Durban — All things considered, South African rugby can be pleased with its first foray into European Cup rugby and even French star Antoine Dupont might admit that the African teams added value to the two competitions.
We should recall, too, how the SA teams struggled in the first month of the United Rugby Championship (URC) last November, and it would seem the Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers are learning fast while the Cheetahs, who are old campaigners in European rugby, showed great nerve to win in Pau.
The Cheetahs are in the Challenge Cup, the second-tier competition below the Heineken Challenge Cup and it was great to see them emerge from a long period of no rugby to win at a difficult French ground, with veteran Ruan Pienaar showing fine poise to steer them home when they were under pressure in the last 10 minutes.
The Lions are in the same competition and their draw against the Dragons, a team they comfortably beat a few weeks back in the URC will just about feel like a loss because in these competitions where the teams play each other home and away, winning your home games is paramount, especially when you travel to teams in France where there is a massive emphasis on home games because the French boast incredible — and extremely partisan — crowd support.
The difficulty of winning in Europe for the SA teams has been emphasised over the last few days by the extreme weather conditions that have struck Europe, with snow currently over many of the grounds that this weekend will host matches.
The Bulls travel to the Exeter Chiefs in the southwest of England and the Sharks to Bordeaux in the south of France, so both might just miss the snow but they will certainly experience near-freezing temperatures and if you consider the Durban team beat Harlequins in a temperature you would expect in an oven, to six days later play at a predicted temperature of minus one is going to be a shock to the system.
Something that is clear is that the teams that are experienced in these competitions take a wide view and have a long-term plan in how to best use their player resources.
The French, for instance, often send weaker teams for away games and keep their best for the home games they expect to win emphatically and to get their points differentials up.
There were indeed some odd results in the 21 games played over the two competitions. The top French side Toulon almost lost to the bottom URC team Zebre in Parma while Ulster, so powerful in the URC, were whacked 39-0 by the Sale Sharks, and another URC team, the Glasgow Warriors, surprised English Premiership club Bath, away.
It is evident that across these long competitions, strategy is vital and already Jake White has shown he understands the landscape by trusting a largely second-string team to beat Lyon in Pretoria before he brings out his big guns for a tough three-week run of away games to Exeter, the Stormers and the Sharks.
IOL Sport