Teams keen to watch Challenge Cup semis
There are no South African teams involved in the semifinals of the Challenge Cup but there is good reason for locals to still take an interest in the outcomes of the matches between the Scarlets and Glasgow Warriors and Toulon and Benetton.
Three of those four teams are, of course, Vodacom United Rugby Championship teams, but it is the Scarlets and Benetton who could have an impact, albeit a very outside chance at this point, on which South African teams qualify for the Heineken Champions Cup next year.
The Vodacom Bulls would have felt they were safe when it came to Champions Cup qualification after Connacht failed to nail down a win over Glasgow and Munster came back to draw with the Cell C Sharks in an exciting final round of league play in the URC.
However, given that the Sharks, seeded eighth going into the URC Finals Series, can still make it into the Champions Cup if they go on to do the nigh impossible and win the competition, and that the Challenge Cup winner is also guaranteed Champions Cup status in 2023-2024, that is not quite the case.
It will be though, if both the Scarlets and Benetton lose their semifinals at the weekend, thus removing any prospect of a URC team that did not qualify through the league qualifying for the HCC via that route.
Glasgow are assured of HCC qualification through finishing fourth in the URC, so winning the Challenge Cup will not impact the URC qualifiers.
So for them, this weekend’s away trip to the Scarlets does not have the same extra edge it has for their opponents and Benetton, who head to Toulon on Sunday for their semifinal.
For those two teams, the Challenge Cup is their last possible route into the Champions Cup next season and there should be a fair level of desperation to their preparations.
With the Sharks also having a glimmer of a lifeline, what it means is that, as it stands, only the teams that finished in the top five of the URC are completely sure of being part of the 2023-2024 Heineken Cup.
The Vodacom Bulls made their position almost assured by ending sixth, with Connacht still hovering in the danger zone at seventh after an exciting final round of the URC last weekend.
But if the Scarlets or Benetton win the Challenge Cup, and the Sharks defy the odds by winning the URC, the Bulls will drop out.
Though the Scarlets have been showing good recent form, at least until they were beaten by the Dragons in what was effectively for them a dead rubber final URC game, both the two URC teams that need to win the Challenge Cup to qualify for the HCC will start as underdogs in their semifinals.
The Scarlets will at least be at home at Parc Y Scarlets tomorrow evening, and they are a dangerous team.
They beat the Sharks and Bulls during the regular season and in the second half of their URC campaign, they have started to click with their all-encompassing attacking game.
Indeed, given that the Glasgow Warriors are also becoming known for their flair and panache under the guidance of former Springbok assistant and Currie Cup-winning Toyota Cheetahs coach Franco Smith, the game being played on Welsh soil could turn out to be one of the most watchable of the four semifinals being played across the two European competitions.
However, given how the Warriors have put it together since they started to gather momentum in November, they must start as favourites to advance to the final, where they will probably meet Toulon. Challenge Cup semifinals: Saturday 6.30pm: Scarlets v Glasgow Warriors (Llanelli)
Sunday 1.30pm: Toulon v Benetton (Toulon.