As we await the imminent draw for next season’s Champions Cup, it’s easy to believe that things are just about to get a whole lot tougher.
Some of the issues may well be around the appointment of match officials, but more on that later.
The future fate of the Irish teams depends on their performances in the URC, effectively the qualifying competition for what used to be the European Champions Cup. But ‘European’ is a concept which has now gone out the window with the introduction of the South African teams.
Within my coterie, it’s hard to find anyone who has any enthusiasm for what’s coming down the track, the fundamental feeling is that it should have stayed a competition for European clubs. The new format will see increased travel and a new difficulty in managing players’ game time, which has been critical to Irish success in the past. Of course, it is all about money, money and more money; meanwhile players and match officials are herded from pillar to post.
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It’s paradoxical that, while it seems convenient for South African teams to move ‘up north’ it does not appear anything like such a good fit for the clubs and the competition structures in this part of the world, including the English Premiership and the French Top 14.
Yes, there is the challenge for clubs of playing and testing themselves against better teams, and the URC has been anything but competitive until recently. The main problem is the Welsh professional regions are on their knees and the two Italian clubs have not measured up in any shape or form. And this has made it an all too easy ride for Irish teams, particularly Leinster.
Also, some supporters will undoubtedly relish the thought of watching new entrants in the Champions Cup and feel that it will freshen things up, although it certainly didn’t seem that this year needed any freshening-up whatsoever, with over 100,000 attending finals weekend in Marseille. The long-term effects of this moneyed exercise are impossible to forecast and the Six Nations is bound to be the next South African objective; don’t bet against it.
It was something of a surprise to see two South African teams contest the recent final of the URC and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that could happen in the Champions Cup next May, at the Aviva.
The ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop, told us long ago that you should never kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Well, that’s been done now, and we can only hope that the new goose will produce both the cash and the golden moments which filthy lucre can never buy.
It’s looking likely that the great Champions Cup days for Irish teams will be significantly reduced, qualifying will be much more difficult, then getting to the semis, or winning the cup, will be the severest of challenges.
And what that will do for match attendances, season ticket purchases, and supporters travelling in large numbers, only time will tell. But it’s bound to be very different, even before the fast-rising cost of everyday living is considered.
Wonderful rugby days for wildly committed supporters packing out Ravenhill, Thomond Park, the Aviva, and Galway’s Sportsground, will probably now become much rarer events. The winds of change are swirling – their direction, and effect, unknown.
The most recent golden moment was after this year’s final in Marseille. When victorious La Rochelle returned home their arrival on Le Vieux Port was welcomed by 35,000 ecstatic supporters. EPCR, the competition organisers, could not buy that sort of spine-tingling moment, no amount of money could. Apart from being terrific publicity, it resonated with every club in the competition – “we want some of that”.
Television and news coverage all over France re-enthused many of the Top 14 clubs’ interest in the competition. The Top 14 is, arguably, the toughest league in the world, an unrelenting, non-stop hard slog, and it’s difficult to see the French teams being particularly keen on long-haul trips down below the equator.
Vincent Merling is the hugely committed chairman of La Rochelle and he has been quick, and not alone, in speaking out strongly against the new format and the introduction of South African teams and also the loss of European identity, and that is a key point too.
So, the holder of the cup is questioning the whole rationale, and where that will put the club’s thinking for next year, as their season develops, is an interesting question.
It may become impossible to target both the Champions Cup and the Brennus. Toulouse pulled off the double last season, maybe that’s the last time we’ll see it happen.
The increasing difficulty of qualifying through the URC is going to be compounded by a potentially serious difficulty in appointing referees and TMOs. Irish teams will have to pass very stern tests against South African opposition to reach the Champions Cup, and everybody will demand that the officiating is top-notch. Poor performances, which have been easy enough to gloss over when teams have won at a canter, won’t be tolerated.
Sticking rigidly to neutrality, and that would be hard to change now, the URC is faced with limited choices for these critical and demanding high-level matches.
Wales really have no-one other than the unproven Craig Evans, Scotland have Mike Adamson, or perhaps Hollie Davidson might be a better choice, and Italy can offer the promising Andrea Piardi, already the best of that group.
Maybe a phone call to the Georgian, Nika Amashukeli, might be a good idea, he is better than the above-mentioned. There might be a case for trying to persuade the RFU to enter into an exchange programme, but that’s hardly going to get the vote of their clubs; Exeter v Leicester with a URC referee seems an impossibly long shot.
It’s as clear as day that, for some time now, across the URC, the recruitment and development of referees has spectacularly failed to keep pace with the progress of the professional game.
Everything is pointing to not just tougher times for the teams, but a lot tougher too for match officials – interesting times lie ahead.
