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CHAMPIONS CUP: Tough starts scheduled for Bulls and Sharks

football15 July 2025 12:18| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Whoever is in charge of the Vodacom Bulls in the post-Jake White era is going to have a tough start to his career in the Investec Champions Cup as his team will open their 2025/2026 campaign against the tournament champions and then the losing finalists.

Bordeaux-Begles won the prestigious European trophy, regarded as the top title in world club rugby, by beating Northampton Saints in last year’s final.

And guess what? After hosting Bordeaux at Loftus on the opening Saturday of competition, 6 December, the Bulls then travel to England to play the team Bordeaux beat to win the trophy.

Northampton won at Loftus at the corresponding stage of last year’s competition, and with Henry Pollock, Fin Smith and other England and now British and Irish Lions stars in tow for the hosts, it will be a tough ask for the Bulls - as will the opener against Bordeaux.

The Hollywoodbets Sharks also have a Herculean task awaiting them at the start of the Pool phase of a competition they are desperate to start doing well in as winning it has long been a mission statement at that franchise.

The Durbanites are travelling to Toulouse to play the six-time winners, Toulouse, on Sunday 7 December.

Toulouse, who may have Antoine Dupont back from injury by then, won 20-8 against the Sharks in Durban in January.

The Sharks’ first home game will be against English club Saracens, who interestingly have the same owners, a week later.

Former England captain Owen Farrell, who is now with the British and Irish Lions in Australia, will be returning to Saracens next season, and of course they also have Lions and England skipper Maro Itoje leading them.

BAYONNE FIRST UP FOR STORMERS 

Like last season, the DHL Stormers start out against a French team, although last year they hosted Toulon in Gqeberha.

This time around they are travelling to France to play Bayonne in one of two opening games to be played on the Friday night, 5 December.

Sale Sharks will be kicking off their campaign at exactly the same time by hosting Glasgow Warriors.

The Stormers then return home to host La Rochelle on Saturday, 13 December - a game which will be eagerly awaited by Cape Town rugby fans who remember the two titanic battles played between the sides the season before last, with the Stormers beating the then reigning champions at DHL Stadium in the Pool phase before losing narrowly at the same venue in the Round of 16 game.

However, it is not known yet whether the game will be played at the Stormers’ regular home ground as the words TBD (meaning to be determined) appear next to the fixture.

Last season the Stormers played in Gqeberha because of a clash with the Cape Town Sevens but that was a week earlier.

With Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium a much bigger venue than Stellenbosch’s Danie Craven, or for that matter the potential other alternative, Athlone Stadium, it would make sense to take the game to the rugby starved Eastern Cape.

The Stormers’ other home game is also a plum one, with Leicester Tiger visiting in the final round in January.

Among the other big games on the opening weekend, Bath with their South African coach Johann van Graan will be starting their campaign in which they hope to take the next step after winning the treble in England last year by hosting Van Graan’s old club, Munster.

Van Graan will feel like proving a point against a club that maybe didn’t treat him as well as they should have.

INVESTIC CHAMPIONS CUP FIXTURES FOR SOUTH AFRICAN TEAMS

HOLLYWOODBETS SHARKS (Pool 1)

Sunday 7 December 2025: Toulouse (Toulouse, 17.15)

Sunday 13 December 2025; Saracens (Durban, 17.15)

Saturday 10 January 2026: Sale Sharks (Sale, 19.30)

Saturday 17 January 2026: ASM Clermont Auvergne (Durban, 15.00)

DHL STORMERS (Pool 3)

Friday 5 December 2026: Bayonne (Bayonne, 22.00)

Saturday 13 December 2026: LaRochelle (Venue to be determined, 15.00)

Sunday 11 January 2026: Harlequins (London, 15.00)

Saturday 17 January 2026: Leicester Tigers (Cape Town, 17.15)

VODACOM BULLS (Pool 4)

Saturday Dec 6 2025: Bordeaux Begles (Pretoria, 17.15)

Sunday Dec 14 2025: Northampton Saints (Northampton, 17.15)

Saturday 10 January 2026: Bristol Bears (Pretoria, 15.00)

Friday 16 January 2026: Pau (Pau, 22.00)

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