1
English clubs can break France’s Champions Cup dominance claims Lion
By PA
Alex Mitchell believes Northampton have shown it is possible for English clubs to compete in the Champions Cup following their run to this season’s final.
ADVERTISEMENT
French teams continued their stranglehold on the competition, with Bordeaux-Begles’ 28-20 victory over Northampton in Cardiff making it five successive years that a Top 14 side has won it.
Across the past 10 seasons, France have provided twice as many finalists as any other country, while Saracens and Exeter are the only English clubs to win the tournament since 2007.
Saints, though, led the way this term, beating Leinster, Bulls, Munster, Clermont Auvergne and Castres (twice) on route to the Principality Stadium.
“I think a lot of (Premiership) clubs can take a lot of confidence from it,” Northampton and England scrum-half Mitchell said.
“This competition has been tough for English clubs in the last few years in terms of budgets and what-not. It has been a struggle.
“But I think we’ve shown that, regardless of that, if you front-up playing against these best teams, these quality outfits, you can do a job.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We showed that. We got to the final and we nearly won. It’s tough to take, but we can take a lot of credit from it.
“We have got a decent side and a lot of confidence in ourselves. That is what happened against Leinster (in the semi-finals) – we genuinely backed ourselves and had confidence that we could get a result, which we did.
“Regardless of all that (budgets and squad size), you need good coaching, which we’ve got, and the boys fronted-up.
“If we (English sides) do that and we are competitive about wanting to win, we can do good things.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Despite losing backs George Furbank and James Ramm to injuries inside the first five minutes, Saints rallied and pushed this season’s dominant Champions Cup team to the limit.
They were level 20-20 at the interval in front of a 70,000 crowd, which was the largest Champions Cup final attendance for 13 years, before Bordeaux closed things out during a tense second period.
Mitchell’s Saints and England half-back partner Fin Smith added: “We are just a little team from a small town in England with a bunch of mates playing together.
“Bordeaux are a giant of European rugby with some absolute rock stars in their team and some unbelievable firepower.
“So, to have gone toe-to-toe with them for 80 minutes – or a large part of that – particularly with some of the adversity we had to face with injuries and yellow cards, is something we can look back on with pride.
“The main thing is to stay together as a group, because it is easy to splinter when you have had a knock like this. I need to dust myself off and try to switch off from that result.
“Ultimately, until you play in another big final and get the result you want, it is always going to sting and sit there in the back of your mind. That is just the way it is.”
News, stats, live rugby and more! Download the new RugbyPass app on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) now!
Not sure many English clubs can compete for the Prem and the Champions Cup. This year, Saints title defence hasn’t gone well and they appeared to prioritise Europe as a result. Bath, on the other hand, fell out of the Champions Cup early on, but are dominant in the Prem so far (yes, they went and won the Challenge Cup but suspect I know which one they would have prioritised had injuries or other player unavailability become a factor).
Whilst the loss of Wasps, Worcester and L. Irish might have concentrated some talent amongst the remaining clubs, from memory I think they all went under towards the end of the season so many clubs had already finalised their squads and much of the talent leaked, mainly to France, perhaps some to Japan. I might be wrong there though. Doesn’t seem to have helped English domestic rugby as much as the demise of the Melbourne Rebels appears to have strengthened the remaining 4 Aussie Super Rugby teams.
It’s just a reality with the currently smaller budgets in England compared to the Top 14 and Leinster. Well done to the French and Leinstermen for getting their ducks in a row, and generating sufficient revenue to support it. I can only hope that the proclaimed reinvention of the English second tier as “Champ Rugby” will propel it toward the level of interest generated by the French Pro D2, but I am not holding my breath.
Why is it that people who can't take advice always insist on giving it?
Northampton have the English National team Out half, scrum half, Full back and a few other first team players. France have less French Internationals. Yet Northampton are ‘ a few mates playing from a small town’ and Bordeaux who have never appeared in a Champions Cup final before are a ‘Giant Of Europe’.
Either Phil Dowson is brilliant at brainwashing these guys or Fin Smith is not the brightest.
The predictable ‘adversity’ of yellow cards and injuries is repeated again. Dowson said it had a ‘Major Impact’ on the match. A significant portion of English online fans also attacking the ref. The underlying narrative in the British media is also turning towards implying that Northampton coulda/shoulda won without this ‘adversity’.
Going on all proletarian with « a few mates playing rugby » from a club that won the Premiership last year and that had won a Champions Cup in the past, in 2011 if I remember correctly.
The same year UBB got into the Top14, after 5 years of existence.
And yet they’re giants, with superstars? It’s their first title every at the highest level. They didn’t even win the Challenge Cup.
French clubs are ahead financially because of their choices, not because they have more money. English clubs were dominant in the past, and they’re still the biggest league in world football. Look at Eggchasers’ video on French’s dominance and the reason why they do so well.
There are a lot of UBB academy players in their ranks: Jalibert, Moefana, Depoortere, Lamothe.
And Serin with Woki also came from there.
They also like Grenoble’s players for young talent prospection (LBB, Gazzoti). Lucu was an anonymous player from Biarritz. Poirot has been in the club for 13 years, Buros for 7, Cazeaux for 10, Diaby for 8, Lucu for 6 years.
Look at Penaud and tell me he acts like a superstar. He’s a 29 year old crazy kid.
This underdog’s narrative is slightly out of line. NH’s academy is great, but putting up the idea that UBB are just a bunch of mercenaries is crazy. The only great player at his peak they took was Penaud. Not exactly a foreign talent.