Pool stages have proven the Champions Cup is in desperate need of a kiss of life

Jonathan Bradley

Europe’s top clubs have played too many games with nothing riding on them in the last couple of seasons, which has diminished the Champions Cup

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Europe’s top clubs have played too many games with nothing riding on them in the last couple of seasons, which has diminished the Champions Cup

January 24 2022 04:44 PM

Lest we elevate Harlequins’ win over Castres on Friday to the level of the moon landing, the Kennedy assassination or Roswell — let’s be clear, there was nothing untoward about the odd endgame at the Twickenham Stoop other than plain old bad officiating.

An unchecked pass that looked suspiciously forward, a missed turnover under the posts and an overturning of a no-try decision on the basis of evidence that looked inconclusive at best, European rugby’s perennially poor travellers had every right to feel aggrieved over a memorable away day triumph denied to them.

Competition organisers, on the other hand, were given cause to breathe a heavy sigh of relief. EPCR have no more control over the events of the last 23 months than the rest of us, but their blue riband tournament was in danger of having a large asterisk affixed to the 2021-22 edition.

For had Castres won, only one more domino would have needed to fall over the remainder of the weekend for reigning champions and the continent’s most successful side, Toulouse, to be knocked out having taken to the pitch only twice thanks to Covid-19 complications.

The more litigious among the LNR were already sharpening their knives when the five-time winners named a team of those then unaffected, but were told their scheduled game against Cardiff was to be deemed a 28-0 win for the Welsh side regardless, an instinct that would have only been heightened had Antoine Dupont and Co. been left to drop into the Challenge Cup come the spring.

Mercifully such a horror-scenario did not come to pass and, against all odds, the last-16 of the Champions Cup appears to be a close approximation of the best 16 sides in the competition.

More than a fifth of the points awarded over the course of the pool stages were the product of games not played but, while it was certainly unfortunate that Cardiff would have advanced on points difference had they simply forfeited games against Toulouse and Harlequins rather than admirably playing through their Covid outbreak last month, none of the eight teams eliminated can have too much cause for complaint given they won one game on the pitch between them.

And yet as European rugby bosses avoided one crisis of public confidence, they remain mired in another.

The disinterest from some teams in the competition and its convoluted new structure was palpable and it remains to be seen just how the two-legged format will work in the next round. The theory goes that the more knock-out rugby the better, but the average margin of victory in the seven ties at the stage last year — Leinster were handed a walkover against Toulouse — was greater than 22 points with away sides winning more often than their hosts. Hardly a recipe for compelling second legs.

More importantly, it is a structure that denuded the pool stages of almost all their previous lustre. Eight of those to advance were decided before a ball was kicked in the concluding round, including the two top seeds who will secure lucrative home semi-final ties should they advance that far in the competition. There were certainly entertaining finishes to some games, but the true contenders had, by and large, all long since secured safe passage and there was an overwhelming feeling through the weekend that the jeopardy was too far removed and the drama had gone with it.

More knock-out games may be profitable in the short-term, but you can only milk a cash-cow for as long as the public maintains interest — which in this incarnation is far from guaranteed.

The idea that this is still the best club competition in any sport, in any part of the world, is starting to sound like a sepia-toned statement as anachronistic to the modern day as cheap houses and even cheaper living.

The glory days of the old Heineken Cup with it’s compelling round robin are fading fast with the process accelerated apace by a format that is too unwieldy for the casual fan and, akin to soccer’s bloated European Championships, requires far too much asphalt to reach a crossroads where 24 teams are whittled down to a mere 16.

With the ongoing pandemic one of the root causes of the change in format two seasons ago, there remains the possibility that something more akin to the status quo is restored as we inch slowly back to normality. When organisers come to decide upon the way forward, they’d do well to keep in mind the K.I.S.S theory of design often attributed to American aeronautical engineer Kelly Johnson. K.I.S.S? Keep it simple, stupid.