The Bulls are South Africa’s sole survivors in the European Cup competitions but better news is that all four franchises can still make the United Rugby Championship (URC) play-offs.
The Sharks and Bulls are virtually certain to make the top eight in the URC given their current positions and with just four rounds to go, but the Stormers and Lions need to finish with a flourish to make it through the back door.
The promising situation for the latter teams is that they are at home for the last four fixtures and three of their four opponents are in the bottom half of the 16-team URC points table.
The four South African teams have unashamedly favoured the URC ahead of the Challenge Cup and even when the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers featured in the Champions Cup, their focus was more on the URC. All three sides at some point sent second-string sides for Champions Cup fixtures. For example, a Bulls B team shipped 49 points away to Castres and an under-strength Sharks side were beaten 66-12 in Bordeaux.
Embarrassing as those defeats were, the Bulls are sitting pretty in third place in the URC and the Sharks are over their shoulder in fourth.
That tells you where these teams’ priority has been this season. Of course, it would be ideal to excel across all competitions but the South African teams simply don’t have the squad depth of the French and leading Irish teams.
Leinster have for years had structures in place to ensure their youth academy produces players are capable stepping up to the big stages, as we have just seen when a Leinster B team almost beat the Bulls and did beat the Sharks.
Also, a big issue for the SA teams is the requirement that they rest their Springbok players for eight weeks over the course of the year.
The SA teams can’t be all things to all people and while only the Sharks have won silverware in the Cups (last year they won the Challenge Cup), the Stormers have won the URC and also been finalists while the Bulls have twice been finalists.
The Lions are 14th in the URC (on 27 points) after a disappointing recent tour overseas but they are now at home and successive wins over Benetton, Connacht, the Scarlets and the Ospreys should sneak them into the bottom of the top eight.
The Stormers are 10th (35 points) and a rich harvest of points from their four home games should be more than enough to secure playoff spot.
The Bulls and Sharks don’t have it as easy because two of their four games are overseas but they have some breathing space because of their high log positions.
Still, the Sharks in particular, are under pressure to beat Edinburgh and Ulster away because they have a flood of rested Springboks returning for these games, including key men in Eben Etzebeth and Aphelele Fassi.
The Bulls have the extra task of playing a Challenge Cup quarter-final this week before tough away matches to Munster and champions Glasgow. Coach Jake White, though, says this is a positive because the Bulls were in any case going to stay in Europe after having played in Bayonne at the weekend, to prepare for Munster.
Remaining SA Fixtures
Stormers (all in Cape Town)
April 19: v Connacht
April 26: v Benetton
May 10: v Dragons
May 16: v Cardiff
Lions (all in Johannesburg)
April 19: v Benetton
April 16: v Connacht
May 11: v Scarlets
May 17: v Ospreys
Sharks
April 18: v Edinburgh in Edinburgh
April 26: v Ulster in Belfast
May 9: v Ospreys in Durban
May 17: v Scarlets in Durban
Bulls
April 12: v Edinburgh in Edinburgh (Challenge Cup quarter-final)
April 19: v Munster in Limerick
April 15: v Warriors in Glasgow
May 10: v Cardiff in Pretoria
May 17: v Dragons in Pretoria