Five South African teams in the European Rugby Cups: this is not good news!

Virginie Phulpin 07:24, June 03, 2022

It's official, five South African teams will join the European rugby cups next season.

You have a hard time seeing how that could be good news. 

The supporters of the La Rochelle stadium did well to gather at 35,000 on the port to celebrate their European champions as it should be a few days ago.

We had to take advantage of it, because they will be the last real European champions.

We will be able to invent the opposite counterpart to OM's cult phrase "forever the first".

There, it is “forever the last”.

Next season, I don't know what the winners will be called, but European champions, that won't work anymore.

Champions North South, champions of the meridian of Greenwich perhaps.

Even if it doesn't quite fit, it will be more accurate than talking about Europe with 5 South African teams.

I must be a little reactive, but a European Cup, I find that not bad between European clubs.

And then why distort a competition like that?

So yes, I understood correctly.

It is a question of attracting a new public, of internationalizing rugby, of making sure that the European public sees more often the South African stars who are world champions in title.

But in fact, it will above all end up disgusting everyone with these little arrangements with values.

Looks like the worst inclinations in football, and that's not a compliment.

The South African stars, we could have waited for the 2023 World Cup in France to see them set foot on our grounds.

It would have kept the exceptional side of a World Cup.

and that's not a compliment.

The South African stars, we could have waited for the 2023 World Cup in France to see them set foot on our grounds.

It would have kept the exceptional side of a World Cup.

and that's not a compliment.

The South African stars, we could have waited for the 2023 World Cup in France to see them set foot on our grounds.

It would have kept the exceptional side of a World Cup. 

The French clubs are not all delighted with the arrival of the South Africans.

They are going to play more, when we keep saying that the calendars are already overloaded, they are going to do more kilometers, spend time on the plane rather than recover optimally between two matches.

So there will probably be more injuries.

And in any case more fatigue, that's for sure.

Let's not complain during the World Cup that the players are worn out and that they don't give their best.

By dint of wringing them out, after a while there is no more juice.

All this for a hybrid competition that will lose its meaning.

And then the EPCR, roughly the equivalent of UEFA in rugby, prides itself on having significant environmental commitments.

And that's true.

At the end of March, for example, it organized a waste collection in the Calanques of Marseilles.

To clean up and raise awareness of the pollution of the beaches and the sea. How many will have to be organized, collections, to offset the carbon footprint of these cups in Europe and South Africa?

Lénaïg Corson, one of the best players in the women's XV of France, is very committed to the planet, she participates in the CSR projects of French rugby, ie the contribution of French rugby to environmental issues.

And there, she is quite taken aback.

I believe we can understand it.

ie the contribution of French rugby to environmental issues.

And there, she is quite taken aback.

I believe we can understand it.

ie the contribution of French rugby to environmental issues.

And there, she is quite taken aback.

I believe we can understand it.