South Africans have a legacy of excelling in the EPCR, which must be leveraged to increase support for local teams when they play at home, writes MARK KEOHANE.

It’s do or die for the five SA sides taking the field in the round of 16 of the Champions and Challenge cups this week, where they will all battle it out for quarter-final places.

Three of the teams will have the luxury of home-ground advantage, with the Vodacom Bulls hosting Lyon in Pretoria and the DHL Stormers welcoming defending champions La Rochelle to Cape Town in the Champions Cup on Saturday, while the Sharks will meet Zebre Parma in the Challenge Cup in Durban on Sunday.

In the other two EPCR playoffs, which will both take place on Saturday, the Cheetahs meet Clermont Auvergne in France, and the Lions tackle Benetton in Italy.

Writing for TimesLIVE, Keohane believes that organisers need to do more to sell these competitions to South African supporters, by maximising on the country’s rugby obsession and the quality of the European clubs.

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He points out that SA fans are familiar with the Champions Cup due to the success of teams like Toulon and Saracens, which featured Springbok stars like Bryan Habana, Bakkies Botha and Schalk Brits.

However, Keohane emphasises that more education is needed to increase attendance of EPCR matches in the Republic. He highlights the impressive crowds at DHL Stormers’ home games in the Vodacom URC but suggests that similar enthusiasm hasn’t been generated for European clashes.

“There is a rich recent history of South African players being standouts in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup but given that it is only the second season that South African teams are playing in the respective competitions, there hasn’t been the interest one would expect in this rugby-obsessed country,” he writes.

“It is going to require a lot of education and marketing in the future for South Africans to get an appreciation of why the Champions Cup is so revered among players from France, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy.

“La Rochelle’s starting team, as just one example, is expected to feature 13 Test internationals. There should be a queue for tickets and not a question as to why there is no queue.”

Photo: @ChampionsCup/Twitter

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