LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'This Champions Cup adventure is the perfect staging post for England’s best.'

Au revoir le rugby du candyfloss. Bienvenue Europe and the real world.

There is precious little chance of defences across the Investec Champions Cup being as accommodating as some have been in recent weeks in the PREM. While it’s true that attacking aristocrats such as Stade Toulousain and Union Bordeaux Begles could prise open Fort Knox RFC, there is a sense that scorelines are going to be of a more conservative format across this opening weekend of the competition, a welcome boon to the international coaches as they narrow their focus ahead of the impending month of Nations Championship matches in November.

Giddy scoreboards may be easy on the eye for casual viewers but they are the stuff of nightmares for defence coaches. The 18 try-fest at Franklin’s Gardens last Friday, with two of England’s finest Northampton Saints and Bath Rugby sharing 119 points, drew as much criticism as it did praise. For all the naysayers, there was much to take from the worldly-wise view of Phil Dowson who stated: “We don’t want it to be 99-88… we don’t want it to be basketball,’ before noting that basketball is actually one of the most well-watched sports in the United States as well as round the globe. It must be doing something right.

And while there is a reservation that inflated rugby scorelines might point to defenders wearing matador cloaks rather than thou-shalt-not-pass chainmail, it has to be said that ambition, imagination and potency are welcome visitors to the English scene, especially if it is to give Steve Borthwick a dig in the ribs as he contemplates his game plan strategy towards the World Cup.

To reduce the argument to dangerously simplistic terms – defence is easier to coach than attack. If PREM sides such as Northampton and Bath are to shake up the prevailing European order through the intricacy of their play, then all power to their elbows. The last six Champions Cup titles have all been won by French teams. To beat them, you’ve got to join them. The meek don’t tend to inherit the rugby world, no matter what it says in the Bible.

French squads are better resourced than their equivalents in the PREM, a gap in financing that is reflected in the quality of squad depth.

Of course there are other reasons why the likes of Stade Toulousain, Union Bordeaux Begles and Stade Rochelais have been so productive – something to do with hefty lumps of meat up front allied to world-class speedsters such as Louis Bielle-Biarrey, half-backs of the like of Antoine Dupont or Maxime Lucu with a sprinkling of jackaller supreme, Jack Willis with brother, Tom, also, now of Bordeaux, coming up on the rails as one of the best at the breakdown currently in the Top 14.

French squads are better resourced than their equivalents in the PREM, a gap in financing that is reflected in the quality of squad depth. It’s to be hoped that the English clubs go full metal jacket across this opening weekend, starting with Gloucester under the Kingsholm lights on Friday night when the defending champions from Bordeaux come to town. This should be a riveting test of Gloucester’s new-found form and identity, and hopefully not an occasion for the PREM leaders to rest and rotate ahead of a west country derby against Bath the following weekend. The integrity of their own standing, as well as that of the Champions Cup, is at stake if teams are under-clubbed at this stage of the season.

But back to attitude. That uptick in the PREM scores is to be welcomed rather than mocked. This Champions Cup adventure is the perfect staging post for England’s best – and Gloucester have aspired to be in that grouping for some time now – to show that they can strike the balance that is the hallmark of all top-class teams at both club and test level, delivering up-front and in the tackle, and  guided by sharp-eyed, accomplished half-backs who are empowered to play what they see what in front of them.

If this weekend were to prove to be an old-school, full-bore weekend of fixtures, then we would all cheer from the rafters. The format has been under scrutiny and if it is to revert to a slimmed-down version where every match matters, then so much the better. It should also be a stepping stone in quality and intensity towards test-level rugby.

The true test of courage for English teams is the manner in which they chose to attack the game.

In that regard the Section Paloise versus Leicester Tigers Pool 1 fixture should be revealing. Their meeting in the early days of the tournament way back in the mid-late nineties was the stuff of Anglo-French mythology with tales of brutality on the field, punch-ups on the touchline and riotous behaviour from the Stade du Hameau crowd. Dean Richards and his Tigers’ band of brothers were in their element, sticking together and withstanding all-comers.

The game is rather more sophisticated these days and while those of us of a certain age may drone on about the hard-core attraction of encounters in Perpignan, Brive and many other hostile locations in France, the true test of courage for English teams is the manner in which they chose to attack the game. That will be the barometer to be used in these coming days, at Kingsholm where Gloucester have such an opportunity to enhance their status, and on to Anglo-French challenges for Bath and Exeter Chiefs. These opportunities don’t come around too readily for them to be ignored wilfully.

There are other English clubs with plenty to prove with Sale receiving Glasgow Warriors, Saracens travelling to the west of Ireland to take on Stuart Lancaster’s Connacht while Bristol Bears head to South Africa and the Stormers. It’s imperative that the PREM sides treat the competition with the respect that the tournament merited when it was first introduced. The charge of not properly bothering with away games in Europe used to be a charge levelled at French teams and it would be a huge boost for Borthwick and his coaches if there were positive news from all eight fixtures involving English clubs. And, yes, wouldn’t it be something if there were selection cards to mark for the Willis brothers, too?

As it is, this early sighting in Europe of contenders for the November England squad – Bristol Bears duo, hooker Gabriel Oghre and back-row forward, Fritz Harding, perhaps – can only be a good thing for the selectors, no matter how the scorelines pan out.