FEATURE 'If the South Africans are in, they need to be all in'

There is a sense with the South Africans in European competition after the weekend of a guest being handed a free ticket to the art gallery only to turn up and throw a pot of paint over the prize exhibit.

The decision by the Bulls to put out a shadow side at Northampton for a Champions Cup quarter-final felt like an act of rugby vandalism.

The European knockout stages have produced some of the great occasions of the professional era. High-wire cross-continental classics that could have gone any which way. Epics of the ovoid genre.

Yet from the moment Jake White named his Bulls team any prospect of the clash between the top side in England and the top side in South Africa joining the classics evaporated. Jeopardy left the building.

Northampton’s fans did not care, of course. They loved seeing the scintillating Saints rack up 59 points at Franklin’s Gardens and coast through to the semi-final. But for the armchair viewer and the Champions Cup itself White’s call to leave 11 Springboks back at home was bitterly disappointing.

Injuries may have played a part – we will find out exactly how much when the Bulls director of rugby reveals his team to play Munster in the URC on home soil this weekend – but there was clearly a calculation made.

It is legitimate to ask what is the point of having them in the Champions Cup if they are only going to demean it when it comes to the showpiece games.

Central to it was the reasoning the Champions Cup was not the Bulls’ priority.

South Africa is a magnificent rugby nation, one which has spawned the back-to-back world champions and one whose playing diaspora enriches so many countries around the world.

But it is legitimate to ask what is the point of having them in the Champions Cup if they are only going to demean it when it comes to the showpiece games.

Imagine if the same thing had happened in football’s Champions League this week.

Had Arsenal sent a B team to Bayern Munich because Mikel Arteta thought his side might not win in Germany and wanted to preserve his primary resources for the Premier League title run-in, there would have been merry hell. Likewise if Pep Guardiola had done the same against Real Madrid.

The Bulls might still not have won at Northampton even with the A-listers but White should have given it a go at least.

The introduction of South African teams was always sold as a route to monetise European competition but the irony is after last weekend it might end up impoverishing it.

Broadcasters TNT have still not re-signed to screen the Champions Cup next season.

When they eventually do, the sum of money EPCR accept from them will quite likely reflect the fact a prime-time Saturday evening showdown was rendered a one-sided mismatch because of the selection white flag raised by the Bulls. Why would any broadcaster want to pay top dollar for second tier?

Rugby, with its demands, is a game of personnel rotation through the season and clubs have put out weakened teams many times before in the tournament but only ever for the pool stage.

The knockout stages, where everything is on the line, should always showcase the best against the best.

After swapping the time zone nightmare of Super Rugby for what was supposedly a more manageable alternative, the South Africans still feel like an artificial add-on to the Champions Cup.

If the South Africans aren’t going to play ball because of the logistics of a draw they do not fancy then EPCR has a serious problem.

It was always a contentious decision to allow the franchises in. If they are only going to offer a ghostly presence then the argument for exorcism will grow stronger.

Two seasons in, after swapping the time zone nightmare of Super Rugby for what was supposedly a more manageable alternative, the South Africans still feel like an artificial add-on to the Champions Cup.

The buy-in domestically has been patchy. The 7,500 crowd for the Bulls’ last-16 tie against Lyon in Pretoria – another trans-continental blowout the previous week only with the boot on the other foot – was a sorry sight at Loftus Versfeld. There were a promising 27,660 at the 55,000-capacity DHL Stadium in Cape Town for the Stormers’ game against last season’s winners La Rochelle the same weekend, however.

The fact is, for many, the Currie Cup, an intrinsic part of South African rugby’s DNA, is viewed much more fondly than this lukewarm long-distance love affair.

Of course new ventures like this need time to bed in. Eight years on from the Southern Kings and the Cheetahs’ pioneering entry into the Pro12, that experiment can be judged a success. South Africa’s addition to what is now the URC has added depth to the competition.

A level up, maybe this can work too but for it to do so there need to be changes.

South Africa need a helping hand with the scheduling. An end to the back-to-back scheduling of the round of 16 and the quarter-final would be beneficial. But most importantly there has to be a change of mindset.

No one is pretending it is straightforward travelling 8,000 miles to play on another continent in an alternative hemisphere but plate tectonics are not going to bring the continents much closer in the short term.

A knockout tie in Europe cannot bring with it the attitude that defeat is inevitable.

Perhaps the fate which befell a full-strength Stormers side last season when they went down 42-17 to Exeter in the quarter-final played on White’s mind with the side he fielded. But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.

The South Africans only have to look back to the pool stage when the Stormers won at Stade Francais and the Bulls at Bristol to know what is possible.

The Bulls and the Lions have both also won twice on the road in Europe in the URC this season.

With finite playing resources and an 11-month season, maybe it has to be a question of targeting tournaments but when a franchise is more committed to URC success than it is to the Champions Cup it needs its head wobbling.

In the northern hemisphere, even allowing for the glitz of the Top 14, it is European competition where a good side becomes great.

With all due deference to the URC, the Stormers’ title in 2022 was of only passing note. The day they go on to lift the Champions Cup is the day they have really arrived as a force on the distant continent.

Perhaps it is because a South African franchise has yet to go beyond the last eight that the significance has not registered fully. But they are never going to do so as long as they choose the Bulls route.

If South Africa are going to be in, they need to be all in.