Challenge Cup offers struggling clubs shot at Champions Cup hope a way in Most clubs have been in a rut, unable to win in their domestic competition and with their season looking like a failure, at some point in their lifetime. But the Challenge Cup – for clubs who did not qualify for the Champions Cup, plus invitational teams – offers a chance to reach the top flight. [...]
Investec Champions Cup: Pool draw shows competition is best of the best draw reaction It may only be July but the Investec Champions Cup season got underway on Tuesday with the pool draws in Cardiff. The 24 clubs taking part – who qualified through their league position or by winning the second tier EPCR Challenge Cup – will compete across four pools of six in December and January before [...]
South African involvement in European rugby has given competition lease of life in the spotlight “It was international rugby versus club rugby,” said one person at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after the South African Hollywoodbets Sharks beat Gloucester Rugby 36-22 in the EPCR Challenge Cup. That’s not entirely true, both sides had their international representatives, but the point is a good one. The addition of the Sharks into the European [...]
Challenge Cup can be cure to desperate seasons for Gloucester and Sharks May 23, 2024 Before the start of the current rugby season both Gloucester and the Sharks, from Durban, would have been full of hope for their domestic campaigns. But soon into their Premiership and United Rugby Championship campaigns, things began to unravel and any hopes of winning a league title disappeared over a cliff. It left the two [...]
Investec Champions Cup finalists Leinster and Toulouse have varied preparations May 19, 2024 The four clubs set to contest this weekend’s Investec Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup had mixed fortunes in their domestic leagues at the weekend as each side prepares for the showpiece finale at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday and Saturday night. The English team Gloucester will face South African franchise the Sharks on Friday [...]