ONE OF THE worst aspects of the European Cup is the unfairness of the ‘neutral venue in the home country’ rule when it comes to the semi-final stage. The tournament rewards form in the quarter-finals by giving merit-based home ties but for some reason abandons it completely for the final four.
Unfortunately, this was seemingly the only thing the Anglo-French axis didn’t want changed when the tournament was renamed the Champions Cup and we are stuck with it again this year.
The EPCR have announced the potential venues for the semi-finals and if Leinster get past Bath, they will travel to either Marseille or Brighton.
If you were booking a holiday that decision would be a no-brainer but in this case a trip to the seaside in England would be considerably easier for Matt O’Connor’s men than travelling to the south of France as it would mean avoiding two-time European champions Toulon.
Here are the full permutations:
Champions Cup semi-finals – 18/19 April
RC Toulon v winners of Leinster Rugby v Bath Rugby
Stade Vélodrome, Marseille (capacity: 62,895)
OR
Wasps v winners Leinster Rugby v Bath Rugby
American Express Community Stadium, Brighton (capacity: 30,750)
ASM Clermont Auvergne v winners Racing Metro 92 v Saracens
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne (capacity: 39,774)
OR
Northampton Saints v winners Racing Metro 92 v Saracens
Ricoh Arena, Coventry (capacity: 32,609)
Challenge Cup semi-finals – 17/18/19 April
Gloucester Rugby or Connacht Rugby v Exeter Chiefs or Newcastle Falcons
Kingsholm Stadium or The Sportsground
London Irish or Edinburgh Rugby v Newport Gwent Dragons or Cardiff Blues
Madejski Stadium or BT Murrayfield Stadium
Much like the way the venue for the final is announced in advance, the tournament would be better served for having neutral venues for the semi-finals as well.
In 2010 and 2011, Toulouse and Leinster met at the semi-final stage with the home team winning in each year. It would have been fascinating to see how the games would have played out if neither team had the advantage of playing in front of a partisan crowd.
I miss the Heineken Cup
Why would Wasps play in Brighton if they won? Surely there’s another neutral stadium closer to their fanbase?
It was actually 2012 the last time we won and not 2013.
Considering Wasps are now a Coventry club, I’m surprised they have nominated a stadium in Brighton – a very big distance for Coventry based fans to travel and not even that convenient for London based fans to get to either, especially considering the amount of stadia in England, they had plenty to choose from much closer to home (such as Leicester city stadium which is the same size as the one in Brighton) or any number of suitable stadia in the city of London.
Sure most their fans are based west London or High Hycombe.
Wycombe
Don’t worry wasps won’t beat Toulon anyway no need for this fuss
Brighton is only an hour away from London and is probably a lot easier to get to than Coventry
Exactly.