Hits & misses from the EPCR Round of 16
OPINION: Disappointing, frustrating, heartbreaking. There are various adjectives South African fans could use to describe what happened in this past weekend’s EPCR and Champions Cup Round of 16 fixtures.
From the Sharks’ second-half deterioration on Friday night to the Stormers and Bulls’ narrow moments on Saturday, I look at the Hits and Misses from EPCR and Champions Cup games involving the three South African sides.
Hits
Showstopper Sacha
The Springbok flyhalf featured off the bench for the Stormers in their agonising 27-28 defeat against Toulon, with Jurie Matthee running out in the No.10 jersey.
The spark Feinberg-Mngomezulu brought on attack was undeniable after he came on in the 53rd minute.
His deft grubber – collected by Warrick Gelant – herded the Stormers to work their way into Toulon’s red zone, with Evan Roos eventually crossing over for a try.
He struck again in the 78th minute and sniped down touch after breaking through before sending replacement scrumhalf Imad Khan over.
Simply sensational.
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Ever-performing Paul de Villiers
Just for the record, this spot could have gone to either De Villiers or Evan Roos, who was also outstanding yet again.
Of all the good De Villiers did, his touch in the build-up to the Stormers’ opening try was probably the easiest on the eye.
He contributed a top-class pop pass from the ground to Neethling Fouche, who added his own touch before sending Adre Smith over in the first half.
His other contributions in terms of his tackling and breakdown work were so good that it’d almost have you forget about that penalty he conceded late in his shift.
Snubbed Stormers
The Stormers deserve every single “hit” for their performance against Toulon.
Sure, they left some opportunities out there and should have used Toulon’s numerical situation to their advantage, particularly by exploiting them out wide when they were down to 13 men, but the thriller featured a largely positive performance by John Dobson’s team.
It could have gone either way for most of the match, but the Stormers switched into a higher gear in the final quarter, and there were a number of decisions or calls that the Capetonians will feel aggrieved by, including their try that was deemed ‘held up’ by the referee and TMO.
Should they have gone for the dropped goal in the build-up to that moment? Perhaps, but the chance they took to opt for pick-and-go’s could have also easily ended very differently. Hindsight is always 20/20.
The Stormers deserve all the credit in the world for the character they showed when it mattered, and it’s a pity that credit is all they could take from the match.
Misses
Sharks’ Second-Half Dip
The Sharks started strongly against Connacht in Galway and dominated the opening quarter.
They had the upper hand in terms of possession and came out firing on attack, camping in the opposition’s 22, but couldn’t convert their territory into seven points.
The missed opportunities they were guilty of in their last United Rugby Championship games followed them into the EPCR as well.
They were mostly in control for the remainder of the half, but it was a completely different tale after the break.
The Irish club, after trailing 7-12 at halftime, surged ahead in the second half to end the Durbanites’ EPCR run and claim a 29-12 victory.
JP Pietersen’s team will now shift their focus to the other challenge – making the URC play-offs.
The Sharks are in 10th place with four games remaining. Following the URC break, they face Ospreys (April 18) and Edinburgh (April 24) away, before returning home to host Benetton (May 9) and Zebre (May 16).
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South Africa’s continued Champions Cup struggles
The Bulls, who lost their outing against Glasgow Warriors 21-25, and the Stormers’ Champions Cup losses at the weekend, no doubt caused some disappointment as those results marked another exit for SA teams from the elite club competition.
While Dobson has made no secret of their priorities, describing the URC as their “day job”, the results of the Sharks in the EPCR and the Bulls and Stormers in the Champions Cup again raise the question – how sustainable is it competing in both the URC and the Champions Cup? Or how realistic is it to target both competitions?
While the latter is probably not the case, SA teams still target both in the sense that they want to win the URC (or at least finish in the top eight) in order to qualify for the Champions Cup, but once they’re in the Champions Cup, they manage their squads in such a way that they can still gun for URC glory.
But what gives in terms of the load and pressure on both players and coaches to perform in both competitions? Add in there the Bok players and their workload-management requirements, and that task becomes even tougher.
At some point, something’s got to give.
Image credits: @GlasgowWarriors
