The South African sides’ record so far in this year’s Investec Champions Cup does not make for pretty reading.
Six matches played, only one victory, with both the Sharks and the Stormers – albeit weakened sides – shipping over 50 points over the weekend.
With their opening round win over Exeter Chiefs, the Sharks remain alive in the competition, but it now looks very unlikely the winless Stormers or Bulls will make it into the knockout stages.
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That does not sit well with former South Africa coach Nick Mallett or former Springbok Robbie Fleck.
The pair joined RugbyPass TV’s upcoming episode of Boks Office this week, where they expressed their disappointment at South Africa’s approach to the Champions Cup.
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United Rugby Championship
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Both view the cup as the premier competition in club rugby, and feel the South African sides should be striving to win it rather than the United Rugby Championship. However, they appreciate that there are restricting factors.
With South Africa internationals not having a gap in their calendar to rest, both Mallett and Fleck understand why teams take the opportunity to rest their Springboks on these weekends as the clubs may not necessarily have the budgets to compete with Europe’s best. With high-priority South African derbies being played over the coming weeks, the emphasis is rather to win those than to make an impression on the Champions Cup.
There still remains a hope that there will be a shift in which competition the franchises focus on.
With that said, Mallett was also critical in the way the Sharks and Stormers approached their contests with Leicester Tigers and Harlequins, saying that the depleted outfits could still “lose with dignity”.
“There’s a way in which you play when you go to defend a score, and both the Sharks and the Stormers sent teams that were unlikely to win,” the former South Africa and Italy coach said.
“If you’re unlikely to win, then you’ve got to give them a way in which they can lose with dignity. The way they played, both the Sharks and the Stormers were brainless. You can’t run the ball against teams that are much better than you at running the ball, that’s what they want you to do, Harlequins wanted the Stormers to run the ball. They’re playing against an inexperienced team, they made a number of mistakes, the Stormers, and Quins score 50 points, exactly the same in the Sharks against Leicester.
“What you had to do is you take a young team, but you say we’re going to make sure we’re within 10 points here. We’re going to play a kicking game, we’re going to put pressure on you, we’re going to not run the ball, it’s going to be box kicks from 9 and 10, we’re going to get our defence in your face, we’re going to drive mauls, you’re going to play some negative, northern hemisphere methods. We didn’t see that. We didn’t see that from either of those two teams.
“You can actually coach a team that is far weaker to come out of it with credit, but when you’ve got your Springboks, you should be going away to Toulouse and say ‘we’re going here to beat you guys.’
“To make sure your local fans are happy, you’ve got to win your home games. Your tendency is to focus on the URC. With this competition you know after the first weekend whether you’re in it or out. The Stormers are not going to be involved after the next two games.
“When you’ve gone through a situation like John Dobson (Stormers head coach) has, where he has lost nine or 10 Springbok players who would all be starting in a Champions Cup home game if he had the choice, you have to cut your coat according to the cloth. Unfortunately, at the moment, they have to save their best players for the game that’s played on Saturday against the Lions. They have to win that Lions game. So half the guys that would normally have played against Harlequins have been kept behind to make sure they can beat the Lions so he can make his owners and the public happy. So it is a juggling act all the time.
“If we can’t get our Springboks to be fit and strong for this Champions Cup game and play the URC to bring through talent, then we’re not going to get it right. You can’t have 13 games for the Springboks at the level that they play all year, they can only then play another six. Put a cap of 21 games, 22 games on Eben Etzebeth and then pick them for Champions Cup games. Go away after the Springbok tour, don’t play the URC games.”
