Champions Cup: Ex-Springboks skipper dismisses travel concerns and diagnoses real ‘issue’ with South African sides in Europe

Former Springboks captain Corne Krige trashed the notion that travel is the cause of South African teams struggling in the Champions Cup.

Ever since the South African teams joined European competition there have been concerns with travel as sides have to go to or from the Republic for a single game. Just last week Toulon’s Dan Biggar called for a solution to this issue. 

While it certainly is a concern, Krige doesn’t believe it is the reason for South African teams struggling so much in the competition with just one win from the Sharks in the opening two rounds and blanks from the Bulls and Stormers.

The Cape Town and Durban-based franchises both took 50+ points against them in round two underlining their struggles. 

Travel was harder in Super Rugby era

Krige in an interview with Telecom Asia Sport compared the travel to Super Rugby days where players also had to deal with massive timezone changes. 

The former Stormer revealed that he believes the issue revolves around the time of the year when the games are played because in the Super Rugby era December was a rest period for South Africans. 

“We compare travel in the Champions Cup to travel in Super Rugby and I mean in Super Rugby we used to fly halfway around the world and then play a few days later. So I don’t think it’s too bad,” Krige told Telecom Asia Sport.

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Time of the year

“It’s this time of the year that we’re not used to playing, which is usually our off-season, now, suddenly we’re playing in some serious competitions.

“I think that’s maybe the issue we need to look at.

“But, in general, I don’t think the [Champions Cup] travel is such a big problem.

“There’s not a massive time difference and that doesn’t make it that much more difficult for the players.”

Whether or not the travel is as taxing as the Super Rugby era a solution to scheduling must be found where teams can spend a fortnight away from home rather than two big travel weeks back to back. 

READ MORE: Opinion: Want South African clubs to succeed in Europe? Bring the Springboks into the Six Nations