Sharks look to Challenge Cup as route back to top tier of European rugby

Sharks director of rugby Neil Powell says the Challenge Cup has become of paramount importance because winning it will allow them to secure automatic qualification to next season’s Champions Cup.

The other path to playing in the first tier of European rugby is by finishing in the top eight of the United Rugby Championship.

Their chance of finishing in the top eight of the URC is looking very bleak for the Sharks as they are at the bottom of the points table right now.

But the Champions Cup is where they want to play, and they will not want to spend another season in the second-tier Challenge Cup.

‘We want to win Challenge Cup’

Seeing their chances of reaching the Champions Cup via the URC will be a long stretch, Powell said their main goal this term is to win the Challenge Cup and make a return to the Champions Cup, where they finished in the quarter-finals last season.

“We know that if we win the Challenge Cup, we get an automatic spot in the Champions Cup. The motivation is there for us to make a step up from here,” Powell said.

“From a URC perspective, the goals we set ourselves there were based on the fact that we want to qualify for the Champions Cup next season, so we’ll need to finish in the top eight,” he said.

The Sharks are currently in first place with 12 points in Pool One of the Challenge Cup after three games. They will play their final pool stage match on Sunday night away against the Dragons.

Targeting home knockouts

Powell said the Sharks need a win in Wales to finish at the top of the group to host a last-16 match and a quarter-final.

“If we don’t secure that home round of 16 and quarter-final it will be really tough to go all the way to the final and win the Challenge Cup,” he said.

“And again this is one of the games (against the Dragons) we see as a knockout game in the pool because if we do well in this one, we’ll manage to secure a home round of 16 and a home quarterfinal.

“If we don’t do well and we lose and some of the other teams in the pool get results it can mean we rather play away from home. We all know how tough it is, especially when you go to France,” said the former Blitzbok coach.