Massive red flag raised by weakened Champions Cup teams – Andy Goode

Every team that has played a game in Africa this Champions Cup season is already out of the competition - including the SA teams. Could be a concidence.

SA sides complaining about travel ? since time immemorial. Ever since they started losing in Super Rugby (ie the 1st game), it was always the same. Of course travel only ever effected the SA sides because the Aus and NZ teams played ALL their games at home. Always. But if the Aus/NZ did have to play their games in SA, other than never (see previous), the distance was always wayyyyy less and through far fewer timezones and affected their players wayyyy less. Thats why they often won there, no other reason. And as for those pesky Argentinian Jaguares ? well they had to travel even further but never ever complained and even contested the Final in their last season. But Sth Africans dont consider them a real rugby nation so their non-complaining and non-excuses didnt non-count. Must suck to have non-egos without a hint of non-victimhoods. And besides they have never won a RWC, let alone a LOTTO Cup, so that means any non-opinions that they didnt have would have been ignored anyway. Because you have to have won the previous RWC/LOTTO Cup before you can voice one of them.

Youve just got to feel sorry for the European clubs. They had the best competition in the rugby world before SA decided to run away from their natural competition partners and grace Europe with their presence. Never mind the zero away travelling fans and the haughty we’ll-do-whatever-the-f-we-like attitudes, you really should be kissing their ass y’know.

It will all end in tears. Well, Sth African tears anyway.

South African sides please make tracks. It was the best competition in the world but your inclusion is creating one sided games… not nearly up to the level of European rugby.

So the Quins part of that aged well…😂😂😂

That said, there are clear and significant issues around the timing of the ko stages for teams (sa AND opponents if they have to travel) that need to be addressed. Double week slots mean either stump up in advance for travel that may not be needed, or the weakened teams (by choice or by circuitous travel) will continue.

Well its unfortunate but sides also have to be realistic and set targets and thats what the Bulls are doing. They know the deck is stacked against them. They have to prioritise one comp and they are choosing the URC where they have 4 in a row at home now. They need to win all 4 to secure a home quarter and semi and maybe a home final if Leinster send a weakened team and lose 2 in SA. The Bulls unfortunately have the logistical difficulties of travelling to Europe and back and that makes good prep very difficult. If the Champions cup was not sandwiched between so many big URC games perhaps they would have made a different decision. Unfortunately the Bulls are hosting Munster and other quality teams after these rounds so they made the most logical choice

I wonder if the problem of some teams not taking it that seriously would be helped by making performance in the champions cup count towards qualification and/or seeding in the following year’s competition.

Eg. top four seeds would be winners of the URC, premiership, and top 14, plus best performing team in the previous year’s CC who have not otherwise qualified.

Doing that the seedings for this years comp. would have been:
Tier one: Saracens - Munster - Toulouse - la Rochelle
Tier two: Sale - Stormers - Racing 92 - Leinster
Tier three: Leicester - Connacht - Bordeaux - Exeter
Tier four: Northampton - Ulster - Lyon - Sharks
Tier five: Harlequins - Glasgow - Stade Francais - Edinburgh
Tier six: Bath - Bulls - Toulon - Ospreys

The competition would probably work better with fewer teams, so I’d probably favour only the first 4 tiers being invited, and then going straight to a quarter final without a round of 16.

On the one hand this would possibly incentivise teams to take the champions cup seriously, and on the other it would mean that the latter stages would be more likely to involve teams that have demonstrated a willingness to take the competition seriously. The main differences between my proposed system and the actual draw is that mine would give la Rochelle a fairly easy ride to the quarters, and would either exclude the Bulls entirely or would give then an insurmountably difficult draw. As it happened Exeter got quite an easy pool draw but that was a bit of a fluke. My system would reward Exeter for being one of the teams that demonstrably devote a lot of attention to the CC by guaranteeing them a good draw.

For once, Andy Goode is entirely on the money.

Unfortunately stuff like this is only going to become more and more common as fixture lists become increasingly bloated. If you think our competitions are being devalued currently, then just you wait for a few years time when we also have a club world cup; & increased travel time in the summer window as a result of the world league thing.

I am surprised more South African fans aren’t demanding scheduling changes to mitigate this happening again. It is extremely unfair, given the travel demands, that the Bulls have only had one week to prepare for a quarter final, but trying to get South African players to show up for things like this is only going to get harder when they their international season gets more congested in 2026.

the SA sides have budgets probably 50% of the european clubs. Plus semi stipulated it has to be in europe. SA sides will push for big home playoffs in the URC. Not saying its right but probably the best they can do in terms of their squads and for their fans. Right or wrong no matter how much its is said that Champions Cup is the best tournament, in SA they will believe it when they see it. The pool games were a joke, Lyon sent a c-team to last 16 and the Stormers came within an inch of knocking la Rochelle out. Maybe the competition needs to look at itself