The Heineken European Cup doesn't really do dull, does it? The first round of the so-called Battle of Britain between Wasps and Leicester - one of the great pool matches this competition has thrown up - only whets the appetite for next Sunday's return, when the defending champions will be fighting for their Euro lives. Ditto the embittered fall-out from round one between Castres and Munster.
It was ever thus between these two and next Saturday's renewal of hostilities at Thomond Park has been stoked up further by Ronan O'Gara's refusal to shake hands with Paul Volley following his late follow-through on the Munster outhalf and sledging when the latter addressed penalties. Then came the ex-Wasps' flanker's post-match volley of threats at O'Gara in front of eye (or ear?) witnesses.
It's funny how there's always a whiff of vengeance in the Thomond Park air, isn't it? And to think the Neath-Swansea Ospreys, what with their post-match shenanigans after the first meeting, have still to come to Limerick. All grist to the mill, of course.
Yet it is the lack of a true competitive spirit at Lansdowne Road on Saturday which has provoked the most criticism. No doubt Bath won't be best pleased either. Bizarrely, Bourgoin sent out a strong side in their opener at the Rec (why not target the home game against Treviso a week later instead?) when keeping the English team to a hard-earned 22-12 win, since when Bath have seen their group rivals handed bonus points by Bourgoin on a proverbial platter.
Yet Bath's disappointment about that will be nothing compared to teams in other pools if Bourgoin continue with their dilettante attitude to the European Cup and John Connolly's team become the beneficiaries with a five-point haul in the Stade Pierre Rajon on the final weekend and, say, squeeze through to the knockout stages as one of the two best runners-up.
Certainly there's a better chance of this pool providing two of the quarter-finalists than Pool One, where Wasps, Leicester and Biarritz are liable to beat themselves to a standstill and only one will progress, despite Calvisano's presence as whipping boys.
But such imbalances have always been the case given an imperfect formula for obtaining eight quarter-finalists from six pools. And that will always be the case as long as the clubs, especially those in England and France, refuse to allow any more weekends for the European competitions.
Nor are Bourgoin the first club not to play their strongest hand in Europe, with a ripple effect elsewhere in the make-up of the last eight. Indeed, they were one of the worst victims of this two seasons ago when going into the last round of matches well placed to gain one of the two best runners-up positions.
Instead, despite beating Sale 43-15 in their final game, simultaneously Cardiff were rolling over and having their bellies tickled when conceding 13 tries in a 75-25 defeat to Biarritz. This enabled Biarritz to also finish with eight points and 21 tries, and they qualified ahead of Bourgoin by dint of a better points differential (+62 as against +48).
Cardiff's "performance" was arguably even more scandalous and had even more blatant repercussions, yet they weren't called to task. Admittedly however, ERC do have a precedent from three seasons ago with regard to Agen, and here there are parallels. Agen went into the final weekend of the pool stages in the European Challenge Cup on top of Pool One ahead of Ebbw Vale, whom they'd beaten 20-9 in the opening weekend. But they effectively threw the return match, losing 59-10 to the Welsh team - who thereby progressed into the last eight instead - with a laughably inept display which was clearly interpreted as a conscious decision not to qualify for the knockout stages and so interfere with their domestic commitments.
The ERC board banned Agen from European competitions for one year, and they are now completing the second year of an additional, two-year suspended sentence. The ERC board did meet to discuss Bourgoin's performance at home to Treviso and will assuredly do so again, although yesterday Diarmaid Murphy, the ERC's communications and commercial manager, sought not to fuel such speculation.
"We're monitoring the situation but beyond that we have no comment," said Murphy, although the ERC assuredly have a case for bringing that catch-all charge of "bringing the game into disrepute" against Bourgoin. A ban might be stretching things, and might not stand up in court.
ERC rules once stated that teams must select their best 22-man squads for games under their control. But this would be unfeasible to enforce, and following objections from clubs it was revised to stipulate that participating clubs must register their best 34 and choose from them.
Bourgoin have done this and it's worth pointing out their starting line-up last Friday did include current internationals returning from autumn duty, Pascal Pape and Julien Bonnaire who, as their most honourable exception, possibly deserved the man of the match award more than the brilliant Felipe Contepomi. However, mindful that Bourgoin might qualify again for next season, one would venture that the ERC would be entitled to hit them with a ban and a suspended sentence, as a warning shot across their bows.
In mitigation of Bourgoin, they are a relatively small-town club (population around 40,000) and survive on the largesse of their benefactor, Pierre Martinet, who has made his fortune from ready-made salads. Like most clubs, they are also subject to their owner's whims and, given they only have a frontline squad of around 23-25 players, with the temporary expansion of the French Championship to 16 teams and a minimum of 30 games, Bourgoin just feel they can't compete on both fronts.
Besides, what constitutes a weakened team in these days of player burn-out and squad rotation? And who are we to talk if we were to apply the same principle to the Celtic League?
gthornley@irish-times.ie
