JEOPARDY: Tight games ahead in Champions Cup sudden death

The local rugby focus switches from the Vodacom United Rugby Championship to the prestigious Investec Champions Cup this weekend and there are so many potentially tight games in the round of 16 sudden death phase that it is hard to choose which one to pick as the stand out.

With the Vodacom Bulls unlucky not to win against Lyon away in their pool clash in December, they should start as clear favourites to beat the French team at Loftus and advance to the quarterfinals for the first time. However, there is plenty of jeopardy for the DHL Stormers as they face the reigning two-time champions, La Rochelle, at the DHL Stadium.

Played as the later of the two South African games, the Cape Town clash would challenge for being the plum game for the weekend, particularly if what happened at the same venue in mid-December can be re-enacted - the Stormers produced a Houdini act in getting up to win with a last gasp conversion from the touchline from clutch kick specialist Manie Libbok.

But there’s plenty of jeopardy everywhere, with La Rochelle and the Stormers not the only good teams facing a potential early exit from the competition. It starts with an appetising showdown between two attack-orientated teams, Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors, at The Stoop on Friday night.

Who would you choose as the winner? Glasgow are the away team but under the coaching of Franco Smith they are soaring in the URC and are currently placed second behind Leinster on the log and look the only team capable of preventing Leinster from ending top for the third consecutive year.

Harlequins haven’t been as good as they were a few years back and were soundly thumped by Saracens in a game played in front of a massive crowd of more than 60 000 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London a few weeks ago. But they have game breakers aplenty, headed by England’s mercurial pivot Marcus Smith and with the Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen, destined to return to the Hollywoodbets Sharks next season, alongside him.

SIYA’S TEAM UP AGAINST IT

There are two derbies set for this first knock-out round, with English clubs Exeter Chiefs and Bath squaring up at Sandy Park on Saturday, while Racing 92, the club that Bok captain Siya Kolisi now plays for, travel to face the formidable Toulouse on Sunday. Toulouse have experienced some relatively lean years in a competition they have dominated in the past and will be eager to get it right this year after playing third fiddle for the past two years to fellow French team La Rochelle and Leinster.

GROUNDHOG DAY FOR LEINSTER AND TIGERS

Talking of Leinster, they must be going through what the Bill Murray character did in the movie Groundhog Day, when he woke up every morning to discover that he was reliving the day before. The Irish outfit have played Leicester Tigers several times at this stage of the season or similar in recent years, and also played against the Tigers in the pool phase. They’ve won every time they’ve met in the last few years, and usually quite comfortably, but being such strong favourites can sometimes backfire. Remember what happened to Leinster in last year’s URC semifinal against Munster.

SARACENS BEST ENGLISH HOPE

Returning to the subject of jeopardy, the Bordeaux Begles clash with Saracens should attract a lot of interest from both sides of the English channel, with Saracens considered the most likely English team to succeed after their big win over Harlequins even though they have trailed Northampton Saints for much of the season in the Gallagher Premiership.

The URC champions, Munster, get to go to Saints this weekend, and they will be hoping the Stormers’ recent comfortable win at Franklin Gardens in a friendly match four weeks ago is an indication that their opponents are beatable.

SA INTEREST IN CHALLENGE CUP

There’s much focus in South Africa on the EPCR Challenge Cup games, with all three local teams that started the secondary competition getting to play in this year’s round of 16. The Hollywoodbets Sharks are sweating over the fitness of Eben Etzebeth but they shouldn’t need him to beat Zebre in their game on Sunday afternoon. There is far more jeopardy for the Emirates Lions, who are in Treviso to play Benetton, while the Toyota Cheetahs are going to be hard pressed to keep their campaign alive as they go to Clermont, a notoriously difficult venue for visiting teams.

The Sharks appear to be South Africa’s main hope of success in the Challenge Cup but while getting through to the quarterfinal should be no problem, there are some potentially difficult obstacles in their path beyond that. However, one of those will fall out this weekend as Montpellier and Ulster, who dropped to the Challenge Cup after failing to make the knock-outs of the Champions Cup, face each other in Montpellier in an early Sunday Sunday afternoon shoot-out.

Investec Champions Cup last 16 fixtures

Friday, 5 April

Harlequins vs Glasgow Warriors (9pm)

Saturday, 6 April

Vodacom Bulls vs Lyon (1:30pm)

Exeter vs Bath (4pm)

DHL Stormers vs La Rochelle (4pm)

Bordeaux Begles vs Saracens (6:30pm)

Leinster vs Leicester Tigers (9pm)

Sunday, 7 April

Northampton Saints vs Munster (1:30pm)

Toulouse vs Racing 92 (4pm)

Challenge Cup last 16 fixtures

Friday, 5 April

Gloucester vs Castres (9pm)

Saturday, 6 April

Clermont vs Toyota Cheetahs (1:30pm)

Benetton vs Emirates Lions (6:30pm)

Edinburgh vs Bayonne (9pm)

Ospreys vs Sale Sharks (9pm)

Sunday, 7 April

Montpellier vs Ulster (1:30pm)

Hollywoodbets Sharks vs Zebre (4pm)

Pau vs Connacht (6:30pm)