Former Ireland forwards coach John Plumtree has hit out at the Champions Cup format and its disproportionate effect on travelling South African sides.
Plumtree who spent time as the Ireland forwards coach under Joe Schmidt in 2013, is currently managing South African side The Sharks who play in the URC and Champions Cup.
While they kicked off their European campaign with a resounding eighteen-point win over Exeter last week in Durban, this weekend's clash with Michael Cheika's Leicester saw them succumb to a brutal 51-17 loss away from home.
Plumtree lay much of the blame for their disappointing turn of fortunes on the current Champions Cup format which required his side to travel from Durban to the UK on Wednesday ahead of their Saturday clash.
A journey which prompted Plumtree to leave a number of his World Cup-winning South African stars at home. Most notably, neither Siya Kolisi nor Eben Etzebeth travelled for this weekend's clash, leaving Plumtree's side far from at full strength.
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Plumtree unhappy with Champions Cup format
Despite making the decision to leave some of his biggest stars at home, Plumtree's side was still laden with South African internationals. Ironically, it was their international teammate Handre Pollard who masterminded their downfall, pulling the strings for a half-century of points at outhalf.
Speaking after the game, the former Irish assistant was just the latest on a long list of prolific commentators who have expressed concerns about the quality of the current Champions Cup format, claiming South African athletes were being treated like robots.
I want to bring our strongest Sharks side here and play on the biggest stage. I can understand their [the fans’] frustration. I want to go out there and give Leicester a good hiding in front of their home crowd. Don’t worry about that.
We’re all competitive. But the reality is we’ve got to look after these athletes. They are not robots. They don’t front up every week. And right now, the South African boys are treated like robots.
I think the organisers need to have a look at it and go: ‘Well, why are we sending a team up here for one week?’ We arrive on Wednesday and play on Saturday. It’s hardly high performance. Maybe we should come up here and play a couple of games, and stay for a fortnight? They need to look at it.
Unsurprisingly, however, Leicester coach and former Leinster boss Michael Cheika had little sympathy for Pullman's plight, claiming that the Champions Cup was the Premiere competition in European rugby and coaches should select their strongest possible sides accordingly.
There is no solution required, this is the European Cup. It’s the pinnacle tournament in European footy. The idea is to do your best, and go out there and win it against the best teams. I’m not worried about the competition setup. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
Still, Cheika's comments seem to be increasingly at odds with public opinion in the UK, where many fans and stakeholders alike are growing frustrated with the perceived lack of quality on display in the competition.
Some of those arguments centre around the distribution of TV rights, the lack of jeopardy in the pool stages and underperformance from Premiership sides, however, there are also growing calls for changes to be made to the South African side's place in the tournament.
Like Plumtree, Welsh legend Dan Biggar called on the EPCR to adopt a system similar to the URC where teams travelling to South Africa and vice versa spend a minimum of two weeks away from home, lessening the amount of travel required per game.
Stephen Jones of the Sunday Times had more radical change in mind, with the English journalist reacting to the perceived absurdity of teams travelling to Europe/South Africa for a single game by calling for the removal of South African teams from the tournament completely.
