European Rugby: Marked Improvement or Abject Failure?

The new European Champions and Challenge Cups have been the source of hot debate over recent weeks as to whether they are an improvement on the previous competitions that seized last season. I should start out straight away by saying that I will be making the argument that the new tournaments are better, and this is for many reasons. So far it has been a great season of European rugby, and the quarter-finals hold a lot of promise for being just as epic. 

There is no doubt that the new Champions Cup is vastly more fair in terms of qualification – all teams now enter the competition based on merit, which was not the case before, particularly in terms of the Pro12 teams. Let's just have a quick recap of how qualification now works: for the Pro12, the seven highest-ranked teams make it through; the six highest-ranked teams of the Top 14 advance through; and in terms of the Aviva Premiership, the six highest-ranked teams also take part in the Champions Cup. The rest of the teams in these three domestic tournaments go into the Challenge Cup. However it is 20 teams that take part in the Champions Cup, and the last place is determined by a play-off between the seventh team from the Top 14 and Aviva Premiership, as well as the eighth team from the Pro12. This allows all teams to be on a level-playing field when it comes to qualifying, and takes away the Pro12's advantage of having all teams involved. Of course, this was England and France's main gripe with the old competition, and so it was expected that the rules of qualification would be changed and improved. With the exception of Treviso, the competition now only includes the absolute best of the best, and this allows for a much more competitive and exciting competition. Therefore, the new qualification procedures are definitely an improvement, and is the main reason for me being pro the new European competition.

After round 5 of this year's Champions Cup only one team was guaranteed a place in the quarter finals, and that was Toulon. Usually by that point of the competition most of, if not all of, the quarter final spots are confirmed, and that goes to show you that this tournament has been much more closely contested than ever before. There must be a link here with the new qualification procedures – only letting teams in on merit means that none of them can really storm ahead in their pools, as they are coming up against other incredibly good teams and not, dare I say it, the Italian teams that never really have a chance of progressing. Of course, there have been some big wins during the pool stages, such as Saracens over Munster and Bath over Toulouse, but this does not take away from the fact that the competition is more fierce than it has ever been. Not having all the quarter finals confirmed until after round 6 had everyone hooked on all of the rugby that took place over the weekend of the final pool matches, and this can only be a positive consequence to come out of the new look competition.

Another positive of this year's competition is that, once a team is out of the Champions Cup, they cannot drop down into the Challenge Cup. I know some of you may be thinking, how exactly is that a positive? It is utterly unfair on the teams in the Challenge Cup, all of whom have worked really hard to come out on top of their pools, to then expect them to potentially play a quarter final against a Champions Cup side, who have done nothing at all to get to that stage of the competition. Take last year for example - Northampton Saints won the Amlin, and of course being a Saints fan I was very proud of the team. But it was completely unfair. They did nothing positive to make their way into the tournament, as it was actually losing games in the higher competition that put them there. It must have been horrible for the Amlin teams that put in hard shifts week in week out during the pool stages, only to be swept aside by a team that joined the competition more than half way through. Luckily this has now stopped with the new competition, and once you are out of the Champions Cup you are finished in terms of European rugby until the next season. This is a much fairer outcome, and gives other teams that aren't quite at the top tier of European rugby to challenge for some good silverware. 

It seems impossible nowadays to discuss anything without the issue of money coming into it. Many people have made the argument that the reason for the Pro12 teams not doing so well this year is because the amount of money they have does not allow them to compete at the same level as the English and French teams. Whilst there may be some truth in this, people are missing one vital point: the teams in the Pro12 now actually have to qualify rather than being given immediate inclusion. Because the Pro12 teams knew that they did not have to qualify in previous tournaments, they could get away with resting big players before the competition started and thus allow them to push hard for silverware whilst being relatively fresh. Now they cannot afford to do this as doing so might risk their chances of making it into the Champions Cup. Is it possible that, rather than money being the issues, in actuality the players are not used to playing such bruising rugby week after week? It will take time for the players to acclimatise themselves to not being able to have a rest, and having to go straight into European matches on the back of any Pro12 matches. 

So there you have it - my take on the new European competitions. I think they are much improved, and it shows in the fact that this year's pool stages have given us some of the best European rugby that has been seen in years. Let's hope that the rest of the competition provides us with such good rugby, and that it continues season upon season! Don't forget to get in touch with your comments about the new tournaments!

Thanks for reading ruckers,

Jess.