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Time to End Italian Clubs' Champions Cup Misery
It’s not easy watching Italian sides struggle in the European Champions Cup – so, please, let’s end their ritual humiliation, begs James Harrington.
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Zebre – the token Italian side in this season’s European Champions Cup – have so far earned zero points from five pool matches and leaked an average of 58 points per game.
The chances of either of those stats for the Parma-based side improving on the final weekend of the pool phase are marginally worse than those of a whelk surviving a supernova.
They are the side that stand between not-quite-yet-qualified Wasps and a home quarter-final. While it is unfair and inaccurate to dismiss the game as little more than an extended training run for the Premiership side – Zebre are supplying 15 of the 32 players called up to Italy’s training squad for the rapidly approaching Six Nations – it’s safe to expect the English club will book their place in the last eight at a canter.
In fact, things have are so bad at the still-proud Italian club that they have just parted company with head coach Gianluca Guidi. Last weekend’s hammering at Connacht was one dire result too many.
Current qualification rules for the European Champions Cup state that one of the seven Champions Cup places assigned to the Pro 12 must go to the highest placed Italian side.
Although it is too early to call next season’s Italian representatives, as of January 17, 2017, Treviso are best placed to qualify for next season’s competition. They are 11th and have racked up 11 points from 13 games – although Zebre, who are propping up the table, could yet overtake them. They are a mere two points behind with two games in hand.
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To give a little context, Treviso are seven points behind 10th-placed side Edinburgh, and have played one game more. They are 16 points off Cardiff in seventh, and 38 points behind leaders Ospreys.
If Pro12 sides could be relegated, the dogfight would be between these two Italian sides. And yet one of them will be involved in the draw for next season’s flagship European competition.
It must be time to end this Italian experiment. Neither side in the Pro 12 is capable of competing. Better that they enter the Challenge Cup, where Treviso at least have won twice this season. Better that the Pro 12’s seven Champions Cup slots are taken by the top seven sides, without this token gesture.
When an Italian side finishes in the top seven – which Treviso did in 2012/13 – they will at least qualify for the Champions Cup by right.
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Long gone are the days that anyone in the English or French leagues could patronise the Pro 12. The top seven at this stage are Ospreys, Munster, Leinster, Glasgow, Scarlets, Ulster and Cardiff.
Of those sides, Munster and Leinster have booked their places in the Champions Cup quarter finals. Glasgow need a draw or better at already out-of-it Leicester to be certain of a last-eight berth; Scarlets came closer than anyone to ending defending champions Saracens’ 14-match unbeaten Champions Cup run in dramatic style at the weekend; Ulster’s qualification hopes ended in an epic blood-and-thunder defeat at Exeter last weekend; Ospreys are in the knockout phase of the Challenge Cup, and they could well be joined by Cardiff, who are currently second in their pool, and at home to Bristol this week.
That is a contingent worthy of the Champions Cup. And, Connacht, who are outside the top seven, are one big performance at Toulouse away from the quarter-finals. Half the teams in the last eight could yet come from the league, along with four of the eight quarter-finalists in the second-tier Challenge Cup.
Meanwhile, Zebre have shipped 290 points and 43 tries and scored just 69 points, including eight tries. It’s painful to watch. It must be humiliating to be involved in.
The Pro 12’s top seven at the end of last season were Leinster, Connacht, Glasgow, Ulster, Scarlets, Munster, and Cardiff.
Zebre – this season’s Champions Cup qualifiers – finished 11th out of 12. Above Treviso. The two sides have finished bottom of the pile every year since Treviso’s high-flying adventures in the 2012/13 season, and yet one is guaranteed a place at European club rugby’s top table.
So, to be Italy’s representatives in the Champions Cup, one side simply has to finish above the other. That’s barely a challenge. And it’s doing down a league brimming with quality.
Comments on RugbyPass
A lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
3 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
1 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
2 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
2 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 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)
3 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?
2 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.
21 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
21 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.
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