ON RUGBY:The rewards are more than just financial, when one thinks of the feel-good factor in the Aviva and Thomond also hosting a European semi-final, writes GERRY THORNLEY

ANOTHER EPIC quarter-final weekend for European rugby, and from virgin territory in Catalonia, to Dublin, Milton Keynes and back to Spain again in Basque country, not to mention the increasingly higher profile of their secondary Amlin Challenge Cup, the ERC people must have been sitting in their various VIP sections like Persian cats who got the cream.

The semi-finals of both competitions have representatives from all the big three countries, with the French palpably developing more of a liking for European fare, while the decision of the ERC board to re-route three Heineken Cup pool runners-up into the Challenge Cup has again yielded a rich dividend.

Toulouse have been, of course, the French torchbearers, and their celebrations when Yannick Nyanga scored the decisive try underlined their desire to retain the Cup and win it for a fifth time. They were the better team but they have issues in the tight five, where Daan Human and Benoit Lecouls are injured and William Servat needs a rest, while Bayonne-bound scrumhalf Byron Kelleher has a long-standing calf problem. The injured Frederic Michalak is also set to leave, as is the Clermont-bound David Skrela.

But coach Guy Noves has already made his feelings known regarding their trek to the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles next week to play Toulon, and unlike last season, Toulouse top the Top 14 and are set for a semi-final place domestically rather than an additional play-off match. This means, unlike last season when Noves said the double was impossible and prioritised Europe, he will maintain a twin assault.

Silverware is scarce and Clermont, past winners, clearly want to win the secondary competition, as do Michael Cheika’s Stade Français – for whom the Amlin is the only route into next season’s Heineken Cup.

Munster’s desire was palpable in Brive, even if they played with an abandon that might not have been as easy in the Heineken Cup. But in further developing both Felix Jones and their counter-attacking game, for example, Tony McGahan and co are managing a twin trophy assault while also building for next season.

After an epic weekend, the rewards for Ireland are considerable too, above and beyond the financial returns when one thinks of the feelgood factor in the Aviva and Thomond hosting semi-finals in both competitions, with Munster also lining up a Magners League semi-final in Limerick.

The Euro tie will be less lucrative, as, they will charge Magners League prices and furthermore, after deducting the costs of running the game, they will hand over half of their 50 per cent take to the IRFU. With full houses, the two games could earn Munster about €400,000 with, perhaps, a further €5 million for the local economy.

Watching on tenterhooks will be Connacht, as if either Leinster or Munster win one of the European trophies, that will assure them a place in next season’s Heineken Cup.

The IRFU are also doing nicely so far. Figures are chucked into the air rather liberally but, for example, Leinster’s quarter-final, after renting out the Aviva Stadium from the IRFU, would have yielded about €1.6 million. Leinster receive 65 per cent of this for having moved the game to outside their RDS home, with Leicester making 35 per cent (which equates to over €500,000 – not a bad little earner for the English Premiership leaders). And under the terms of their arrangement with the IRFU, Leinster hand over half of their €1.04 million “gate” to the union.

Furthermore, the union are already on course to receive dividends of €400,000-plus each for two quarter-finalists and a semi-finals, as well as leasing out the Aviva to Leinster and now the ERC. It is believed the IRFU budget for one participant in the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. Thus, they would appear to have earned over €2 million beyond that already from their provinces’ excursions in the European competitions.

Amid all this, the IRFU have proposed reducing the number of overseas players per province from five to four from the 2012-13 season onwards. This coupled with the greater financial clout of French clubs backed by benefactors – has contributed to the impending departure of Leinster’s Nathan Hines and Stan Wright to Clermont and Stade Français, where Munster’s Paul Warwick is also heading. The latter two were offered three- and two-year deals which the provinces couldn’t match.

In an ideal world, the IRFU and the Irish management would love each of their provinces to be fielding 15 indigenous, Ireland qualified players, but in the modern game that is simply not possible. As it was at the Aviva, Heinke van der Meuwe and Wright were consigned to a place on the bench, while all but three of the starting XV – Isa Nacewa, Richardt Strauss and Hines – are Ireland internationals. Nacewa’s brilliance creates potential problems for Ireland in that, as with Cheika preferring the Kiwi of Fijian extraction for the successful 2009 Heineken Cup run-in, it may deny Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald time at fullback. Would the IRFU sanction Leinster signing Nacewa now, for example? Quite possibly not. But would Leinster have a home Heineken Cup semi-final to look forward to? Most probably not.

Toulouse, for example, have an annual budget of almost €30 million, which admittedly includes a Michelin star restaurant and a couple of shops as well as a huge staff, but they have already signed up Wallabies and Warathahs scrumhalf Luke Burgess and Auckland Blues and All Blacks outhalf-cum-centre Luke McAlister, as well as the Stade outhalf Lionel Beauxis.

As the drain of non-Irish players from the provinces to France highlights, this is what the Irish provinces will be up against in Europe for many years to come.

And, finally, how good were the bookies? Take Paddy Power’s handicap odds. They had Munster at minus six, and they won by five, Perpignan at minus three, and they won by four, Leinster at minus six, and they won by seven, Northampton at minus 10, and they won by 10, and finally Toulouse by one point, and it finished level after 80 minutes.

In other words, every one of their four quarter-final handicaps came in within a point, as well as Munster’s Challenge Cup quarter-final. Damn them anyway; missed out on both a 6 to 1 treble and a 12 to 1 accumulator by a solitary point, not to mention second in the National and the boy from Ulster at 18 to 1.

Indeed, like the ERC and the IRFU over the weekend, the bookies must have cleaned up.