The South African teams completed a difficult week in the Champions and Challenge Cups, with the Lions and Bulls raising the country’s flag while the Sharks, Cheetahs and Stormers floundered.
The end result is that no South African side will feature in the Champions Cup but the Shark and Bulls drop into the Challenge Cup where they will join the Lions. The Stormers sink out completely but one suspects they will be okay with this because they can focus on the United Rugby Championship.
The Lions were outstanding in taming the Dragons to the tune of 60-10; the Bulls were rampant in smashing Stade Francais 48-7, but the Sharks were meek in succumbing 66-12 to Bordeaux and the Stormers did not have enough in the tank in going down 31-22 to Racing 92.
The Stormers rested the likes of Manie Libbok, Warrick Gelant, Deon Fourie and Ben Jason-Dixon, as John Dobson looks forward to Leinster this week, with the Dublin team guaranteed to field a B-team because of multiple call-ups the Ireland Six nations squad.
Still, some South African players excelled over the weekend and deserve mention in our Team of the Week.
Our SA team of the week: 15 Quan Horn (Lions), 14 Tapiwa Mafura (Lions), 13 Henco van Wyk (Lions), 12 Harold Vorster (Bulls), 11 Ethan Hooker (Sharks), 10 Sam Francis (Lions), 9 Embrose Papier (Bulls); 8 Cameron Hanekom (Bulls), 7 Manu Tshituka (Sharks), 6 Marcell Coetzee (Bulls), 5 Ruan Nortje (Bulls), 4 Etienne Ossthuizen (Lions), 3 Neething Foucje (Stormers), 2 Johan Grobbelaar (Bulls), 1 Gerhard Steenekamp (Bulls)