Moves are afoot to bring all six main European Unions and Federations together before Christmas or early in the New Year in an effort to resolve the impasse regarding European club rugby, which as things stand will see a Heineken Cup next season run by the ERC without the English clubs.
The possibility of bringing the English and French clubs, along with the warring Welsh regions, into fresh mediation talks may also be explored.
However, reports over the weekend that a European Cup could go ahead next season which would be run by the Six Nations committee instead of the ERC, thereby allowing BT to take over television coverage from Sky, and that only the FFR are opposed to this alternative proposal, are grossly wide of the mark.
Such a proposal was explored by the six respective Unions and Federations in October, but not only was the FFR President Pierre Camou opposed to this, this possibility was never agreed. Since then the French, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Italian unions met in Dublin to re-assert their commitment to a pan-European tournament, which the French clubs have subsequently committed to, leaving the English clubs and Welsh regions out in the cold.
While the RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie has been having informal discussions in private with all the respective parties, no agreement has been reached about an alternative governance of a European Cup, nor indeed television rights, much less BT assuming coverage from Sky.
Indeed, while the Celtic and French Unions have conceded to all the demands from English and French clubs regarding tournament format, meritocratic qualification and financial share-out, there has been no progress on governance of the tournament. Furthermore, not even the RFU have been privy to the English clubs’ €188million deal with BT, who have also been regarded as hugely unhelpful in the ongoing row, and the Celtic Unions and FFR are opposed to English demands for independent selling of TV rights rather than owned and sold centrally.
Away wins
On what was a curious and eventful weekend in the return fixtures of the Heineken Cup, tries and vengeful away wins were a recurring theme. Edinburgh's surprise 16-10 win in Gloucester added to a wonderful weekend for Munster after Saturday's dramatic win in overtime in Perpignan courtesy of JJ Hanrahan's wondrous try. The two results contrived to leave Munster five points ahead of Gloucester in pool 6.
“I think it will be massive,” ventured Rob Penney after Munster latest act of escapalogy. “With a bit of luck, and you have to make your own we can use this as a nice springboard into the next Heineken Cup matches. A moment like this for this group, they realise it is a bit special.”
As with Perpignan, Montpellier yesterday suffered heartache with the penultimate play of the game when a try by Leicester’s Vereniki Goneva, converted by Ryan Lamb, secured the weekend’s eighth away win 15-14 (the round four record was previously four). Until that moment, Ulster were set to be seven points clear of the Tigers, after Saturday’s fog-bound bonus point win away to Treviso. Instead, Leicester are just three points behind and with a trek to Treviso, will probably make their final clash at Welford Road against Ulster a Pool 5 shoot-out.
Maintaining Leinster had been “inaccurate” in the face of Northampton’s commitment at the Aviva on Saturday, Matt O’Connor added after the 18-9 defeat: “We have two tough games against Castres and Ospreys. We have to win those two games. We would have looked at those at the start of the pool and targeted those. So things haven’t changed dramatically from that end. We just got to make sure we are at the very top end of our game when we play.
Leinster do remain masters of their own destiny, and wins away to Castres and at home to the Ospreys will suffice to ensure qualification, but Saturday’s 18-9 defeat to Northampton leaves them as the sixth-ranked pool leader currently, and thus, at the very least, seriously jeopardises their hopes of a home quarter-final.
Pat Lam is considering giving his entire squad three days’ off in a bid to rid Connacht of the virus which swept through their ranks in the days leading up to their return meeting with Toulouse. Such were the ensuing demands placed on his squad that Lam expressed more pride in their efforts after this defeat than in their stunning a week of a week before.
