I defer to no one in my admiration for Sir Ian McGeechan, but while I’m happy to call the 1990 Grand Slam coach the greatest visionary rugby has ever produced, I fear I have to stop short of declaring him to be a prophet amongst men.
You see, I’ve just looked back at an article Sir Ian produced in April of this year. It appeared on the weekend that the Champions Cup quarter-finals were being played — when, as you might recall, no Guinness PRO12 teams were involved. No Celtic or Italian side had made it through to the last eight, so it was entirely an English/French affair. This, he concluded, was the shape of European things to come.
In fairness, Scotland’s first (and, so far, only) rugby knight was not alone in making the case. I might even have made it myself. Quite aside from the way the quarter-finals shaped up, the pool stages had been embarrassing for PRO12 sides. There had been 34 clashes between PRO12 and French or English teams, and the PRO12 sides had won just ten of them — a success rate of less than 30 per cent. Scarlets and Treviso had been whitewashed. Leinster, three-times European champions, had won just one of their six games.
This, McGeechan concluded, was evidence that money talked. With lucrative broadcasting and sponsorship deals behind them, the Anglo-French juggernauts were crushing their poorer relations in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Italy and steaming off into the distance. The meek might stand to inherit the earth, but the loaded would be taking all the silverware.
Eight months on, it looks like Sir Ian’s crystal ball might need a bit of a polish. At the halfway point of this season’s Champions Cup, Munster and Leinster top their respective pools, while Connacht, Glasgow Warriors and Ulster have all won two of their three games. PRO12 teams have won nine of their 16 matches against Anglo-French opponents. Their win ratio has soared to 56 per cent.
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What on earth is going on? McGeechan and all the other self-appointed sages were doing no more than stating what appeared to be obvious a few months ago. The transformation of the 24-team Heineken Cup into the leaner 20-team Champions Cup was expected to benefit sides with stratospheric budgets and stellar squads, and that’s how things seemed to be turning out. So why is it so different now?
The most obvious answer is that this season’s rugby calendar does not include a World Cup. Last year’s tournament took a disproportionately heavy toll on PRO12 sides, most of whom gave up a disproportionately large number of players to national sides.
Glasgow, the 2015 PRO12 champions, were missing 22 players when they began their defence of the title. Only Connacht were relatively unscathed — and duly got off to a flier. No disrespect to the men from the west of Ireland, but does anyone really believe they would have been in a position to take the title last season without that almighty head start?
The top PRO12 sides went into last year’s European programme with squads of players who, after arduous pre-season training camps and the World Cup itself, must have felt they had played a full season already. By contrast, even the elite clubs of England and France had each sent only a handful of players to rugby’s global gathering. And, as you might remember, England’s players came home early anyway.
In a normal season, the PRO12’s advantage of having (mostly) centrally contracted players who are given reasonable rest periods becomes obvious. It is hard to imagine that Glasgow would have pulled off their victory over Racing last weekend had players like Jonny Gray, Finn Russell and Alex Dunbar not had a break after their autumn international exertions. With a number of Scottish players about to negotiate new contracts, they might like to consider the value of higher welfare standards at home against the possibility of picking up bigger cheques elsewhere.
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Perhaps the tide of rugby’s market economy is unstoppable. For the moment, though, it can be delayed, and Glasgow will have a glorious opportunity to do just that when they meet Racing in the return leg at Scotstoun tomorrow evening. Racing have one of the biggest budgets in Europe, but they literally haven’t been able to buy a win in the Champions Cup this season. A second loss to Glasgow would bring their European season to a juddering halt.
Nor will Northampton relish a trip to Dublin after being thrashed 37-10 by Leinster last weekend. And Leicester can’t be too excited about another meeting with Munster, who thrashed them 38-0 in Limerick.
I’ve no doubt that money will indeed become the biggest determinant of success in the years and seasons ahead. For the moment, though, let’s celebrate the fact that we’re not there yet.
Referees must get a grip on simulation
Pascal Papé deserved all the scorn and derision that came his way for his preposterous dying-swan act after being brushed by Phil Burleigh in Edinburgh’s Challenge Cup clash with Stade Francais at BT Murrayfield last weekend. He also deserved the official warning that was handed down to him yesterday by citing commissioner Eddie Wigglesworth for, in the wording of law 10.4, an act ‘contrary to good sportsmanship’.
But why was no action taken at the time? Papé’s melodramatic swoon happened in full view of Craig Maxwell-Keys, the match referee, who was presumably as unimpressed by the French lock’s acting skills as everyone else in the ground. Maxwell-Keys showed Burleigh the red card, as he was obliged to do under World Rugby directives, but he appeared to forget that acts of simulation were specifically outlawed last year.
It’s time referees got a grip on these things, rather than leaving it for others to mop up the mess.