Bob Skinstad has blasted rugby’s failure to implement a global calendar and hit back at continued criticism of South African participation in Europe’s flagship club tournament.
The Investec Champions Cup kicks off this weekend with the World Cup-winning nation involved for a third straight year, despite being based in a different hemisphere.
The participation of South Africa‘s leading franchises in a competition much-loved since 1995 in its original European Cup guise was not universally welcomed at the outset and continues to sharply divide opinion.
Enhances the competition
Skinstad, a former captain of the Springboks and now co-owner of French second division club Beziers, has had enough of the sniping and insists the presence of the Sharks, Stormers and Bulls enhances the 24-team showpiece.
“We punch way above our weight,” he told Planet Rugby ahead of the Durban-based Sharks hosting Exeter Chiefs, Toulon’s visit to Cape Town to face the Stormers and the London clash between Saracens and the Bulls.
“We’ve got fewer rugby players than are available in England, definitely less economic firepower in terms of being able to hold the players, and more – and more difficult – travel to do than anyone else.
“Yet we are consistently at the top of the URC [United Rugby Championship], we won the Challenge Cup last year through the Sharks, and we’ve only just arrived.
“I can completely understand the reticence; it’s my playground, I want to play in it; who’s this new individual? I get that. It’s a very human, anthropological sort of negativity, But the world’s changing.”