People should be careful what they wish for - Andy Goode
People have very short memories when it comes to all the complaints about the format of the Heineken Champions Cup this week and we need to be careful what we wish for.
There’s never going to be a perfect solution and, of course, we’re going to see a few one-sided matches but there are far fewer dead rubbers under the current system than there was when I was a player.
I remember losing the opening couple of matches in the pool stage with Wasps back in 2014/15 and still making it through to the knockout stages and that was completely unprecedented, everyone else used to give up if they lost the first two games.
Nowadays, if a team loses again this weekend after going down last week, it’s far from all over and we’re likely to see them still fighting hard to qualify come January. As many as five teams made it through to the Round of 16 having won just one game last season.
We used to see it all the time where teams, especially French sides, would field weakened teams or send the academy away from home after Christmas because their hopes of qualification had gone but everyone will still have something to play for in Rounds 3 and 4 this season.
It’s natural that people will look at the team selected by Gloucester for their trip to Leinster and ask questions but that says far more about the respective resources of the two clubs and the differences between the English and Irish system than it does the format of the competition.
The Cherry and Whites have a tough trip to Premiership champions Leicester to look forward to on Christmas Eve and coaches being strategic in terms of their team selection is nothing new, it’s their prerogative to do that.
We saw Montpellier send a second string side to Dublin to face Leinster in Round 3 last season and they were hammered 89-7 but they still made it through to the Round of 16 and ended up beating Harlequins over two legs.
It’d obviously be great if every team could pick their best starting XV in every single game but that’s fanciful given the amount of rugby we play in the northern hemisphere and player welfare has to be the primary concern so rotation has to happen somewhere.
I think the pool stage, although shorter, is arguably more exciting under the current system than it was before but it also builds to a crescendo and then you end up with a longer and hopefully even more thrilling knockout stage which is exactly what you want.
A lot of people have said that it’s too complicated as well and I understand that having two pools of 12 as opposed to five pools of four takes a bit of getting used to but as soon as you get you head around the fact that you’ve just got two opponents home and away and you need to finish in the top eight, it couldn’t be simpler really.
Unless we have an NFL style system in rugby throughout Europe, which I don’t think anyone is suggesting, there are always going to be the haves and the have-nots and the sport is always going to be somewhat cyclical.
English sides won the Heineken Champions Cup four times in five seasons between 2015 and 2020 and now they obviously look to be struggling to compete a bit more but most can still beat anyone on their day.
There are a few French sides that look particularly good given the strength of the game over there but, outside of them, it’s really only Leinster you’d say are a way ahead of the Premiership clubs.
Again, people have short memories and you don’t have to go back all that far to find the time that they were living in Munster’s shadow and if Saracens in particular come up against the men from Dublin in a one-off game, there’s every chance they could beat them.
The current model is also about as fair as you can get because of the seeding system that’s in place. So, if you finished higher up in the Premiership table last season, you’re playing against teams that ended up lower down in the Top 14 and URC tables.
I know it’s the way of the world at the moment to complain about the way things are, and perhaps also human nature to hark back to the good old days, but we really should be careful what we wish for.
The old Heineken Champions Cup format had just as many flaws, if not more, as this one and the focus should be on how this model allows for the competition to gather pace and end in an elongated knockout stage rather than the odd mismatch we might see now.
Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper and we’ll have to wait and see what January brings but I firmly believe it’ll be another exciting climax to the pool stage and this debate about the competition’s format will be forgotten, for another year at least.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
1 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
12 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
1 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to comments