Bordeaux and Gloucester show South Africa what the Investec Champions Cup can be

The Investec Champions Cup is at its best when reputation, ambition and a home crowd collide. Bordeaux and Gloucester gave the tournament exactly that in a five-try-each, 36-36 opener that felt like a warning to every team planning to travel with a second-choice side.

Bordeaux are the defending champions, and as they did in the start to their campaign in Pretoria last season, they arrived at Kingsholm with their best team because they understood what awaited them. Gloucester had finished eighth in the English Premiership last season and slipped into the tournament. But 16,500 people packed the ground and the Shed roared.

Nearly 2,000 supporters filled that beloved working-class end. Gloucester played with the force of a club and a town determined to make this night count and Bordeaux would have lost had they not brought their strongest side.

That is the romance of this competition. It is the best clubs in France, England and the URC being forced to prove themselves in places where the home team, the crowd and the occasion can turn a match into something much bigger than a fixture.

Gloucester were not interested in Bordeaux’s title or their unbeaten run, now stretching into a third successive season in the tournament. They attacked the champions and scored five tries. Bordeaux needed two of their best, France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey and captain Maxime Lucu, to combine and level the scores in the final quarter. Bielle-Biarrey marked his 100th club appearance with a try.

The visitors will feel they were denied the win. Bordeaux had two successive scrums, both 25 metres from Gloucester’s posts and directly in front of them in the last minute. No penalty came, despite Bordeaux’s scrum dominance. Lucu, who started at flyhalf and finished at scrumhalf, would have popped the penalty over.

The try-scoring bonus-point tournament changes, which means a team must score three tries more than the opposition, also added to the intensity of the contest. Neither team could play for four tries and be guaranteed a bonus point.

The contrast with Friday’s opening day in South Africa was sharp. Stade Français and Bristol sent weakened, youthful 23s to face the Bulls and Stormers in Pretoria and Cape Town. The Bulls won 56-20 and the Stormers were even more emphatic, winning 49-12.

Those visiting choices may reflect the strain of balancing two competitions and the importance clubs place on their domestic campaigns. But they also diminish the contest supporters have paid to see.

Winning at home is close to non-negotiable in this tournament. The teams that have won the tournament get this. Strong away performances build the position that earns a home play-off. Get to the final with home advantage and, in this competition, you are there 90 percent of the time. Second-string teams rarely create that path.

South African supporters are still struggling to fall in love with a competition whose rhythm is difficult to appreciate. The group rounds are spread across seven months: four matches, then the last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals before the finals weekend in Lyon on 22 and 23 May. The stop-start calendar sits alongside domestic rugby and local derbies that carry their own weight.

The crowds tell their own story. More than 43,000 were at DHL Stadium for Stormers-Sharks a week earlier. It made for a spectacular Saturday. A week later, attendance was down to 16 500 in Cape Town and 9800 made it to Loftus in 33 degrees for the 14.00 kick-off.

There is the reality of economics and a lack of financial capacity to support so many home games in one season, in all competitions and when the Springboks play at home.

There is also South Africa’s lack of success in the tournament since joining four seasons ago. That gap will narrow if a South African side goes deep in the tournament.

Stormers coach John Dobson is right: local supporters need a local team to reach the play-offs, make a final and win the title. But the tournament also needs to give them a reason to care before the knockouts. Strength against strength is that reason.

The Investec Champions Cup is the best club competition in the world because it brings the top eight from the Top 14, Premiership and URC into one contest. Its opening match showed what that promise looks like: five tries apiece, a packed Shed, champions pushed to the edge and no safe night for the visitors.

That is the competition South Africa should want to win.