THE CHALLENGE CUP is already European club rugby’s Off Broadway equivalent but Ulster will perform to a new audience this Sunday (3:15pm) when they face South Africa’s Cheetahs in Round 3.
Richie Murphy’s side will head not for the Cheetahs’ home city of Bloemfontein but instead make the far shorter trip to Amsterdam, with the Free State club having chosen the Dutch city as its European base since the 2023/24 season.
The Cheetahs, along with Georgia’s Black Lion, are invitational participants in the Challenge Cup: neither club has a means of qualifying for Europe through their respective domestic competitions.
While Black Lion are free to host games in Tbilisi, the Cheetahs’ invitation to the Challenge Cup is predicated upon their home games taking place in Europe as opposed to South Africa.
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Ulster’s Tom O’Toole and David O’Connor tackling the Cheetahs' Jasper Wiese during a Pro14 match in 2020. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
The Cheetahs’ compatriots — the Bulls, the Stormers, the Sharks and the Lions — are these days granted a direct route into the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup through the United Rugby Championship (URC), the league in which they compete alongside the Irish provinces, the Welsh regions, and the Scottish and Italian clubs. The URC’s four South African sides can host Champions Cup or Challenge Cup games in their respective home stadiums until the semi-final stage.
The Cheetahs themselves competed in the previous iteration of the URC, then known as the Pro14. However, in 2020, the South African Rugby Union effectively sacrificed the Cheetahs, along with the Southern Kings, to clear space in a revamped league for the country’s four larger franchises, which the union had withdrawn from Super Rugby in pursuit of a better commercial future following a dispute with its New Zealand equivalent.
The Bulls, the Stormers, the Sharks and the Lions subsequently joined the new-look, 16-team URC, while the Cheetahs were reduced to compete only in South Africa’s domestic competition, the Currie Cup. (The Southern Kings, meanwhile, were liquidated following their removal from the Pro14/URC).
The Cheetahs competed in the Pro14 until it became the URC, when they were replaced by four larger South African franchises from Super Rugby. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), though, has invited the Cheetahs to compete in the Challenge Cup for the last four seasons.
One of the conditions set for the club’s participation in the tournament is that the Cheetahs must be based in Europe for all home games. This prevents opposition sides — official stakeholders as opposed to invitees — from having to travel all the way to Bloemfontein before or after key domestic fixtures.
In their maiden season in the Challenge Cup, 2022/23, the Cheetahs played their two home pool games at Zebre’s home ground, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma, Italy. They went on to reach the knockouts before falling to eventual winners Toulon.
For their three campaigns since, including this season, the Cheetahs have made Amsterdam’s 5,000-capacity NRCA Stadium their European headquarters.
The NRCA has been the Netherlands’ national rugby stadium since 1997, and the Cheetahs have either filled it or come close for their five pool games at the venue since 2023. Sunday’s meeting with Ulster is already sold out, with local rugby fans snapping up tickets and travelling Ulster fans relishing a novel trip to ‘The Dam’ to follow the northern province.
A view of NRCA Stadium, Amsterdam. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
The Cheetahs' Ruan Pienaar with Ulster scrum-half Nathan Doak during Emerging Ireland's 2022 tour of South Africa. Steve Haag / INPHO
Steve Haag / INPHO / INPHO
While competing on a new frontier, Ulster will find familiarity in their opponents’ coaching group, where club legend Ruan Pienaar is in charge of the Cheetahs’ attack. World Cup-winning Springbok legend Frans Steyn, who also once won a Challenge Cup with Montpellier, is the Cheetahs’ head coach.
Sunday’s hosts have lost their opening two pool games away to the improved Exeter Chiefs and at home to Stade Francais. They sit bottom of Ulster’s Pool 3, while Richie Murphy’s side, who are unapologetically prioritising the URC this season, are in third after a bonus-point win over Racing and a bonus-point defeat to Cardiff in their opening two rounds.
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What's taking Ulster to Amsterdam for a Challenge Cup game this weekend?
THE CHALLENGE CUP is already European club rugby’s Off Broadway equivalent but Ulster will perform to a new audience this Sunday (3:15pm) when they face South Africa’s Cheetahs in Round 3.
Richie Murphy’s side will head not for the Cheetahs’ home city of Bloemfontein but instead make the far shorter trip to Amsterdam, with the Free State club having chosen the Dutch city as its European base since the 2023/24 season.
The Cheetahs, along with Georgia’s Black Lion, are invitational participants in the Challenge Cup: neither club has a means of qualifying for Europe through their respective domestic competitions.
While Black Lion are free to host games in Tbilisi, the Cheetahs’ invitation to the Challenge Cup is predicated upon their home games taking place in Europe as opposed to South Africa.
The Cheetahs’ compatriots — the Bulls, the Stormers, the Sharks and the Lions — are these days granted a direct route into the Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup through the United Rugby Championship (URC), the league in which they compete alongside the Irish provinces, the Welsh regions, and the Scottish and Italian clubs. The URC’s four South African sides can host Champions Cup or Challenge Cup games in their respective home stadiums until the semi-final stage.
The Cheetahs themselves competed in the previous iteration of the URC, then known as the Pro14. However, in 2020, the South African Rugby Union effectively sacrificed the Cheetahs, along with the Southern Kings, to clear space in a revamped league for the country’s four larger franchises, which the union had withdrawn from Super Rugby in pursuit of a better commercial future following a dispute with its New Zealand equivalent.
The Bulls, the Stormers, the Sharks and the Lions subsequently joined the new-look, 16-team URC, while the Cheetahs were reduced to compete only in South Africa’s domestic competition, the Currie Cup. (The Southern Kings, meanwhile, were liquidated following their removal from the Pro14/URC).
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), though, has invited the Cheetahs to compete in the Challenge Cup for the last four seasons.
One of the conditions set for the club’s participation in the tournament is that the Cheetahs must be based in Europe for all home games. This prevents opposition sides — official stakeholders as opposed to invitees — from having to travel all the way to Bloemfontein before or after key domestic fixtures.
In their maiden season in the Challenge Cup, 2022/23, the Cheetahs played their two home pool games at Zebre’s home ground, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma, Italy. They went on to reach the knockouts before falling to eventual winners Toulon.
For their three campaigns since, including this season, the Cheetahs have made Amsterdam’s 5,000-capacity NRCA Stadium their European headquarters.
The NRCA has been the Netherlands’ national rugby stadium since 1997, and the Cheetahs have either filled it or come close for their five pool games at the venue since 2023. Sunday’s meeting with Ulster is already sold out, with local rugby fans snapping up tickets and travelling Ulster fans relishing a novel trip to ‘The Dam’ to follow the northern province.
While competing on a new frontier, Ulster will find familiarity in their opponents’ coaching group, where club legend Ruan Pienaar is in charge of the Cheetahs’ attack. World Cup-winning Springbok legend Frans Steyn, who also once won a Challenge Cup with Montpellier, is the Cheetahs’ head coach.
Sunday’s hosts have lost their opening two pool games away to the improved Exeter Chiefs and at home to Stade Francais. They sit bottom of Ulster’s Pool 3, while Richie Murphy’s side, who are unapologetically prioritising the URC this season, are in third after a bonus-point win over Racing and a bonus-point defeat to Cardiff in their opening two rounds.
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