Last weekend, along with my Toulon teammates, I spent 32 hours on flights just to get to South Africa for our first Champions Cup match of this season.
It was a wild ride to Port Elizabeth and although we won our game against the Stormers, I think it’s important to speak personally about the experience because, for me, it raises a number of important points about how Europe’s premier competition is run.
Last weekend with Toulon, we traveled there on Monday for a game on Saturday. It was like this (take a deep breath): bus from Toulon to Marseille, flight from Marseille to Frankfurt, flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. Brutal. And on Sunday we had to do the same thing in reverse.
We arrived on Tuesday at 5pm, but the players were so exhausted that we only had one proper training session before the game. When we woke up on Wednesday morning, no one was prepared to train properly. Everyone felt horrible.
It also didn’t help us that the weekend before Monday we started our mammoth journey, we played Perpignan in the Top 14 at 9pm on Saturday night.
Our return bus arrived at 6:30am on Sunday morning.
Dan Biggar says European rugby must make significant changes to solve South Africa problem
I got up with the kids a few hours later, but Sunday was pretty much a waste before we met up at 12pm on Monday to travel. The French league didn’t help us with that!
It is vital to recognize the impact on players. The reality is that it is incredibly difficult for elite athletes to travel from Europe to South Africa for a single match.
The same, of course, applies to the likes of the Sharks or Bulls when they come to the UK, with the former traveling to Welford Road to face Leicester on Saturday.
When South African teams entered the Champions Cup for the 2022-23 season, after joining the United Rugby Championship in 2021, it was immediately clear that the impact of traveling long distances for matches would become an issue. It still is.
I can totally understand why everyone wants a piece of South African rugby. They are the double world champions. They have many world-class players and contribute significant television income to competitions in the northern hemisphere. I think they have also contributed hugely to the URC, the league which also includes Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Italian teams.
However, there is a key difference between the operation of the URC and the Champions Cup.
When European teams go to South Africa for URC matches, and vice versa, they usually go for two weeks or more and play a minimum of two matches. That’s manageable.
Taking the better part of two days of travel for a game is not.
Biggar (left) in action in the Champions Cup match against DHL Stormers in Gqeberha, South Africa
I am not at all against South Africa. It’s one of my favorite places to tour and the memory of captaining Wales to a Test victory on Springbok soil will stay with me forever. But there are practical concerns about playing in European competitions there.
On our way to South Africa, we bumped into bosses from Exeter who were also making a similar trip. Their boys joked with us that they were basically playing the South African and French teams in back-to-back weeks, as the Sharks and Toulouse were their first two games.
Although we got the result in South Africa, I don’t think that as a team we were in good condition to play at our best level. This is important because the Champions Cup is supposed to be the highest level of European club rugby.
We’ve already seen teams field weakened teams due to the impact of travel. Last season, the Bulls left their regular starters at home for the quarter-final against Northampton. That should have been a highlight and instead it was one-sided. The Champions Cup shouldn’t be about that. But teams fielding second rows will continue to happen unless something is changed.
So what to do? If South African teams are to remain in the Champions Cup, I would restructure the tournament so that teams travel there for two-week blocks like in the URC.
I’m aware that some fans might think that as players we should stop complaining and move on. And when we were doing charity work with local children in Port Elizabeth to support Siya Kolisi’s foundation last week, we certainly put a lot of things into perspective.
However, we want the Champions Cup to be as good as possible and, at the moment, teams do not have the opportunity to play at their best level.
I have taken many flights in my life. But on the way back from South Africa, we had a really scary experience: flying into a storm. There was lightning all around us and strong turbulence.
Biggar believes teams are currently not being given the opportunity to play at their best level.
Pierre Mignoni, our coach in Toulon, absolutely hates flying at the best of times. Wherever we play games in France, he always goes on the road. He was going completely crazy on the return flight, clutching the seat rail in panic and telling the club doctor that he would be fired unless he was given a sleeping pill!
Anyway, he made us laugh a lot and enlivened the gigantic trip.
Most of the kids took sleeping pills to try to recover for the flights. And when we landed in Port Elizabeth, Kyle Sinckler, who is the king of recovery, immediately started looking for saunas and other things to try to help us acclimatize.
Kyle’s phone bill next month is going to be huge! He also bought the beers when we went out after the game at a place called Pool City.
The guys were buying big rounds. Kyle bought 150 beers in one go! The only saving grace was that they were only £1 each…
Our next game is Sunday at home against Glasgow, which is a relief. The coaches have told us not to come until Thursday because they want to give us time to recover from the trip. And, to be honest, it is very necessary.
Speaking to some of the Stormers players after our game with them, it looks like they will be resting their best players for their trip to London to face Harlequins this weekend.
It’s a shame, but nothing new either. And that’s why I think something needs to change.