• The EPCR, in charge of the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup, announced on Thursday that five South African provinces will participate in the competitions next season.

  • Four qualified thanks to their result in the old Celtic League, integrated this season, while the Cheetahs were invited to the Challenge Cup.

  • This (r)evolution takes place in a context of profound reform of the world rugby calendar.

It was an open secret, but the details of the case were still to be known.

The EPCR, in charge of the European Rugby Cups, formalized this Thursday the "historic expansion of its tournaments" with the integration of five South African provinces.

The Stormers (based in Cape Town), the Bulls (Pretoria) and the Sharks (Durban) will play in the next edition of the Champions Cup.

The Lions (Johannesburg) and the Cheetahs (Bloemfontein) will participate in the Challenge Cup.

The first four teams qualified thanks to their results in the United Rugby Championship (URC), the former Celtic League that the South Africans joined this season.

The Cheetahs were invited by the EPCR.

Top South African Teams


✅ World Class Players ✅


URC Quarter Finalists ✅#ChampionsCup ✅



Welcome @THESTORMERS, @BlueBullsRugby and @SharksRugby - we can't wait to welcome you to our competition 💪 pic.twitter .com/RQITWFafCX

– Champions Cup France (@ChampionsCup_FR) June 2, 2022


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"The arrival of the Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions will bring a really interesting touch of southern hemisphere rugby to our tournaments, world class players and new supporters," said Dominic McKay in a statement. President of the EPCR.

The will of the body is to "continue to develop the tournaments to make them the best in club rugby", which means "continuing to offer solid commercial income to our leagues and creating an ever higher level of exciting matches for our fans”.

An arrival far from unanimous

The French clubs, dominating at European level, as proved again by the victories of La Rochelle (Champions Cup) and Lyon (Challenge) last weekend, will therefore have new competition.

"The flavor of a European Cup is necessarily distorted", noted however in mid-May Ugo Mola, manager of Stade Toulousain (five continental titles, a record), when asked about the future introduction of the provinces South Africans.

We will have to get used to it, as this (r)evolution is part of a broader framework of overhaul of the international calendar.

The formats of the next Champions and Challenge Cup will be known "towards the end of the month" of June according to the EPCR, at the same time as the details of the group draws for the two tournaments.

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  • Sport

  • Rugby

  • Rugby European Cup

  • Champions Rugby Cup

  • South Africa