South Africa’s top club trio chase their first Investec Champions Cup star

South Africa, at Test level, rules the rugby world, but in the Investec Champions Cup, the toughest club competition in the sport, the winning of the golden star has remained elusive for South Africa’s top club trio, writes Mark Keohane.

Toulouse, with six stars (titles), are the most successful club in the history of the Investec Champions Cup. Ireland’s Leinster have four stars and Toulon and Saracens have three each. For the rest, it has been a fight to get on the board and just 13 of the 40 clubs from Europe and South Africa have won the title.

It shows just how tough it is to succeed in the most battle hardened and complex knockout tournament in world rugby.

Saracens and England veteran Jamie George described the tournament as a World Cup knockout played over six months, with each match, from the opening league match, to the final, a knockout.

Home wins, in the league stages are non-negotiable, and wins on the road are as golden as the star the players are chasing.

Northampton’s Saints last season travelled to Pretoria and stunned the Bulls in the league stage, which proved crucial to their play-offs, where the English club won at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin against Leinster, before being edged 28-20 by France’s Bordeaux.

The defending champions are in South Africa to start the defence of their historic first ever Investec Champions Cup title. They play the Bulls at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday, revisiting the scene of their dramatic 46-40 league defeat to the Bulls on the 20th January, 2024. It is the only time the two teams have met in the competition.

Both teams scored six tries in a 12-try thriller, with Bordeaux finishing the stronger.

Bordeaux, winners of the title in Dublin last season, beat their French rivals Toulouse in the semi-finals, but lost in the final of the Top 14.

The Bulls also lost in the final of last season’s United Rugby Championship, beaten by Leinster in Dublin, and both teams have had an indifferent start to their local competitions. The Bulls are three from six in the URC, having lost their last two matches, including a stunning home upset against the South African Lions last Saturday, while Bordeaux are also three from six in the Top 14, including successive defeats in the past fortnight, at home to Pau (33-34) and away to Montpellier (24-28).

The defending champions have a star-studded international squad with French flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert and flying wingers Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Damian Penaud among the best in the world.

South African prop Carlu Sadie is a regular in the Bordeaux set-up, as is the popular former All Blacks and current Tongan captain and 150 kilogram prime rugby beef Ben Tameifuna.

French scrum half Maxime Lucu is the general of a squad that includes a handful of imports from Australia and the Pacific Islands.

The Bulls, with 20 Springboks, past and present in their Champions Cup squad, will have their imposing Bok quartet of Gerhard Steenekamp (loosened prop), Johan Grobelaar (hooker), Wilco Louw (tighthead prop) and Ruan Nortje (lock), back for the tournament.

All four featured prominently in the Springboks five successive Tests wins in the Northern Hemisphere during November.

Springboks double World Cup winner Handre Pollard is another who will significantly improve the Bulls prospects of being the first South Africa team to wear an Investec Champions Cup star.

The struggling Sharks have the toughest of starts, away to Toulouse this weekend, while the in-form Stormers are in France to play Bayonne, who last season lost just once at home. That defeat was to the Bulls.

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Investec Champions Cup fixtures (Round 1, SA times)
Friday, 5 December
Bayonne vs Stormers, 10pm
Sale Sharks vs Glasgow Warriors, 10pm
Saturday, 6 December
Saracens vs Clermont, 3pm
Bulls vs Bordeaux Begles, 5:15pm
La Rochelle vs Leicester Tigers, 7:30pm
Leinster vs Harlequins, 7:30pm
Scarlets vs Bristol Bears, 10pm
Bath vs Munster, 10pm
Sunday, 7 December
Pau vs Northampton Saints, 3pm
Toulouse vs Sharks, 5:15pm
Gloucester vs Castres, 5:15pm
Edinburgh vs Toulon, 7:30pm

ALL THE SEASON’S INVESTEC CHAMPIONS CUP FIXTURES