Naas Botha along with Nick Mallet and Rassie Erasmus. Botha believes the SA franchises aren't taking the Champions Cup competition seriously enough. Picture: Gordon Arons/Gallo Images
Former Springbok legend Naas Botha says the Champions Cup competition is the next biggest trophy after the Rugby World Cup and that South African sides need to start taking the tournament seriously after a dismal current season.
The Bulls, Sharks and Stormers were in terrible form during Europe’s biggest franchise rugby competition, featuring teams from France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and Wales, winning just three pool games out of 12 between them.
That saw the Bulls and Sharks finish second bottom of their respective pools, while the Stormers finished last, with all three sides unable to make the last 16 of the competition.
The Bulls and Sharks were able to drop into the second tier Challenge Cup competition, which the side from Durban won last season, and they join up with the Lions who qualified for the last 16, while the Stormers are completely out of Europe.
This is the first time in three seasons that no SA side has made the competition knockouts, after the Bulls were knocked out in the last 16 two seasons ago, while the Sharks and Stormers made the quarterfinals, while last season the Stormers fell in the last 16 and the Bulls made the quarters.
It also isn’t hard to make the last 16 of the competition under its current format, which sees four groups of six teams, with each team playing four games, and usually two wins out of four is enough to progress, so just winning your home games is enough more often than not.
So it is rather embarrassing that no SA side could reach the last 16 this season and Botha believes they have to do better and put more effort into the competition.
“I would really like to see us taking the Champions Cup very seriously. Because if you think about it, winning the World Cup is the ultimate achievement. Then after that what is next?” said Botha.
“In the old days it was winning Super Rugby, but what is it now? Is it the Champions Cup or the URC (United Rugby Championship)? Now it’s only my opinion, but I think it is the Champions Cup because that means you are the best in the whole of Europe and South Africa.”
“The French and English clubs are not in the URC. Our teams need to rethink the matter and make the Champions Cup the number one priority. I think we seem to be concentrating more on trying to win the URC. And that is fine. But for me, the Champions Cup is bigger.”
One of the main ways to help the SA franchises compete with their cash flush European counterparts is to do away with the financial cap that is currently stunting local teams, according to Botha, and that would help them hang on to top talent as well as lure star players back from overseas.
“There should be no financial cap for any of the URC teams. If you want to spend a billion (rand on the team), it’s your money, you can spend it. But we can’t do that at the moment,” explained Botha.
“We also shouldn’t let our best players all play overseas. We should have enough money to keep them here. That’s what professional sport is about. There should be no limits on how much teams want to spend.
“Yes, we won the World Cup, but apart from that we haven’t won anything. We have four franchises and none of them can even make the Champions Cup play-offs. Our rugby isn’t that bad, come on. Give the franchises full ownership and they can bring back the top players.”
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