Can South African teams aim high in both the URC and the Champions Cup?

The Stormers won the inaugural United Rugby Championship and the Bulls have starred in three Finals – so why can’t South African teams emulate that form in the Champions Cup?

The Stormers and Bulls fell out of last weekend’s Champions Cup Round of 16, while the Sharks exited the EPCR Challenge Cup. The Lions, meanwhile, dropped out of the Challenge Cup after a draw with Perpignan back in January.

The Bulls came short against Glasgow Warriors (21-25) while the Stormers were edged 27-28 by Toulon in a controversial manner. The day before that, the Sharks’ 12-29 defeat at the hands of Connacht saw all SA sides vacate this season’s competition.

And it’s not like their exits were isolated events.

Since joining the elite competition in the 2022/23 season, the South African franchises haven’t had much luck in the Champions Cup.

In May 2024, the Sharks became the first South African team to win a European title with a 36-22 victory over Gloucester in the EPCR Challenge Cup final in London, but apart from that triumph, no South African side has made the semi-finals of the Champions Cup, and for two years now, no local team has made the quarter-finals of what is deemed the best club rugby competition in the world.

This time around, things looked a bit more promising with the Stormers and the Bulls making the Round of 16 and the matches the Stormers in particular were able to win. But that’s where it ended.

The URC, however, is a very different story.

The Stormers were victorious in an all-South African final in the 2021/22 season, beating the Bulls 18-13 at Cape Town Stadium. The following season, the Stormers again hosted the final, this time against Munster, losing out 14-19. Then, in the 2023/24 edition, Glasgow Warriors overcame the Bulls 21-16 at Loftus to lift The Array.

Last season, Leinster thumped the Bulls 32-7 at Croke Park in the first URC final to be played outside of South Africa. To date, in its current format, there has never been a URC final not involving a South African team.

So, why can’t the South African teams cut it in the Champions Cup?

For as many rugby fans who know how the URC and the Champions Cup or the Challenge Cup are intertwined, there are probably just as many who aren’t too sure about the connection.

The URC features 16 teams: four from South Africa, four from Ireland, four from Wales, two from Scotland, and two from Italy. The top eight teams of the URC – along with the top eight from the French Top 14 and England’s PREM Rugby, respectively – qualify for the next season’s Champions Cup, while the remaining teams head into the Challenge Cup.

For South Africans, getting there has been no problem, considering that the larger part of their contingent has made the top eight of the URC since 2021. In the first and second seasons, the Lions were the only team to miss out (12th and ninth) on Champions Cup qualification, in 2023/24 both the Lions (again ninth) and the Sharks (14th) went to the second-tier Challenge Cup, which the Durbanites won, and last season, the Lions again found themselves slacking in the Race to the Eight, ending 11th at the conclusion of the regular season.

So, for the most part, South Africa has been a dominant force in the URC, with only the Lions consistently ending outside the top eight of the competition.

Stormers boss John Dobson has publicly referred to the URC as their “day job” in the sense that it remains their primary competition. The driving force behind the objective to finish strongly in the URC, however, is Champions Cup qualification.

But how realistic is it, for South African teams in particular, given their packed schedule, to target both competitions?

They aim to finish in the top eight to qualify for the Champions Cup, but then struggle to progress past the Round of 16 or make the semi-finals. In the past, South African teams were slammed for taking weakened squads to Europe.

But what were they to do? How else do you manage your squads and players so as not to risk injury or workload overload but still be at your best come the URC play-offs?

While no South African side could be accused of sending second-string sides to compete in the Round of 16 this season, things just didn’t go their way. Nonetheless, how sustainable is competing in both competitions, especially where Springbok players – who come with their own workload management requirements – are involved?

Squad depth is the major issue, but as long as salaries in Europe and Japan are still hugely attractive to South African players, it will remain a factor. Springbok selection as well.

In February, the Boks announced a group of 49 players for the first in-person alignment camp of the season, adding that a virtual alignment camp with 21 overseas-based players would follow. That alone tells the tale of the global distribution of local players. Adding to that, South African franchises, of course, don’t have the luxury of whipping out their chequebook and signing foreign players to fill any gaps they may have heading into a packed season.

If that were the case – or if they had all their players based locally instead of plying their trade overseas – it would be a very different story.

But the rand simply cannot compete with the pound, euro, or even the amounts of yen being thrown around, and one could argue that the only way to tighten the strap on the players leaving South African shores is to use eligibility for Springbok selection as a carrot.

But that’s not going to happen, and the national team comes first. Those factors are here to stay, and local teams and coaches simply need to find a way around them.

After all, there is currently no reason, other than loyalty and being a player of national interest, for players not to consider other avenues should they arise. Then there are also salary caps, which add to the challenge of retaining your top players.

So, what are the SA sides to do? Is it simply a case of continuing as is until they adapt and start performing better in the Champions Cup?

Probably not, after all, it isn’t a case of South African teams not being good enough or needing to get used to the demands, the URC is proof of that.

Increasing squad depth seems to be the only feasible option, and Dobson is getting it right.

Throughout the season, the Stormers coach made use of his wider squad, utilising both experience and young talent.

They were the best South African team in the URC as well as the Champions Cup, winning three of their four pool matches in Europe, including an impressive victory over Bayonne in France. They lost to Toulon by a single point in the Round of 16; things could have easily gone the other way, and, instead of lamenting options not taken or a call not going their way, Stormers fans could have been anticipating their team in a Champions Cup quarterfinal showdown this week.

However, that’s not the case, and it’s by no means due to not being good enough.

Yes, travel demands and the intricacies of season-schedule structure remain factors, but the only way forward is to control the controllable.

So, can South African teams target both the URC and the Champions Cup?

Yes, but the only real way to do that is by building squad depth and, equally importantly, actually making use of those players to get to a point where competing in and aiming high in both competitions is not seen as unrealistic.