Thankfully, the glories of the previous 19 years of the Heineken Cup have not been completely cast adrift, and as the highlights reel of the tournament's history was played at yesterday's launch of the new European Champions Cup for the Pro12 clubs in the Convention Centre on Spencer Dock, it provided a timely case history.
From little acorns and all that, the Irish teams figured more prominently than anyone could dared to have hoped in the mid-90s, with snapshots of Munster’s final heartbreak in 2000 and 2002 and Miracle Match deeds followed by their eventual success in 2006.
This was the first of five Irish triumphs in a seven-year spell, with a broad blur of Leinster blue before the final two years of triumphs by the nouveau riche Toulon seemingly representing a shift in the balance of power. Money talks and all that.
Anthony Foley, the one person in the room to have lifted the trophy as a captain, has been involved in the tournament since day one and every day since. Yet despite the evidence that suggests conquering Europe is now harder than ever, Foley remained upbeat about Irish chances entering his first campaign as Munster's head coach.
Local lad
“They can obviously muster a massive squad but they’d be the same numbers as ours,” said Foley of Toulon and co.
“I don’t know whether it’s the romantic in me but I always enjoy the local lad going well, building a career in it, and then the understudy beneath him gunning for his place, trying to compete against the superstars.”
“Two semi-finals in the last couple of years showed that there wasn’t a huge amount of space between us on the pitch. We made a lot of fundamental errors in those games, dropped balls and conceding easy scores after we’ve worked very hard to get our own scores.”
“To win the competition, you have to accumulate enough points to get out of your group. We know you don’t start talking about winning this competition until you’re in a final. It’s about getting there. It’s about the road, the journey.
“The journey in the past has been brilliant, it has its pitfalls, tries that weren’t given, hands in the ruck, losing games by a score, and that makes the victories all the sweeter. And these players have that drive, having lost two semi-finals in two successive seasons, they want to take it a step further and get to the showpiece final.”
Similar tone
No-one looked on at the highlights reel more attentively than
Jamie Heaslip
, and he adopted a similar tone.
"We've always been the underdogs in a way, I think. We've always had a smaller population so we've less of a pool to pick from. I'm not sure of the playing numbers in France but it's absolutely huge, England is the same. We've always had that kind of position that we're in, for some reason we seem to be a little bit smaller sometimes although the younger crop coming through are absolute behemoths. Rhys Ruddock is a shining example."
“But it’s always a challenge going up against those big clubs. Toulon are not unbreakable. Last year, we just made too much defensive errors and a team like that just punishes you. Playing sides like that, if you really focus on getting your really, really basic stuff right, you actually cut down a lot of entry points for a lot of the big French and English clubs.
“That’s just the way it is in English club rugby and you have to be at your best. Just to get out of your group is a massive challenge, and then it’s anyone’s one any given day.”
The new European Champions Cup has been founded on compromise and at yesterday's launch the former Leinster and Irish manager Paul McNaughton, one of EPCR's three vice-chairmen on the Executive Committee, hailed "the 60 per cent increase" in television revenues for the new competition and maintained there was no embarrassment at having only one of the intended five commercial partners on board less than two weeks out from the tournament's kick-off.
Right price
“You’ve got to get the right ones and you’ve got to get them for the right price. We could have got two or three without free to air TV and they would have been a lot less than we hope to get so it is just making sure . . .. We have to play the right commercial game here.”
EPCR did formally confirm that Heineken are the one commercial partner on board so far, with Canterbury as the kit suppliers to the match officials and Gilbert supplying the official match ball, while YouTube and Google+ are to become digital partners.
The launch also unveiled the two new trophies, made of mixed metals including sterling silver and 18ct gold plating, that were crafted by the internationally renowned silversmiths, Thomas Lyte of London.
The EPCR press release states that Champions Cup’s ‘Star Cup’ places “the gold star – symbol of Europe and European representation – at the very heart of the design. The trophy features a unique five handle concept which unfolds from the gold inset chalice and provides an overview of the gold star of Europe. The star serves to connect the first 19 years of European club rugby to the new EPCR era.” All the previous winners are represented on the gold base.
The trophy for the Champions Cup bears a striking resemblance to its footballing, Champions League counterpart, while the Challenge Cup trophy has a distinct resemblance to the Super Bowl.
