Bordeaux-Begles' centre Nicolas Depoortere is tackled by Sharks captain Siya Kolis amid their one-sided 66–12 thrashing of the South African club in the Champions Cup. Picture: Romain Perrecheau / AFP
The 2024/25 season has been South Africa’s worst yet in the Champions Cup.
The Sharks, Bulls and Stormers could only win one match each in the tournament, leaving them fifth, fifth and sixth in their respective pools.
That’s three wins out of 12 games played by our best and brightest.
Deservedly, the Sharks and Bulls have been yanked down to the second-tier Challenge Cup’s round of 16. The Stormers have been shown the door in both European Professional Club Rugby competitions.
I don’t mean to short-sell the Challenge Cup. It is a prestigious tournament in its own right and the Sharks can be proud of winning it last season.
The Lions and Cheetahs have been battling it out against top sides like Connacht, Lyon, Montpellier and Ospreys in the Challenge Cup, while Bath and Racing 92 join the fold with the two aforementioned South African teams.
But the Champions Cup is said to be the pinnacle of club rugby. You would think SA’s World Cup-winning players and coaches would take it in their stride.
To be fair, each of our top three sides has reached the quarter-finals once and has enjoyed greater success in the marginally less difficult United Rugby Championship.
But the struggle for many South African rugby fans is reconciling exactly how mismatched our best clubs are against those in Europe, sometimes even when playing at home.
Yes, our sides have seen a serious injury dilemma this season – the Sharks and Stormers in particular – but second-string sides should not be losing 49–10 to decent but nothing overly special clubs like Castres Olympique.
The Sharks, even with just half their Springboks and top franchise players are still star-studded.
And yet, barring their win over Exeter Chiefs in Durban, they only scored 17, 8 and 12 points in their following three games.
That is below par before even looking at the scores levelled against them (56, 20 and 66). That’s 37 points scored for and 142 scored against in those three games.
The Sharks finished the competition with a points difference of -87.
Whatever excuses they make about injuries, the need to rotate players, and difficult draws and travelling schedules, the fans expected much, much better from South Africa’s teams.
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