OVERVIEW:IT'S BACK, the best club tournament in the world, reaching the parts that others cannot reach, taking in the European rugby hotbeds from Thomond Park and the RDS, then through the rest of the Celtic countries, England, Italy and France, all the way down to the Basques and Catalonia, and not a moment too soon. Maybe the Heineken Cup can even begin saving the season.
Even though those dastardly ELVs have been scrapped, it has not noticeably freed the game from the coaching shackles of last season. It would help if the referees, aided by their assistants (the clue is in their name), stopped allowing teams to illegally bring down mauls, kept players on their feet as much as is reasonably possible, and policed the offside line.
But they haven't, not nearly enough, and so, across Europe, the flair teams stand out like beacons. In England, there's London Irish and, to a lesser extent, Northampton and, worryingly, as fate would have it, they're up first along with Bath in three Anglo-Irish affairs which will ensure the competition - as is its wont - begins with a veritable bang.
History will give the Munster faithful hope that they can dip into their well of resourcefulness yet again. Ulster, to their credit, have been daring to play a supporting, offloading and quick recycling game. Back at full-strength, Leinster rediscovered their inventive selves last week. But there's been little in the way of soul-stirring rugby yet this season.
As for France, sacre bleu! It's been horrible to watch. A glut of games so far, but only Clermont have been daring to play with width, depth and invention. That said, Munster's other heavyweight opponents Perpignan, still apparently hung-over on their long-awaited Bouclier du Brennus in August, have of late begun to hit their straps too.
They smashed Clermont with their best display of the season two weeks ago. Buoyed by the confidence that success has brought, no team in France is playing with more esprit de corps than the Catalans. Perhaps, with Barcelona eyeing up the Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday, May 22nd, Perpignan are also dreaming of the Heineken Cup final the same day in Paris.
On the only previous occasion the final was held in Paris (2001), Stade Français made it only to be denied in a thriller, 34-30, by Leicester. So, desultory though their combined efforts were last season, when only Toulouse made the quarter-finals, and paint-dryingly dreary though much of the Top 14 has been this season, the French are due a renaissance.
Stade still don't do much more than work Lionel Beauxis into drop goal range, but they have been revived by Jacques Delmas and Didier Faugeron.
Ditto Biarritz, after last season's non-season, and if their core of "jouers cadres" - Nicolas Brusque, Damien Traille, Dimitri Yachvili, Imanol Harinordoquy, Jerome Thion and Fabien Barcela - are fit and well, they could have one last hurrah in the H Cup.
Toulouse are apparently in mini crisis. Despite backrow resources second to none, any two from Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde, Byron Kelleher and Frederic Michalak at half-back, a midfield of Florian Fritz and Yannick Jauzion and an outside three of Vincent Clerc, Cedric Heymans and Maxime Medard - probably the most thrilling outside back around - they were booed off their own pitch after Michalak failed with a series of drop goals in a 9-9 draw with Stade a couple of weeks ago.
Yet they can't stay that bad, can they? Already 40,000 tickets have been sold for the Heineken Cup final, although surprisingly, only 7,000 have been bought in Ireland. Perhaps that's a commentary on the economy hereabouts, although one ventures Leinster supporters are feeling a tad more optimistic after of last Saturday.
Unlike the Champions League, and despite an equally familiar field of entrants, the group stages of the Heineken Cup are sure to enthral and surprise. That said though, akin to the Grand National, you can usually trim down the list of contenders to those with some form over this unique course and distance.
Four teams had divided up the previous eight Cups until, last season, Leinster broke into that elite group containing Munster, Toulouse, Leinster and Wasps (who haven't qualified this season). Along with Stade Français, they look to be the heavyweight contenders. And now that Leinster are part of it - given their palpable new-found hardened edge and defensive belief in each other - they aim to stay there.
"There's a different pressure from the tag we might have had as under-achievers in the past," says captain Leo Cullen. "Now that tag is gone, there's a different pressure in the group. It comes more from within, from the players. Even at the end of last season, we talked about not being a once-off team. The squad are hungry to move on and be successful, but it's obviously a very, very tough competition to win and the standard gets better every year," he added, citing the French spending spree.
Leinster almost certainly wouldn't have won last year without Rocky Elsom, and the prevailing wisdom probably is that, without him, they won't become only the second team in 15 years to retain it.
Kevin McLoughlin has filled the number six jersey impressively, and as significant is the arrival of Nathan Hines and Eoin Reddan, and maturation of others, notably Jamie Heaslip and Jonathan Sexton.
"Rocky's gone, you know what I mean? It's over," said Michael Cheika good-naturedly last Saturday evening, but with an exasperated smile. "Honestly I like him a lot, he's a great chap, but we've left it behind. We showed by the way we recruited we did that. It's still got a long way to go, I don't know if we've got a magic solution."
No, they probably don't, but you wouldn't put it past Cheika to sign off his five-year tenure in the grandest of styles.
How they bet
4/1 Munster
6/1 Toulouse
7/1 Leinster
10/1 Stade Francais
10/1 Clermont Auvergne
11/1 Leicester
16/1 London Irish
20/1 Ospreys
20/1 Perpignan
22/1 Biarritz
22/1 Bath
25/1 Gloucester
28/1 Northampton 28/1 Cardiff
40/1 Harlequins
50/1 Edinburgh
66/1 Brive
80/1 Sale
80/1 Glasgow
100/1 Ulster
100/1 Scarlets
100/1 Dragons
2000/1 Treviso
2000/1 Viadana
