When Jannes Kirsten left the Bulls five years ago, he never imagined he would be facing his former team in the Champions Cup.
The 28-year-old back row spent a season in Japan with Toyota Verblitz before joining Exeter in 2019. Next season he will return to Pretoria with the Chiefs to face the Bulls in the Champions Cup after the sides were drawn in Pool A.
“It is an exciting draw for me coming up against the team I started with,” said the 28-year-old Kirsten.
“When I moved to England in 2019, did I ever think I would be playing a game against the Bulls? They were then in Super Rugby and I wanted to try my hand at playing in Europe.
A lot has changed since then with South African teams now playing in the URC and in Europe.
“It will be a good challenge for us as a club. They played very well in the URC and finished as runners-up. The South African sides will add something to the Champions Cup.
“They are big, physical sides who can really test opponents, but the challenge for them and the teams in Europe will be adapting to conditions. It will be the summer in Pretoria so it will be very hot and you will be playing at altitude.
“The Bulls will find it wetter and colder when they travel so it will test sides for sure. As a player you want to test yourself against the best in the world and that is what you get in the Champions Cup.”
Exeter, the 2020 champions, will also face beaten Top 14 finalists Castres in the pool stage which is again made up of four matches, home and away, followed by a one-legged round in the last 16.
The Stormers, who defeated the Bulls in the URC final after squeezing past Ulster in the semifinal, will play Premiership champions Leicester and Clermont Auvergne.
“The South African sides will give the Champions Cup a special flavour,” said Clermont head coach, Jono Gibbes. “It means that for the first time in our history we will travel as a club to South Africa.
“We are also facing one of the best English teams and the promise of having two great matches in our stadium will ensure that the atmosphere will be boiling.”
Leicester will also face the Ospreys, the sole Welsh team in the Champions Cup with the other three in the Challenge Cup, while Saracens, returning to he tournament after a twoyear absence, take on Lyon and Edinburgh, who won
CHAMPIONS CUP DRAW
POOL A: Castres, Saracens, Bulls, Bordeaux-Bègles, Harlequins, Leinster, Racing 92, Gloucester, Sharks, Lyon, Exeter, Edinburgh
POOL B: Montpellier, Leicester, Stormers, Toulouse, Northampton, Ulster, La Rochelle, Sale, Munster, Clermont, London Irish, Ospreys
CHALLENGE CUP DRAW
POOL A: Glasgow, Toulon, Bristol, Connacht, Cardiff, Brive, Newcastle , Zebre, Perpignan, Bath
POOL B: Scarlets, Pau, Wasps, Lions, Benetton, Stade Francais, Worcester, Dragons, Bayonne, Cheetahs at the StoneX in last season's Challenge Cup.
Harlequins will take on the third South African side, the Sharks, along with Racing 92, 49-7 winners at The Stoop in 2020. London Irish, back in the Champions Cup after a 10-year absence, are up against the Stormers and Montpellier, the Top 14 champions who were knocked out in the quarter-finals by La Rochelle last season.
Sale will grapple with two former winners in Toulouse and Ulster while Gloucester take on Leinster and Bordeaux. Northampton have arguably the most unenviable task of all the Premiership clubs having drawn holders La Rochelle and, in a repeat of the 2000 final, Munster.
It will be a few weeks before the fixture schedule will be announced as television decides its picks for each round. The fixtures for the 2022-23 Premiership campaign will be revealed on July 19.
