Juggling competitions, will SA teams really worry if they’re knocked out?

South African teams are back in European Cup action this weekend, with all five teams battling it out in the last 16 of their respective competitions.

The Bulls and Stormers are hosting Champions Cup clashes in Pretoria and Cape Town, while the Sharks are hosting in Durban and the Lions and Cheetahs are in action in Italy and France in the Challenge Cup.

All five teams will obviously be eager to progress to the next round, but the question is will any of them be seriously disappointed if they were knocked out?

Two fronts

Battling it out on two fronts is incredibly difficult, especially if you have hopes of winning one of the competitions, and with the United Rugby Championship (URC) hitting the business end as well it is only going to get tougher for teams.

South African sides also don’t have the same squad depth as most of their European counterparts, who have built up their squads to participate in two competitions over the years, and it will take a few more seasons for them to get on the same level.

It thus comes down to which competition each team values more and it seems that the Bulls, Stormers and Lions will have their eyes set on the URC, while the Sharks and Cheetahs will be fully invested in the Challenge Cup.

Going all in

It is obvious that the Sharks and Cheetahs will go all in this weekend as the Sharks are basically out of the running for a top eight spot in the URC and winning the Challenge Cup will get them into the Champions Cup, while this is the Cheetahs’ only major international tournament.

For the Bulls and Stormers it will be a bit tricky as they both would likely want to challenge on both fronts, but they will know how tough that will be especially if they make the semifinals, as from that stage they will have to play away in Europe.

So although both will want to progress, they probably wouldn’t be heartbroken if they didn’t so they can focus on securing a place in the URC top four.

The Lions’ main focus is undoubtedly on securing a place in the URC top eight and making the playoffs for the first time, so if they were to be dumped out of the Challenge Cup it probably wouldn’t worry them too much.