New format
There is a strong suggestion in the English media that EPCR are set to change the orientation of the Champions Cup again starting from next season. Discussions are believed to have taken place over the weekend at board level with the current format of two pools of 12 teams to be replaced by four pools with six teams.
Eight clubs would qualify from the United Rugby Championship, French Top 14 and English Premiership with the pools containing two teams each from the aforementioned leagues. The clubs would play four matches against each of the teams who are not in their domestic competition. Deciding on how home advantage is decided in those matches has yet to be revealed.
The pool stages are set to be played over two rounds of fixtures in December and a further two in January with the top four teams in each qualifying for the round of 16, where the higher ranked sides would have home advantage in a single tie.
The fifth ranked team will drop down to the Challenge Cup which will have three pools of eight to be joined by the four teams from the Champions Cup at the knockout stage of the competition. The bottom four teams in the elite European competition won’t have any further games.
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In terms of qualification from the URC there will be no protection as there has been based on nationality so there will be no guaranteed places for Irish, Welsh, Scottish/Italian Shield winners and instead the top eight teams in the standings will qualify as of right.
There will undoubtedly be some disquiet that the tournament remains unwieldy in terms of the pool stage and that fewer teams qualifying for the competition – four pools of four teams, six pool games, home and away – and straight to a top two to the quarterfinals would be preferable as a format.
Send-off
Credit to Leinster fullback Hugo Keenan and right wing Jimmy O’Brien who came to speak to the media after their team’s devastating 26-25 defeat to La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium, not exactly the place any player wants to be in the circumstances.
However, both offered an insight into the raw emotion of a second final defeat to the French club in as many years. O’Brien said: “It’s hard to sum up, everybody is feeling pretty low at the moment. It’s hard to put it into words, just disappointment and frustration as a group.”
He confirmed that head coach Leo Cullen, Johnny Sexton and James Ryan, captain in his outhalf’s absence all spoke to the extended squad in the dressingroom. O’Brien added: “It was just frustrating to not give Stu (Lancaster, leaving to take over as head coach at Racing 92), Johnny (Sexton, who has played his last match for Leinster before retiring after the World Cup), Dave Kearney and Nick [McCarthy, both going to America] we didn’t give them the send-off they deserve.”
In terms of a match overview, he continued: “We did well (at the start), our plan worked in the first half, we made some good set-play moves. The second half turned into that arm-wrestle where there was a lot of kicking. It was hard to exit our own half.
“It felt like we were always in the game, and even at the end I was confident we would work the penalty, or work something and I’d no doubt Ross (Byrne) would slot it over. It just didn’t happen.”
Keenan admitted: “The whole second half was played in our own half, wasn’t it? We didn’t exit well, we didn’t get on the right side of the ref. It’s disappointing.”
In numbers
22: The number of minutes that Leinster trailed for across eight matches in their Champions Cup campaign, eight of which were against La Rochelle in the final at the Aviva Stadium.
Quote of the week
“I don’t know if I can say that it’s stronger than last year because it was the first, but it’s not less strong in any case. Frankly to have done it at home, in their stadium, in front of their supporters, it’s huge”
— La Rochelle tighthead prop Reda Wardi when asked whether the club’s first or second Champions Cup final win over Leinster was better
London Sevens
Ireland finished sixth at the London Sevens, the final tournament on this year’s World Series. James Topping’s squad, containing a number of promising young players, lost their opening game to Fiji (33-12) but victories over Japan (40-7) and Argentina (14-12) earned them a place in the Cup quarterfinals where they once again faced the second ranked side in the world, Argentina.
Despite tries from Bryan Mollen and Dylan O’Grady, the Argentinian side exacted their revenge in a 28-14 win. O’Grady was also a try scorer in a 19-12 win over their British hosts, with Connor O’Sullivan and Sean Cribbin also crossing the try-line.
In their final match, Ireland went 14-0 behind against France before former Ireland Under-20 Grand Slam winner Chay Mullins and Lansdowne’s Sean Galvin reduced the deficit to 14-12 but a converted try for France meant that Harry McNulty’s late effort, improved upon by Billy Dardis saw them come up agonisingly short at 21-19.
