South African sides in Champions Cup must be economically viable – Exeter boss Rob Baxter
Staff, 2022-12-15 06:52:50,
Exeter boss Rob Baxter says there must be an economic case to keep South African sides in the Champions Cup.
The Chiefs host the Bulls on Saturday before travelling to Pretoria for the return fixture in mid-January.
This season is the first with South African sides in Europe after they joined the United Rugby Championship.
“If we get a great crowd and it’s a really good game, then for obvious reasons we can probably start saying there’s a value to it,” said Baxter.
“The flip of that is the expense of travelling to South Africa for a week is big and everyone’s aware of the economic climate, particularly in the Premiership at the moment,” he told BBC Radio Devon.
“I also thought the Champions Cup was pretty good as it was, I don’t know if it needed adding to much.
“But the bigger issue is once the URC admitted South African sides it becomes slightly weird to have the next competition not involving teams that are in that competition, but involving other sides in that competition.
“Will it add to it? It’s hard to tell, we’ll see at the weekend.”
‘It sounds great in theory, but it has to create revenue as well’
Exeter will pay an initial amount for travel to South Africa next month, with the rest of the costs picked up centrally by competition organisers.
They will play the Bulls on Saturday, 14 January after flying out overnight on the previous Sunday – a day after hosting Northampton in the Premiership.
They return…
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