DAN BIGGAR: Players have had enough and this is what European rugby must do to fix its South Africa problem – 32 hours on a plane in a lightning storm was the last straw

Last weekend, along with my Toulon team-mates, I spent 32 hours on flights just to get to South Africa for our first game of this season’s Champions Cup.

It was a savage journey to Port Elizabeth and although we won our match with the Stormers, I think it’s important I speak personally about the experience because for me, it raises a number of significant points about how Europe’s premier competition is run.

Last weekend with Toulon, we travelled there on the Monday for a match on the Saturday. It went like this (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 we had to do the same in reverse on Sunday.

We arrived at 5pm on Tuesday, but the players were so knackered we only had one proper training session before the game. When we woke up on the Wednesday morning, no one was ready to train properly. Everyone…