Nizaam Carr: ‘We don’t understand how big the Champions Cup is’

Experienced Bulls loose forward Nizaam Carr believes that South African players and fans still don’t realise how big the Champions Cup actually is, and once they do, teams will start to put more importance on the tournament and results will improve.

Carr was speaking during a Bulls press conference on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of their final pool game against Stade Francais at Loftus on Saturday, when he was asked why the South African sides are struggling in the competition, while French sides have been dominating it.

The Bulls saw a fringe team hammered 49-10 by Castres in France over the past weekend, which led to them dropping out of the running for the knockouts, while they might not even drop into the second tier Challenge Cup, with them needing a big win over Stade Francais to stand a chance.

The 33-year-old Carr played extensively in the Champions Cup when playing for English side Wasps, who he featured for in over 70 games, and admitted that it was the biggest franchise tournament in world rugby.

Champions League of rugby

“I played over in England and I know how big this competition is. I don’t think the South African players or fans truly understand how big it is, and I think when we understand that we will take up that challenge a lot better,” explained Carr.

“The French, English, Scottish, Irish and other teams understand how big it is. It is like the Uefa Champions League (football) of rugby.

“I think if we all wrap our heads around that we will become better. It isn’t like we’re doing nothing about it, we are trying and giving it our all.

“But that is why the other teams are doing better than us. They understand how rich this competition is and know what is at stake every time they take the field.”

Although the Challenge Cup is a second tier competition, the Sharks showed by winning it last season that it can still mean a lot to a team to win it, and Carr agrees, saying that the Bulls don’t see this weekend’s game as a dead rubber.

“This game is massive for us. We don’t see it as a dead rubber. It is a stepping stone for the coming games in the URC. We also want to keep improving. So this is a game we want to really do well in,” said Carr.

“We are also still hoping to qualify for the Challenge Cup. Some results still need to go our way for us to do that, but that is a goal of ours.”

Turn things around

After a strong start to the URC, which saw the Bulls win five of their first six games, they have since gone on a four game losing streak, three in the Champions Cup and one in the URC, so they are also hoping to turn things around, starting back home this weekend.

“The last few weeks have been tough and frustrating. The thing is the more the results go that way you tend to try harder and things might still not go your way,” admitted Carr.

“But the chat in the camp has been to keep pushing, things will turn. It’s not the end of the world. We are still looking good on the URC table. Obviously it is not looking great in the Champions Cup. But the boys are really positive and trying to help each other.

“It has been a slump with the results not going our way. But we are really looking forward to this weekend to try and turn that corner.”