We’ve certainly learned that travelling to and from South Africa remains a major challenge. Between them, the four South African franchises have played 16 league games in the northern hemisphere this season and suffered 13 defeats.
The DHL Stormers - finalists for the past two years - lost all four of their matches on their European tour last month, as did the Hollywoodbets Sharks at the start of the campaign.
Vodacom Bulls have had the most joy, winning away against Cardiff Rugby and Zebre Parma, while the Emirates Lions claimed a late victory at the Scarlets, but they have both suffered losses too.
As for travelling to South Africa, well that’s proved even tougher.
Only Connacht have tasted victory out there, beating the Hollywoodbets Sharks 13-12 in Durban in Round 5. The other seven cross-hemisphere matches in SA have all produced home wins and by significant margins in a number of cases.
Six of the matches have seen the franchises rack up 50-plus points on home soil amid the following scorelines - 69-14, 63-21, 61-19, 54-5, 53-27, 52-7.
A couple of those bumper scores have been recorded by the Vodacom Bulls who are the country’s frontrunners, having won five of their seven matches to lie third in the table.
They have accumulated more points (272) and more tries (37) than any other side in the league, demonstrating their potent attacking threat.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks are the lowest-placed South African side, down in 15th after just one win. However, they do have two individuals leading the way, with full-back Aphelele Fassi having run for the most metres (538) and lock Emile van Heerden having won the most lineouts (37).
But, above all, there’s one clear lesson from the campaign so far. When it comes to hemisphere hopping, any away successes are at a real premium.
To further illustrate the point, no European team won in South Africa in the first two rounds of the Champions and Challenge Cup.
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