Five South African clubs enter Europe next season

Champions Cup and Challenge Cup organisers have announced five South African club sides will play in European competition next season.

The Stormers, Bulls and Sharks, who qualified second, fourth and fifth from the United Rugby Championship will play in the Champions Cup.

The Lions, who finished 12th, will play in the Challenge Cup, while the Cheetahs, who have not played in the URC, have been invited into the event.

Organisers say their inclusion with bring “a new level of elite rugby”.

“This is a crucial step forward in bringing to life our vision of growing the game and our own tournaments, continuing to deliver strong returns for our leagues and creating an ever-higher standard of mouth-watering matches for our fans,” said European Professional Club Rugby chairman Dominic McKay.

The EPCR says the arrangement will cover next season “and beyond”.

The Sharks, Stormers, Bulls and Lions’ eligibility for European competition was confirmed when they took places alongside Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian teams in the rebranded URC last year.

The quartet replaced the Kings and Cheetahs, who had been the South African participants in the Pro14 – the tournament’s previous incarnation.

The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is attempting to align more closely with Europe, with which the country shares a time zone, rather than the southern-hemisphere powerbase of New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.

South Africa‘s club sides moved away from playing in Super Rugby against teams from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands in 2020.