Heineken Cup helped drive Irish game out of amateur roots and in to professional age

As Alex Payne said in advance of Sky's closing credits to the Heineken Cup, "thank you for the memories". Thanks indeed. The Six Nations may be the financial engine that drives European rugby, and with its history of over 100 years the French Championship especially and the English Premiership as well may give more domestic sustenance to the club game in those countries than the ever changing Celtic/Italian Leagues, but the Heineken Cup provided the most memories over the last 19 years.

Truly, the Heineken Cup refreshed parts of the European rugby map that other tournaments could not reach. Hereabouts, the great away trips introduced us to the sunnier south of France (both climactically and the people) as well as that country’s true heartland as opposed to the Six Nations staple diet of Paris, and also the west country and the midlands in England.

The timing helped. On August 26th in 1995, the IRB chairman, Vernon Pugh, declared rugby union an "open" sport. Four days later in Dublin, the Five Nations chairman, Fred McLeod, announced details of a European Cup competition. It was the first attempt at a major, cross-border tournament in Europe run on a professional basis. It was driven by visionaries from the unions such as Pugh and Tom Kiernan.

Inaugural tournament
A dozen clubs from Ireland, France, Wales, Italy and Romania took part in the inaugural 1995/96 tournament, competing in four pools of three with the winners qualifying for the semi-finals. Absent were those visionaries from England (who also boycotted the tournament in 1998-99) and Scotland.

It helped the fledgling tournament no end that from the start, Toulouse, the then French champions, targeted the tournament, to become fitting first champions and their unequalled four stars should have as much validity as ever next season no matter the European Champions Cup's new name and new organisation. If it wasn't for the vision of Guy Noves and his club there's no telling how the tournament might have evolved.

It helped too that the sponsors became synonymous with the event. Heineken were a perfect fit and their sole sponsorship gave the Cup an identity which the new competition may struggle to emulate.

Ultimately, the Cup runneth over beyond rugby’ hinterlands, with games being taken to previously unchartered parts of Europe, be it Spain, Switzerland, Belgium or within the six competing nations. This season, the 35,624-capacity Allianz Riviera in Nice became the 104th stadium to stage a Heineken Cup fixture when Toulon hosted Cardiff.

The ERC began to boast of the tournament’s commercial success, with 2012/13 revenue of €51.7 million double the 2005/06 figure. This season’s total pool stage attendance rose to a record total of 921,196, up 6 per cent on 2012/13, as over 15 million fans attended games, with ERC’s tournaments broadcast in over 150 territories worldwide.

Save for Ulster's triumph in 1999, nine of the first 10 Cups were an Anglo-French carve-up, or more accurately an Anglo-Toulouse carve up, with six wins by English clubs and three by Toulouse. In the first three years particularly, and even as Munster suffered annual heartbreak in the first half of the 1990s, it was hard to imagine it being any other way, and had it remained an Anglo-French carve-up, the tournament would have been the poorer for it.

This made the ensuing collection of five Irish triumphs in seven years all the more remarkable, and heaven knows how many more there might have been as Munster suffered nine away draws out of 11 at the semi-final stage. Irish rugby owes the Heineken Cup its biggest debt, for more than any other competition it helped drive Irish rugby kicking and screaming out of its amateur roots in to the professional age and in turn made the provinces and national team stronger and more competitive.

Supposed unfairness
The English and French clubs have complained about the supposed unfairness of the meritocratic qualification and carve-up of the financial pot. Not alone does this overlook the fact English and French clubs have other inbuilt advantages, the provinces' travelling armies did more than their away support to give the tournament a colour and tribal feel which has ebbed away from the Six Nations.

And when the English and French also finish criticising the Heineken Cup, it’s worth noting in addition to financial imperatives, it was the blue riband of the Euro game which more than any other competition helped to lure some of the Southern Hemisphere’s leading lights to the north.

As part of the panel which chose the last ERC European Player of the Year, opting for

Steffon Armitage

was not difficult. Having watched him in the pool stages, and witnessed his constructive and destructive qualities (particularly at the breakdown) in the quarter-final and semi-final wins over

Leinster

and Munster, and his third man-of-the-match display of the campaign in the final, his was a tournament tour de force. It rivalled Seán O’Brien’s influence in Leinster’s win in 2011. The English backrower emulated Ronan O’Gara, who was the inaugural recipient in 2010, and then Rob Kearney (2012) and

Jonny Wilkinson

last season, as well as O’Brien. That stellar list reflects the era of Irish pre-eminence in European club rugby, and one can’t help but feel it contributed to the demise of the tournament. Yet in ways, it was also the making of the tournament.

gthornley@irishtimes.com