Five South African club sides will play in European competition next season, following an announcement by European Professional Club Rugby.
The Stormers, Bulls and Sharks, who qualified second, fourth and fifth from the United Rugby Championship, will play in the Champions Cup.
The Emirates Lions, who finished 12th, will play in the Challenge Cup, along with the Cheetahs, who have been invited into the event.
Taking on English and French clubs
This means that the South African teams will now cross swords with the best clubs from England and France, after already successfully integrating with teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the URC.
“Our five franchise teams will now play in two new territories against opponents we’ve never played before,” said Jurie Roux, CEO of SA Rugby. “We’ve already experienced the intensity of the Vodacom URC, and now we’ll also face the top teams from England and France. It has happened earlier than planned, as we started this process more than two years ago after Super Rugby imploded, but this has now become reality, which really is great news for South African rugby.”
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SA Rugby is in the process of aligning more closely with Europe, rather than the southern hemisphere powerbase of New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. South Africa’s club sides moved away from playing in Super Rugby against teams from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands in 2020.
“Ever since we’ve made the decision to align with the Northern Hemisphere, our aim was to play in the EPCR competitions,” said Roux. “As we’ve seen during the inaugural season of the Vodacom URC, the rugby is of the highest standard and our top players definitely benefited from this move. We now have an opportunity to also start rubbing shoulders with the top clubs from England and France in two other competitions which have caught the imagination of rugby supporters around the globe for more than two decades.”
Long-term deal
The EPCR says the arrangement will cover next season “and beyond”.
“This is a crucial step forward in bringing to life our vision of growing the game and our own tournaments, continuing to deliver strong returns for our leagues and creating an ever-higher standard of mouth-watering matches for our fans,” said European Professional Club Rugby Chairman Dominic McKay.
The Sharks, Stormers, Bulls and Lions’ eligibility for European competition was confirmed when they took places alongside Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian teams in the rebranded URC.
The formats for next season’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup will be announced shortly, in conjunction with details of the pool draws for both tournaments, which will be staged towards the end of the month.
Next year’s EPCR showpiece finals will take place on 19 and 20 May 2023 at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
