Gerry Thornley On Rugby: Shame on us parochial Irish? Certainly the Scottish rugby public seemed to buy into the concept of a Heineken European Cup final being hosted on their doorstep - even one with an all-Gallic hue - a good deal more readily than their Irish counterparts did in Lansdowne Road two years ago.
Of course, this is a simplistic judgment (albeit one not without an element of truth). The ERC, misled by the bumper final in 2000 between Munster and Leicester, then sold 6,000 tickets in advance of the semi-finals the following year when they ended up with a Toulouse-Perpignan decider.
After a desultory affair, devoid of atmosphere despite a crowd of 28,000, the tournament organisers took the resulting criticism on the chin and learnt from their mistakes. That is somewhat typical of this vibrant, still relatively new competition and organisation, which is not as media-wary or hyper-sensitive as, say, more established unions and federations.
Last year's final between Wasps and Toulouse was helped by the presence of a London side, perhaps, but once again this season, they learnt from two years ago and by selling over 40,000 tickets in advance of the semi-finals ensured there wouldn't be a repeat of the Lansdowne Road finale.
Hence, for the last two years the final has become a proper European celebration of club rugby, with a riotous mix of colours from all the quarter-finalists and more. Invariably this has included a large chunk of Munster fans, and perhaps more than anyone else they must feel obliged to take a punt on their team one day reaching their Holy Grail - fearful that the day might come to pass and to not witness it would be unbearable.
The argument that another all-French final should have been re-routed to France hardly surfaced to the same degree, and rightly so. Had it been held in France, for sure there would have been a full house, but effectively only the French would have watched it. It wouldn't have been a true European Cup final.
Sunday's 51,000 crowd at Murrayfield was 16,000 shy of a capacity, but the ERC's decision to strategically place Stade Toulousain and Stade Français flags around the ground helped to varnish over this and convey the impression of a near full house. And thousands of Scots appeared to have no problem in adopting one or other of the finalists.
So, while it was another desultory affair, at least there was a credible sense of occasion, and the better team won.
Toulouse are arguably the best club side in the world but once again, despite the match itself, the events of the weekend again served to heighten how the gap between the top French sides and Ireland's Euro contenders seems to be widening almost by the week.
Even the respective 3,000 travelling bands of supporters from France was unthinkable a few years ago, not to mention the huge crowd descending on Place du Concorde in Toulouse to watch the final on giant screens. The leading French sides are buying into this tournament more and more, as evidenced by them providing five of the last six finalists and seven of the last 12 semi-finalists.
All their big guns will be amongst their seven-strong hand next season and better than ever. This season's European Cup quarter-final was perhaps something of a lesson to Stade Français when the hard sell over the previous two months resulted in a colourful capacity crowd at the Parc des Princes for the visit of Newcastle.
They subsequently emulated that feat not only for their semi-final with Biarritz but for a championship match against Toulouse the following weekend. The Irish provinces and the IRFU are going to have to become more leftfield in how they promote their games here when you think of Max Guazzini's initiatives, the Stade benefactor selling off tranches of tickets at €5, giving out flags and laying on real shows every time.
A striking feature of the Irish set-up for players who come here from England, much less France, is that there are no obligations on them to meet and greet sponsors after each home game. By contrast, the Toulouse players spend two hours after each home game in a huge sponsorship marquee to help meet the demands of their 206 sponsors (on top of which they have a waiting list). Perhaps it's down to the IRFU's poor working relationship with IRUPA and a tendency to take the players' rights for granted, but this has got to change, for the players also.
It would assuredly help if the Welsh weren't suddenly and selfishly responding to the merest click of the fingers from England and BBC's Grandstand with regard to an Anglo-Welsh Cup. At a time when it finally seemed as if the Celts were singing off the same hymn sheet, this seriously jeopardises the Celtic League and its chances of taking off with a new sponsor, while as an aside, the mooted Rainbow Cup looks even more improbable now than it did two weeks ago.
And then you hear that the drain of players from Leinster has continued with the departure of Leo Cullen to Leicester. But this was down to the IRFU, for Cullen was barely a month short of concluding a two-year international contract and yet, ridiculously, the union had let negotiations drag on without a conclusion until this juncture. No way to run a professional ship.
Cullen was about fourth on the Irish pecking order, but when the union negotiate new deals with internationally contracted players do they take into account the provinces' needs? Along with a host of other examples - David Holwell, Kieran Campbell, Paddy Wallace, Breyton Paulse (whom Munster had lined up) and others - once again, you're left with the distinct impression that the union and their all-powerful Players' Advisory group are more of a hindrance than a help to the provinces. Some of them at any rate.
