Gerry Thornley: Formidable usual suspects make strong cases at start of European campaigns

It’s already looking as if pedigree is again going to count significantly in this season’s Heineken Champions Cup. Of the ten winners on the opening weekend outside of the two games in South Africa, all had lifted European silverware before, and between them they had won 24 Heineken Champions Cup and Challenge Cup trophies.

Among them, the usual front-runners in the betting to lift this season’s Champions Cup made statement wins, chiefly Leinster, La Rochelle and Toulouse, while there were a number of other takeaways from the weekend.

For sure Racing 92 sacrificed much of their home advantage by shifting their game against Leinster away from their La Defense Arena to accommodate a concert, and they were surprisingly off-colour, with nobody save for Gaël Fickou offering Finn Russell much in the way of support.

You’d pay more than a penny for the thoughts of Stuart Lancaster as he watched his current and future teams from his vantage point in the stands after analysing the Parisian club in depth in the build-up to Saturday’s match. The game did not dispel the thought that Racing and Lancaster are perhaps not the most obvious fit in the world.

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On a weekend when the importance of experience as well as pedigree was a recurring theme, what made Leinster’s performance all the more impressive, of course, is that Johnny Sexton and Tadhg Furlong were absent, albeit Ross Byrne has regularly shown his ability to slot in and keep the well-oiled machine ticking over.

Leo Cullen, Lancaster et al were thoroughly vindicated in the selection of Ryan Baird, not least in giving Dan Sheehan an additional target for his excellent darts under pressure from Racing’s defensive lineout, which, as Johann van Graan used to frequently remind us, is world-class, akin to the All Blacks.

[ ‘You are pretty much playing Ireland’: Gloucester staring into Leinster challenge ]

Another striking feature of Leinster’s last two wins has been the eye-catching return of James Lowe, and with it a reminder of his importance to the team. Lowe looks as if he has used his injury-enforced time away from the game well, and his ability to not only pop up anywhere but to often break the first tackle and make offloads is a point difference which arguably no other Irish player possesses.

His carries were a feature of Leinster’s first three tries, and there aren’t many other players in Ireland who could have made that offload for Garry Ringrose’s try. Even machines as slick as Leinster and Ireland, who missed him in November, need that individual X factor.

Of course, one weekend is only a snapshot and it is certainly too early to assess, for example, the strength of the South African challenge. The Stormers missed a trick away to a Clermont team very much in transition, while the Sharks and the Bulls racked up bonus-point wins at home to Harlequins and Lyon, but conceded 67 points and attacking bonus points to kindred spirits Harlequins and Lyon.

Historically though, that Harlequins-type attitude of “you score five tries and we’ll score six” is not really the template for conquering Europe, least of all when it comes to finals.

Pragmatism reigns and for all their undoubted flair and X factor, Toulouse embody this as much as anyone. In truth, finals involving Toulouse have usually been dull affairs, and their classic away-day win in Thomond Park on Sunday was a case in point.

Mirroring the all-conquering French side, Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos and co kicked the ball in play more times (38) than any other side during their win over Munster. Eleven of these kicks found grass, leading to both of their decisive second-half scores, and eight were retained.

Their team oozed with Champions Cup savvy, whereas Munster were missing the experience of Conor Murray, Chris Farrell, Simon Zebo and Andrew Conway among others.

No less than Leinster, La Rochelle can squeeze the life out of an opposing team – indeed, they ultimately did it to Leinster in last season’s final – or at any rate batter them into submission.

In the 25-year-old Antoine Hastoy, Ronan O’Gara has unearthed a highly skilled and exciting outhalf from Pau, at least off front-foot ball. Hastoy, the remarkable Grégory Alldritt and the rest proved their class pretty much continually for 70 minutes in ominously compiling 46 unanswered points against Northampton before conceding a couple of late tries.

[ Same result but contrasting emotions for Munster and Ulster after opening defeats ]

At least Northampton extracted something from that game in time for the visit of Munster in something of a make-or-break game for both clubs next Sunday. Not so Ulster, who failed to score a solitary point for the first time in their 28-year Champions Cup history in their demoralising 39-0 defeat by Sale prior to the visit of La Rochelle next Saturday. That looks like it will be a crunch game for Dan McFarland’s team given January offers a return trip to O’Gara’s side and the visit of Sale, who might be gunning for a high seeding.

When the wheels come off for Ulster they seem to do so spectacularly. Since the last play of the first-half against 14-man Leinster a week ago, Ulster have scored seven points and conceded 74, including 11 tries.

Against Sale, they missed the most tackles, 32, and yielded the most line breaks, 14, by any team in round one, and it looks as if Jared Payne is sorely missed as defence coach. On Sunday, they also sorely missed the experience of Iain Henderson and John Cooney.

Sale look a very difficult team to play against; cussed, well-organised and physical under Alex Sanderson and somewhat in the mould of old Exeter. The latter’s victory at Castres, while all Anglo and French eyes were elsewhere, was perhaps the other outlier among the five wins by Premiership teams, and more so than Saracens’ surprisingly unconvincing and fortuitous win at home to Edinburgh.

Gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com