The opening weekend of the Champions Cup underlined one common theme throughout much of the competition’s history, namely that pedigree counts.
The loudest statement of all came from Stade Ernest Wallon when Ugo Mola unleashed a veritable battalion of frontline players in Toulouse’s quest to win a seventh star and duly ran up a 61-21 win over Ulster. Antoine Dupont chipped in with a try, four try assists, two 50-22s, 23 carries and four offloads. Be afraid Europe (and South Africa). Be very afraid.
Elsewhere, six other former winners with 15 titles between them (La Rochelle, Toulon, Northampton, Munster, Saracens and Leinster) began their campaigns with victories, as did three French sides who have demonstrated a strong desire for this tournament, namely Clermont and Racing 92 (each three-time beaten finalists), as well as recent converts Bordeaux Begles, even if the trio’s ambitions have thus far been unfulfilled.
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Yet it’s still hard to look beyond the top four in the pre-tournament betting, and in that order too, namely Toulouse, Leinster, La Rochelle and Bordeaux Begles.
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It’s funny how the mere whiff of this competition can galvanise a team like La Rochelle. Much like Munster, it triggers positive memories. Much like Munster, it’s the competition in which La Rochelle announced themselves and made a community feel proud.
It’s perhaps understandable, and no great surprise, that players like Uini Atonio, Will Skelton, Levani Botia and Tawera Kerr-Barlow find one more shot at the Champions Cup more inspiring than some regular season Top 14 games. This is also Kerr-Barlow’s last shot at the Champions Cup. He was outstanding at the Rec last Friday, and that gather around his ankles and try off a lineout in a sodden, windy Bath was one of the weekend’s wonder moments.
Then again, of course, the common denominator is Ronan O’Gara. As a player, he reached four finals (winning two), six semi-finals and four quarter-finals. As a coach, his team have reached three finals (winning two) and a quarter-final.
Like “Rog”, as a player Leo Cullen reached four finals (captaining Leinster to three wins and losing once with Leicester), as well as two semi-finals and three quarter-finals. As a coach, his team have reached five finals (winning one), three semi-finals and a quarter-final. That’s faintly ridiculous really.
To put this all in some kind of context, over the last four seasons Leinster have reached one semi-final and three finals, whereas the other Irish provinces combined have managed one quarter-final between them – Munster three seasons ago.
Never in the competition’s history has Irish rugby been so dependent on one province to be contenders in what is now the Champions Cup, and arguably no game illustrated the widening gulf between Europe’s elite and the rest than that aforementioned game in the Stade Ernest Wallon last Sunday.
Ulster have had dark, difficult days against Toulouse before, be it the 39-3 pool defeat in their first foray to the Pink City in September 1998 or the 36-8 loss in the quarter-finals five seasons ago.
But, heck, everybody has. Still and all, heading into Sunday’s first-round game, Ulster had won six, drawn one and lost seven of the previous 14 clashes. There have been some memorably good days too, none better than the David Humphreys-inspired reverse pool win in the old Ravenhill back in October 1998, or the 15-13 win in the quarter-finals two months later which was the key win in Ulster’s 1999 triumph. There was a 35-all draw in Toulouse in 2000 and a 25-23 win in the Stade Wallon a week after a 38-0 home win to complete a pool double nine seasons ago.
Just three seasons ago this reporter was in Le Stadium to see Ulster take on the modern-day Toulouse at a jammed and rocking Le Stadium on a sunny April day in the first leg of the sides’ Round of 16 tie. Toulouse shot out of the blocks, going 7-0 up through an Emmanuel Meafou try. It looked ominous.
Instead, what followed was a thrilling, nerveless, ambitious Ulster display, sprinkled with daring launch plays, and possibly Robert Baloucoune’s finest game in an Ulster shirt. He scored a hat-trick and had he backed himself might have added a fourth.
Ulster were leading 26-13 with two minutes remaining before Roman Ntamack’s converted try altered the narrative.
Even so, Ulster were ultimately only overcome by a 50-49 aggregate over two legs thanks to a converted 75th-minute try in Belfast a week later by Dupont when he maximised a one-on-one with the unlucky Marty Moore, who had been forced to come back on to the pitch after being replaced.
It was hard to reconcile that memorable first-leg Ulster display, or the titanic second-leg tussle, with the events of last Sunday. Granted, Ulster were depleted and Richie Murphy sought to load his bench, much like Leinster did in Bristol later on Sunday. But it wasn’t entirely a one-off and Ulster’s decline predates Murphy’s arrival.
Last season, Toulouse beat Ulster 48-24 in the pool stages at the Kingspan, meaning that over the last two legs, the aggregate is a whopping 109-45, and not all of that can be explained by Toulouse’s actual improvement.
The biggest single challenge facing Humphreys in his current guise as the IRFU’s performance director is reducing that gap between Leinster (and Europe’s elite) with the other three Irish provinces, and with it the national team’s dependency on the Leinster production line.
To that end, revising the IRFU’s contracting system to make Leinster underwrite 30 per cent of their central contracts, liable to cost the province over €1 million, makes sense. Leinster currently have nine centrally contracted players compared to one each with the others, and Iain Henderson is dropping down to a provincial contract next season.
Presumably this is designed to increase funding for Connacht, Munster and Ulster, and redistributing the wealth makes sense. Leinster shouldn’t be punished for maximising their socio-economic advantages and the conveyor belt from elite schools, and the others should be doing plenty more, especially Munster and Ulster.
Yet an over reliance on one of the four – both as Champions Cup contenders and Team Ireland’s bulk suppliers – has never been more acute. Great for Leinster, but that cannot be healthy.
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