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French giants Toulouse unveil radical idea for next season's Champions Cup - report

By Online Editors
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

French giants Toulouse have unveiled a revised format for the 2020/21 Champions Cup that would see Europe’s premier club tournament return to having 24 teams for the first time since 2013/14. Civil war in the boardrooms around that time led to the formation of EPCR, who took over the running of the European tournaments from ERC.

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One of its first alterations was the reduction in the number of participants from 24 to 20 for the first time since the 1998/99 European Cup. However, with the coronavirus pandemic leading to the shutdown of the 2019/20 campaign, four-time winners Toulouse have hatched a plan that would increase the number of qualifiers for next season’s tournament but free up two extra weekends in the calendar. 

In a report published by French sports daily L’Equipe, room to manoeuvre is viewed as invaluable next season due to the likelihood that the fixtures list will the top-heavy with international matches, while the leagues in France and England will seek to prioritise their domestic schedules.

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So rather than have the European qualifiers play six pool matches over the winter as has long been the tradition, Toulouse have instead proposed eight pools of three teams which would result in each club having just four group matches and this would free up two weekends.

There is no guarantee that the Top 14, Gallagher Premiership and Guinness PRO14 leagues for 2019/20 can be concluded, but the proposal suggests that each of these tournaments provides eight teams to participate in next season’s Champions Cup. 

This French idea will have its work cut out convincing PRO14 clubs of its merit, though. Rather than have three guaranteed home games as has long been the case, this format would reduce that schedule to two and whether a union such as the IRFU would agree is far from certain due to the importance they attach to European fixtures.

The Champions Cup’s potential return to 24 teams would also be seen as hugely ironic in countries like Ireland, who had been happy with the old 24-team system under the disbanded ERC but were forced into the reduction to 20 teams by the warring English and French factions.   

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EPCR’s delivery of a brighter future has already proven though going. Believing a multi-partnership sponsorship model was the best way forward, they jettisoned Heineken as long-serving title sponsor of the old European Cup only to find new partners were slow in materialised and the tournament became the Heineken Champions Cup last season. 

If there is no resumption in the leagues in the current season, the current top eight in France is Bordeaux, Lyon, Racing, Toulon, La Rochelle, Clermont, Toulouse and Montpellier.

The Premiership’s top eight is Exeter, Sale, Bristol, Northampton, Wasps, Bath, Harlequins and London Irish, while the best eight in the PRO14 is Leinster, Edinburgh, Munster, Ulster, Scarlets, Connacht, Glasgow and Cardiff, who would qualify as the Cheetahs are ineligible to play in Europe. 

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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