South African coaching elite reach for the stars in the Investec Champions Cup

South Africa will have four coaches and a handful of players in the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals, to be played in the first weekend of May.

Bath head coach Johann van Graan headlines the South Africa presence in the world’s toughest club competition.

Jacques Nienaber, the 2023 Springboks World Cup-winning coach, and a senior coach at Leinster, will experience a second home tournament semi-final with the Irish club since joining in 2024.

Nienaber has enjoyed success with Leinster in the United Rugby Championship, with the Dublin-based club winning the title for the first time last season, in what was their first final in the competition’s history, which at that stage was four seasons.

Leinster, with four Investec Champions Cup titles, have earned the right to wear four stars on their match-day jersey, but they have fallen agonisingly short in adding the fifth star in losing three finals in succession and four times in finals since winning their fourth title in the 2017/18.

Leinster won the title for the first time in their history in 2008/2009.

Bath were the first British club to win the title in the 1997/8 season, with that win coming against Brive in the French city of Bordeaux. Bath will travel to Bordeaux for the semi-final, which will be their first Investec Champions Cup semi-final in 20 years.

Bordeaux have former Springboks Shaun Sowerby (No 8) and Heinie Adams (No 9) on their coaching staff. Both men played in France for the last decade of their careers and both turned to coaching in France. They comfortably wear both the South African and French flags with great pride.

Bordeaux’s match 23 that defeated French rivals Toulouse in an epic quarter-final on Sunday, included tighthead prop Carlu Sadie, who earlier this year was included in Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus’s first national alignment camp of 2026, and 21 year-old Junior Springbok flanker Tiaan Jacobs.

Nienaber’s Leinster will play three-time Investec Champions Cup title winners Toulon in Dublin in the first of the two semi-finals.

Toulon, who made history in being the first team to win the title three seasons in succession, had a strong Springboks influence in Bakkies Botha, Joe van Niekerk, Juan Smith, Bryan Habana, Danie Rossouw and Michael Claassens in those victories. Former Sharks hooker Craig Burden, who trained with the Boks but never played a match, was also a title winner at Toulon.

The Toulon match 23 that stunned Glasgow’s Warriors 22-19 on Saturday in Glasgow, was captained by former Western Province lock David Ribbans, whose professional career flourished after his move to England’s Northampton Saints.

Ribbans, born and schooled in Somerset West in the Western Cape, played 11 Tests for England, with the last of those appearances at the 2023 World Cup in France.

He moved to Toulon and is ineligible for England selection because of the RFU policy of not picking players outside of England.

Ribbans becomes eligible for the Springboks in November this year.

Ribbans captained Toulon to victory against Glasgow and was the Player of the Match in the 28-27 home win against the Stormers in the last 16 play-offs.

Franco Smith’s Glasgow were favoured to beat Toulon and host the winner of Leinster versus Sale Sharks, but with Toulon winning and Leinster winning, the Irish side got the home country advantage based on a higher seeding post the Pool stages.

Smith, the former Springboks utility back and Italian national coach, had guided Glasgow to an unbeaten campaign in the Pool stages. Glasgow finished seeded second behind Bordeaux. They then beat the Bulls 25-21 in the last 16 at Scotstoun.

Kyle Steyn, the former Maties and Griquas winger, is the captain of Glasgow. Steyn was a star in Scotland’s most recent Six Nations.

Sale’s Sharks also included four South Africans, while Van Graan’s Bath match 23 that beat Northampton’s Saints 43-21 in the most thrilling match of the weekend’s last eight, also included four South African players. Primary to this quartet is Springboks prop Thomas du Toit.

*The Stormers and Bulls both last in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup.

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