Former Wales flyhalf Dan Biggar has weighed in on the debate around South African participation in the Investec Champions Cup.
His comments came after owner Marco Masotti warned he would stop funding the Sharks if SA teams withdrew from Europe.
“It is important for rugby that we invest in the club game and have the South African franchises play in the most high-profile and lucrative competitions,” Masotti told KickOff Rugby.
“Let me be clear, I will no longer fund the losses if we pull out of the Champions Cup.”
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Biggar, however, believes the Sharks cannot publicly champion the competition while simultaneously sending weakened teams overseas, as they did against the Sale Sharks this season.
“The Champions Cup is a strange one because for the Sharks owner to come out and say that, and then not pick their best team to go and play abroad, that’s when you lose your argument in that sense,” Biggar said on The Rugby Pod.
“If you’re in it, you’re in it, so you can’t be half-pregnant on this, can you?
“You’ve got to be, ‘right, we’re fully in on this and we’re going to get it’.
“It’s all well and good saying that but you’ve got to be in it as well.”
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“I know you could say the Sharks won the Challenge Cup and that’s probably as good as it got for South Africans in Europe over the last couple of years.
“It does make it difficult, the travel, playing in freezing cold one week and then you’ve got to go to 35 degrees in Cape Town the following week.”
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But Biggar also believes SA Rugby is in a strong position when it comes to its European future.
“They just hold so much power in the game at the minute,” he said. “The Springboks are the big brand at the minute in world rugby, they’ve replaced the All Blacks as ‘that’ brand.
“They’re in such a strong position to effectively call the shots on what they want to do because everything is working for them, the money is flowing in, they’ve got all the power, they’ve got the sponsors.
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“The TV deal is up in a year’s time for the Champions Cup, so who knows what’s going to happen there. Premier [Sport] may go back in again, or another company may come in and then it’s negotiations again.”
Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images
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