Eduan Swart of the Sharks with the ball during their Champions Cup match against Clermont at Kings Park Stadium in Durban over the past weekend. Picture: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images The EPCR Champions Cup competition’s format needs a serious overhaul, after the Bulls somehow qualified for the competition’s playoffs, despite a largely poor pool phase that saw them pick up just one win. How a team, in what is arguably the best franchise rugby competition in the world, canmake it to the knockoutswith just one win, while losing three times, is a bit ridiculous, although as a South African I am happy to see them in the next round.
But it takes away from the competitiveness of the tournament, that teams that play badly can still make it through to the next round, and then anything can happen in a knockout match. Maybe the Champions Cup needs todo away with the last 16, and rather let teams go straight through to the quarterfinals, which would make things a lot more interesting. The current format has four pools with six teams in each, and the top four progress through to the last 16, but if it was instead only the top two in each pool going through, then it would really be do-or-die in almost every match.
The current version of the Champions Cup does see a bit of excitement though, and the Sharks cancount themselves unluckyto have been in a very competitive pool this season, as usually two wins is enough to get you through to the playoffs. But instead they finished fifth in their pool, level on 10 points with fourth placed Saracens, but behind on points difference, while Sale Sharks finished third on 11 points, and Stade Toulousain second on 12, and both also only won two matches but picked up more bonus points. However, that is not normal, as shown by two wins being enough for fourth placed Edinburgh in pool two, while Leicester Tigers in pool three mirrored the Bulls by sneaking through with just one win out of four. Whatever the case, the competition needs a bit of a shake-up, as most teams happily send weakened teams to away matches, because they can afford to suffer a loss or two and still qualify, which definitely takes away much of the spectacle from what should be the best taking on the best.
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