There will be no home comforts for the Stormers and Bulls, who must win on the road in Europe if they want to go deep in the Investec Champions Cup tournament.<\/p>\n
After the weekend\u2019s final round of pool matches, it has been decided the Stormers will travel to France to take on powerhouse Toulon, and the Bulls face a daunting trip to Scotland for a showdown against Glasgow Warriors during April.<\/p>\n
The Sharks are in the same boat as their SA compatriots and will make the journey to Ireland for a clash against Connacht in the lower-tier EPCR Challenge Cup over the weekend of April 3 to 5.<\/p>\n
The Bulls, despite winning only one of their three pool matches, kept their playoff hopes alive with a 26-24 win against Pau in France on Friday night.<\/p>\n
They qualified when the Scarlets lost away to Northampton on Sunday to offer them a much-needed lifeline.<\/p>\n
In their final pool matches, the Stormers beat Leicester Tigers 39-26 in Cape Town, and the Sharks thrashed Clermont 50-12 in Durban.<\/p>\n
Bulls coach Johan Ackermann praised his team\u2019s resolve after their win over Pau.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the first minute, the players really put their bodies on the line and stayed at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t perfect, but I\u2019m just grateful for the victory. We keep working on the same things week after week, and hopefully we can keep transferring it back on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of character in the team, and I\u2019ve never doubted that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sometimes put ourselves under pressure through errors or our discipline.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut without the character, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to hang in there and give ourselves a chance at the end. That\u2019s the part I\u2019ve been most proud of.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is it\u2019s only one win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ackermann said his team would now turn their attention to the United Rugby Championship, which resumes on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe next face a tough Edinburgh away in the United Rugby Championship, which is one of the best teams and a team full of internationals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bulls enjoyed the win over Pau as a group and then reset to start focusing on Edinburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a step in the right direction, but it\u2019s only one win. Nothing to get overly excited about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t fault the players for their energy or their willingness to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven this week in Pau, the field was muddy and slippery, but the boys worked hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not far off\u2014sometimes things just need to go your way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re scoring enough points, but we\u2019re conceding more than we score. If we can get that sorted and stay on top of our attack, hopefully that moment we\u2019re waiting for is around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions and Cheetahs failed to qualify for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
A thrilling 20-20 draw against Perpignan in the Lions\u2019 final pool match saw them finish on the same number of points as the French side but miss out by points difference.<\/p>\n
Champions Cup last 16 (weekend of April 3 to 5):<\/p>\n
Bath v Saracens, Leinster v Edinburgh, Glasgow v Bulls, Toulouse v Bristol Bears, Bordeaux v Leicester, Toulon v Stormers, Harlequins v Sale, Northampton v Castres.<\/p>\n
EPCR Challenge Cup last 16 (weekend of April 3 to 5):<\/p>\n
Newcastle v La Rochelle, Zebre Parma v Pau, Stade Francais v Dragons, Ulster v Ospreys, Benetton v Cardiff, Connacht v Sharks, Montpellier v Perpignan, Exeter Chiefs vs Munster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be no home comforts for the Stormers and Bulls, who must win on the road in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,222507,222513,222515,186111,222510,222511,760,222508,222514,85,222509,222512,134441],"class_list":["post-423075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bulls-rugby-team","tag-bulls-vs-glasgow-warriors","tag-epcr-challenge-cup","tag-investec-champions-cup","tag-johan-ackermann-bulls","tag-lions-vs-perpignan","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-in-europe","tag-sharks-vs-connacht","tag-sports","tag-stormers-leicester-tigers","tag-stormers-vs-toulon","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}