South African sides in Champions Cup proves rugby can be radical when it wants to be
And there we have it, eight have become four. The Champions Cup has always been better in the knockout stages and that’s only been personified further by the woeful system in place for the pool stages.
Two pools of 12 was always a stupid idea – fans get lost in the complexities of it all – but when it’s knockout, one on one, that’s when the Champions Cup oozes class.
And no matter what the traditionalists say, or attempt to argue, the addition of the South African sides has sent the intensity through the roof.
Champions Cup fresh air
We all know what South African rugby is about: powerful scrummaging, strong jacklers and silky smooth backs.
But in this year’s competition – despite no side making the final four – they’ve brought something new. Fresh air.
And that’s not a reference to the Cape Town sea breeze, though I am sure that’s most welcome for many, it is homage to the magic of 30,000 fans in a stadium who have paid next to nothing to be there enjoying scintillating oval ball.
Yes the sustainability of travel to South Africa is not ideal in the world we live in, nor is the cost to fans – which the Champions Cup was built upon – but the most important thing, the quality of the product, is there.
It’s well-known that I support an English Premiership side, and I try to go to at least one away Champions or Challenge Cup match per season.
Drawing a South African side in ‘Europe’ next season would instantly wipe away an option for a possible away trip, because I don’t have a grand sitting beside my bed to be spent on flights – if I had that money there would be hope of owning a home in the next thousand years.
But that, pretty huge, drawback aside, the competition has felt fresh again. It has felt innovative. It has felt mildly radical.
And that’s something rugby needs to look at, how it is going to radically change the product and its viewership to stop the sport from receding into the long grass.
Seemingly dying a death
The sport is seemingly dying, and those who are too afraid to call it out for what it is are the problem. Rugby fans need to be real, they need to understand that the English game is failing and other games aren’t too far behind.
The Champions Cup is supposed to be the pinnacle of the club game for the three competitions it represents, and it wouldn’t be that if you stripped the four South African sides of their chance to qualify for it.
And in the Challenge Cup, where South African side the Cheetahs unfairly took up a spot of a club, there’s a compromise to be had.
Why doesn’t the sport invite the winner of the European Super Cup, or the winner of the Italian Top10 to take part?
The Cheetahs didn’t need to be in the competition, that was a step too far. But the sport can find a happy medium where the top South African sides are included – while they are in the United Rugby Championship – and a European team from beyond the three major leagues is invited.
There’s no easy answer to the stark question surrounding rugby’s dingy future. I don’t claim to have all the answers, and neither should you.
But what the addition of the South African sides in the Champions Cup has done is demonstrate an ability to change and globalise.
Don’t stop there, rugby, don’t stop there.