most capped Springbok and Hollywoodbets Sharks captain Eben Etzebeth believes that South African teams are much closer to competing for Investec Champions Cup glory than many think and believes this year’s Vodacom URC successes will boost next year’s challenge.

No local team made it out of the Pool phase of this year’s prestigious European competition, which was won by Bordeaux-Begles in a thrilling final against Northampton Saints in Cardiff last weekend.

The failures cast a pall of negativity over the SA chances of ever competing, but Etzebeth, who spoke after last year’s Sharks win in the Challenge Cup about what a big competition the Champions Cup is, disagrees.

“I definitely think we have the players to compete with those teams,” said Etzebeth in the buildup to his Sharks team’s URC quarterfinal against Munster at Hollywoodbets Kings Park in Durban on Saturday.

“There has been some logistics and stuff that has held us back. It hasn’t been ideal. Issues around travel and stuff. But those are bad excuses. I do feel that when we have our strongest teams on the field we can compete with those top teams.”

BLIGHTED BY INJURY

It is true that the South African campaign was blighted by injury and that, for various reasons, the teams were seldom at full strength. Ironically, it was in his team’s opening Champions Cup pool game against Exeter Chiefs in Durban in early December that Etzebeth sustained the concussion that kept him off the field for much of the season.

And with several other influential Sharks Boks also being injured, like Andre Esterhuizen and Aphelele Fassi, who were injured in the same URC derby against the Stormers just after Christmas, it meant the Sharks were below strength when they played what could have been a statement game against Toulouse in Durban in January.

Antoine Dupont was still fit and playing for the reigning champions at that time and the Sharks actually put up a fair fight before losing by 12 points, but they were lacking the star quality they needed against those opponents.

The Vodacom Bulls’ Champions Cup campaign was effectively ruined by their start to the competition, with the weather phenomenon known as Storm Darragh playing a big role in their comprehensive defeat in England to a Saracens side they had beaten quite easily at Loftus the previous season.

Northampton Saints then showed the fighting spirit that took them all the way to the final, and a huge upset win away against Leinster, by shocking the Bulls in Pretoria the following week.

For the DHL Stormers the campaign got off to a rotten start when within minutes of the start of their opening game against Toulon in Gqeberha they lost looseforward Keke Morabe to a season ending injury and also lost their tireless international quality looseforward Ben-Jason Dixon during the game, while Manie Libbok was poleaxed by a ridiculously late and high tackle towards the end of the game.

Both they and the Sharks had chosen to take under-strength teams to their next games overseas to preserve them for the festive season URC derbies, so by the time the second round ended the Stormers had lost twice in two starts.

They did show their capabilities with an excellent 40-0 win over Sale Sharks in Cape Town, by which time their top players were returning, but by then it was really too late to salvage their campaign.

HIGH URC PLACINGS MEANS BETTER SEEDINGS

Next year, according to Etzebeth, should go better though as the high placings of South African teams in this season’s URC will give them better seedings going into the next edition of the Champions Cup.

“Hopefully next year we will be better. This year no South African team made the round of 16, but obviously we should have a better draw going into next season,” said the Sharks captain.

“The Bulls finished second in the URC, we finished third and the Stormers finished fifth, so that should lead to a draw that will make the group stages easier. Obviously if you finish eighth in the URC you end up playing the strongest teams from the other leagues, the French Top 14 and English Premiership.”

The Sharks qualified for the recently completed Champions Cup not by finishing low down in the URC, but by winning the secondary Challenge Cup, which would have given them the worst draw. \

Together with them in their Pool were champions Toulouse and one of last year’s form team’s, Bordeaux-Begles, who went on to win the competition. The powerful Leicester Tigers were another team that the Sharks had to play in the group stage.

Etzebeth is right, next season should see a better draw, and that could in turn lead to a Pool stage finish that could give them a chance of success heading into the playoff phase.

“Hopefully being in easier groups will help us (SA teams) and then once you are in the playoffs you have a chance,” said Etzebeth.

“Munster showed two years ago in the URC that you can even go away from home and win knockout games, so once we get to that stage we will feel we can go all the way.”