Rugby’s most outspoken and influential journalist
IT IS almost Euro time again, with action beginning in the Heineken Champions Cup and the Challenge Cup on the weekend of 9-11 December. So off we go, still clattering around looking for some precision and sanity in the season structure and European format – this year, it’s new, part exciting, part disturbing.
The fixture list, with 24 teams in the Champions Cup and 18 in the Challenge Cup, hints at great rugby but also causes concern that some of the games may not be all they are cracked up to be.
And the new format? To make it successful, less of a colossal gamble, it needs marketeers to get seriously stuck in, and let’s pray they do. The average marketing operation selling rugby to the paying public would have difficulty giving away Rolls-Royces.
In a sense, both competitions are exciting but also the system is shambolic. When you
