Stormers can play Bulls in Cape Town in Investec Champions Cup last 8

The Stormers and Bulls will both travel for the last 16 play-offs of the Investec Champions Cup, while the Sharks will compete in the EPCR Challenge Cup play-offs, writes Mark Keohane. However, away wins for the Stormers and Bulls would see them meet in Cape Town in the quarter-final.

The last 16 is only played in the first week of April, nearly 10 weeks from now, so plenty will change with each of the qualified teams, given their demanding domestic competitions and the added toil of the Six Nations in February and March.

The Stormers, ranked 10th in the qualification process despite winning three of their four matches, will play Toulon at the Stade Mayol. Toulon, who finished second in their Pool, ranked seventh out of the 16 qualified teams.

The Bulls, who sneaked into the last 16, courtesy of a solitary victory against Pau, are ranked 15th and they travel to the Glasgow, who won all four matches to be ranked second behind defending champions Bordeaux, who ranked first with four wins from four.

Bordeaux beat the Bulls and Bristol away and hammered last season’s finalists, Northampton Saints at home.

The defending champions will play 16th place Leicester Tigers, while French giants Toulouse host Bristol and, if successful, they will travel to Bordeaux, assuming the champions beat the Tigers.

The Investec Champions Cup 24 teams featured eight from the Top 14, eight from the Prem and eight from the URC. The Prem has seven teams in the last 16, with Gloucester the only English club to miss out, the URC has five teams and France’s Top 14 has four survivors from the original eight.

In the last 16, there will be four cross border clashes, two all-English Prem-type showdowns and two URC match-ups.

From a South African perspective, should the Stormers and Bulls win away from home, then the Stormers would host the Bulls in the quarter-finals in Cape Town. The winner would then in all likelihood travel to Dublin to play Leinster in a semi-final, with the Irish hosting Edinburgh in the last 16 and, if successful, the winner of Harlequins v Sale, with the winner of that match decided at the Stoop in South West London.

Bath, having topped their pool with three wins from four, host English rivals Saracens, who won both their home matches, but lost on the road to the Sharks in Durban and Franco Smith’s Warriors in Glasgow.

There are two South African teams in the last 16 and six South African coaches, with Leinster, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bath all having South African coaches in charge.

©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

The Stormers finished their qualification with a try-scoring bonus point win against Leicester’s Tigers in Cape Town. They won 39-26.

The Sharks hammered Clermont 50-12 in Durban, but the two wins from four matches was not enough to qualify and they finished fifth in a tightly contested pool. They drop to the EPCR Challenge Cup, which they won two years ago. They will play Cardiff in Cardiff in the last 16.

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