A dark weekend in Europe: SA teams 'could fly in a spaceship and still lose,' says Schalk

Schalk Burger has backed up John Dobson's assertion that travel and logistical challenges can't be used as an excuse for South Africa's dark weekend in Europe, where all three of the remaining South African participants in the Champions and Challenge Cups were dumped out of the tournaments.

While the Lions and Sharks were competitive for substantial periods of their matches against Glasgow and Toulouse, respectively, the Stormers were overrun by an inspired Exeter combination that left local rugby's leading franchise thoroughly chastened.

"In the Stormers’ case, I don’t think it was an excuse. They could’ve flown there by spaceship and still would’ve come up short against an Exeter side that bossed the ball in the first half," Burger, a Stormers and Springbok legend, told a media roundtable.

Such was the English club's authority that they barely allowed the Capetonians a look-in.

The city's southernly location also meant that even a direct flight to London would have resulted in a fairly strenuous journey.

READ | Stormers should comfort themselves in URC durability

"It’s part and parcel of the game, especially if you're playing in the URC. Europe, I suppose, was a bit of a challenge because it wasn’t budgeted for," said Burger.

"I know last week’s travel to Exeter was tough, but it's a tricky place to get to in any case. It’s quite far down south, so even if you flew directly to London and went on from there, it’s still about a five-to-six-hour bus drive anyway."

The former rampaging loose forward isn't trying to invalidate South African franchises' much-publicised struggles in finding flights to Europe, which has necessitated SA Rugby trying to alleviate a little bit of the hassle with a still relatively lowly sponsorship with