Exclusive: Kitshoff and Botha Urge South African Rugby to Take the Champions Cup Seriously

Back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions South Africa’s franchises have battled to make the same impact in club competition as they seemingly look down from their castle at a tournament as storied as the Champions Cup.

The four South African United Rugby Championship franchises were controversial inclusions in European competition and the failure of any of their teams to make the playoffs has again cast doubt on whether they should be included in an elite tournament, the pinnacle of European club rugby and an event with much romance attached to it given its history.

The URC vs. Champions Cup Debate

Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff, who won the World Cup in 2019 and 2023, has experience of European club rugby, having played for Bordeaux from 2015 to 2017 and then for Ulster in 2023/24, and he believes South African clubs under-value the Champions Cup.

“I’ve played in Europe before and I remember when I was with Ulster how big a deal the Champions Cup was. It was more important than the URC, but it seems to be vice-versa in South Africa. Our teams seem to prioritise a strong performance in the URC, which then means you qualify for the Champions Cup."

“If you make a bad start to the Champions Cup then a good URC performance will get you back in there. But I think it will take a while for South Africans to realise just how important the European competitions are, and we also have budget issues here,” Kitshoff told sportsboom.co.za in an exclusive interview.

There is definitely a mystique that surrounds the Champions Cup, but as newcomers to the tournament, South African administrators, players and fans have yet to feel the magic.

“Winning in Europe was always the big challenge when I was overseas and the clubs compete as hard as they can in those competitions. I’ll never forget my first game for Ulster was in the Champions Cup and the week leading up to that match was more momentous than when we played Leinster in the URC,” Kitshoff said.

But in order for South African teams to fully embrace the Champions Cup, Kitshoff believes the format of the competition needs to change. At the moment, the four pool stage rounds, for the four pools and six teams, and four knockout rounds are spread out between December and May.

“I think South Africans will catch on but the schedule needs to change so we can send stronger sides to Europe. We play a lot of rugby and then there is the Springbok schedule as well. A lot of locally-based players miss games because of the URC and the Springboks’ end-of-year tour,” the 32-year-old who will shortly start his rehab from what he described as “very positive” neck surgery, said.

"No Financial Cap, No Excuses" 

Kitshoff’s views were backed up by Springbok legend Naas Botha.

“In my opinion, the Champions Cup is next in importance to the World Cup because you are playing against the best in Europe and South Africa. But we seem to be concentrating more on the URC, which is fine, but Toulouse have proven that beating our teams in our own backyard is what makes you a real champion."

“I don’t get the feeling that South Africa prioritise the Champions Cup, judging by some of the mediocre teams they send overseas. I know the travel is difficult, but looking at it as an outsider, we don’t seem to rate the Champions Cup too highly."

“There are a couple of things that SA Rugby need to reconsider and the first is that there should be no financial cap. If you want to spend a billion rand on a team, why can’t you? It’s your money. You see the Stade Francais budget is more than R800 million while our teams have a cap of R67 million. We have so much talent, but we shouldn’t allow our best players to all play overseas, we must have enough money to keep them here and not go overseas."

“Make the Champions Cup a knockout tournament and that will make it a tournament people really want to win. I loved SuperRugby, I love the URC, but we need to think about the structure of the Champions Cup. At the moment there are too many things that don’t make sense. Do we take it seriously enough? I want to see the best playing against the best."

“The Champions Cup needs to be our franchises’ number one priority. I would also love to see the Champions Cup winner play the SuperRugby winner and the Six Nations champions play the Rugby Championship winners,” Botha said.