ON WHAT WAS a fairly predictable weekend of Heineken Cup action, the stand out displays came from Clermont and Toulon, last year’s finalists and the two favourites again this season.
Neither was flawless, but the sight of a grinning Bakkies Botha slapping a dead-eyed Carl Hayman on the back after they had overpowered the Cardiff scrum sent a message that in European rugby, things will never be the same again.
This was one of the best and meanest second rows of all time, packing down behind the best tighthead prop of his generation; of course they were going to push Cardiff around. When you consider that a new €71 million TV deal has been announced between the Top 14 clubs and Canal+, that Sean O’Brien is probably on his way to Toulon and that Zac Guildford and Jonathan Davies are moving to Clermont, real consideration has to be given to the possibility that the Heineken Cup will effectively become a shoot-out every year between the top French teams.
It will take the combined efforts of all the other countries if a complete monopoly on success is to be prevented.
If the Heineken Cup continues next season with all nations involved, for it to have real credibility it needs the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh to be realistic contenders. Leinster, Munster and Ulster are doing their part, Glasgow have improved, and the English should strengthen with an increase in their TV money.
The Welsh regions, however, have once again been pathetically inconsistent. Over the history of the competition they’re as big a factor as the Scottish teams, which is to say, totally irrelevant.
Leinster: host Ospreys on Friday night (INPHO/Billy Stickland)
There aren’t even any hard luck stories or signs of progress or tragic last-minute losses. They rarely make the quarter-finals, never mind the semis, and have never threatened to be more than a road bump when playing away from home, besides the odd player-led Ospreys performance.
They won’t say it, probably even to each other, but somewhere in the back of the Leinster players’ minds there is the thought that they can get a four-try bonus win on Friday night, and give themselves an outside chance of a home quarter-final. In the back of the Ospreys players’ minds is the thought that they can eliminate Leinster from the competition.
Cardiff, Llanelli and the Dragons often seem to accept their fates, beaten down over the years by successive losses. The Ospreys though are like the drunk that keeps coming back swinging, confidence levels outweighing actual ability. That confidence sometimes makes them dangerous.
The Ospreys owners have similar ambitions to Leinster’s but with a better stadium and the combined resources of two clubs (Neath and Swansea) that had far better traditions, infrastructure, fan bases and self esteem than Leinster had in the amateur era.
They were expected to become European heavyweights but instead they had to stand aside as Leinster and Munster claimed cup after cup. They’re like Josh Hartnett sitting at home watching Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper get all the big parts.
Things aren’t perfect at the moment for the Irish teams; performances aren’t matching the results, the quarter-final draw could be daunting and the French are nibbling away at the top players. The way things are shaping up off the field, this might be their last chance to win the tournament for a few years, but if we ever want to feel good about the provincial scene, we just need to take a look at Wales.
Heading for disaster,with all that money French teams have,taking best players in world which in long run will suffer there national side massively,Irish rugby lucky were keeping majority of our big players at home!!
For now, once the money in France goes out of the scale of the Irish set up completely we’ll see an end to that. The three really exciting players that Leinster have had in the past few years have all pretty much been signed up at this stage. As soon as it becomes more normalised it could become more and more attractive for the Irish players but it’s okay, the IRFU is bringing in really odd rules on the number of overseas players allowed at each club so that should keep the clubs going.
Simon Zebo is sure to be one of them lads that is targeted soon enough, he seems to fit the exact profile they’d be looking for.
Zeno has an awful lot to prove yet.
*zebo
The Welsh have created their own misfortune, with WRU salary caps and the likes you’d swear they are out to sabotage their own clubs! Half of the Welsh national team is in France as a result!
Did Cardiff not lose a Heino cup semi final to a penalty shoot out like goal kicking at the end of extra time? Might have been the year Leinster won it, martyn Williams missed the important kick.
Yep, against Leiscter I think, 2008 or me thinks
2009. And Cardiff were at home in the Millennium Stadium.
The IRB and Unions should to step up and regain control of the game from the private corporate owners by introducing and forcing salary caps, transfer restrictions and ‘franchise’ player protection to control movement of players and money within the game to prevent a ridiculous imbalance.
Des we’ve been signing all sorts of antipodeans for years, I’m sure fans in their clubs were disappointed at the time to lose them, but now the shoe is on the other foot you can’t expect the IRB to step in, besides, eu employment law is pretty clear.
Shane,
I don’t think its a question of the shoe being on the other foot but a question of the time being right for leveling the playing field.
A lot can be learned from the NFL who implemented such rules as salary caps, transfer restrictions and ‘franchise’ player protection so that one player (say SOB) can be designated ‘franchise player’ and cant be poached but can be traded for compensation or next year he may not be the franchise player. and might be available. This prevents the stronger top tier teams from consistently dominating the top of the league because of their bottomless treasure chests (French)..Dallas Cowboys etc.. it offers regulation and does not prevent player transfers but imposes limits on transactions to and from clubs…to spread the talent.
Fair enough Des, that sounds like a good system to be fair. But I can’t see how it would work in European Rugby, Would the French be expected to battle for top14 & HEC on the same budget as our provinces who can take or leave the Rabo? In fact, a truly fair system would probably weaken the Irish teams because our clubs are hugely financed by the IRFU
Just think it’s funny the reaction in Ireland to potentially losing a couple of players when our provinces are extremely well funded compared to the Welsh or Scottish, and we’ve been snapping up players from other leagues like Peanar, Howlet, Nacewa etc etc .. but as soon as it looked like we might lose a big name people are calling for change to the system. O’Brian is staying now, so panic stations over anyways!
Regardless of O’Brien and Heaslip the entire pro-system needs to be regulated before it implodes. The latest is that Toulon are now threatening to boycott the Top14….its all relative and there is no end to what can happen the way things are now with the private owners attempting to control the game. There is an obvious need for a long term solution and somebody needs to take the lead and that’s the IRB who ‘supposedly’ run the game. I’m merely suggesting that the IRB should take a look at other professional sports organizations for some inspiration and the NFL is a good place to start.
Why not just set up a pan European League with a Division 1&2 for the top club sides. Revamp the HCup and Amlin Cup. Across Europe use the domestic leagues to provide players to the “professional club sides” this surely would have a benefit for all lessor unions and ensure that the French still have the respect they seem to cave and feed expertise and money back into the domestic leagues.
Can anyone explain the actor analogy to me, and further explain what it’s doing in this article?
One can only hope that the increased buying power makes the French focus on bringing in Southern Hemisphere players. Imagine the NZ reaction if Sonny Bill were to sign for Toulon…
He has already signed for them in the past and it didn’t work out too well.
Haha not gonna need a great imagination for that one
So French get ridiculously stronger, buying in even more of the top players…the English, too get stronger when the pro12 teams go out of business without any marketable competition to compete in leaving the English to pick up the players the French don’t want!!!! why cant the unions / stakeholders swallow their pride,all join together and create a B&I league…two divisions with a cup comp aswell, then sell tv rights to BT/ SKY for similar money to the French.The Italians could look to enter the French league set up…so then we could have top 10 in each league participate in the HC run by a committee made up of the stakeholders in each league. Simple
As it is now, these big players going to France are doing terribly bad over there, (not individually), so is it really all doom and gloom. Its allowing a wealth of home grown talent to bubble up and fill the boots of the sell-outs. Sell outs might sound harsh but it is what it is. Rugby hasnt been a professional sport for long enough to make it ok to play for cash and hopefully it never will be.
Vote on this dislike for no and like for yes.. Having out best talent out of the country, leaves space for up and coming, less cost on irfu, and not to involve soccer but the idea of excellent players playing there sport in other country’s, such as Spain has worked well for them, having endless talent in premier league, I see the downside of sexton over worked but that’s only temp, his replacement is just back from injury, and form wise is just reflection of rc13 nobody in the team have found there feet complete diff story next year perhaps, so agree or disagree
Sexton was only over worked because racing’s other two out halves were injured at the start of the season. He has been given the week off this week to holiday in Dubai. Life is tough in France alright.