Spotlight now put on clubs

European Cup: Memories of the World Cup may be still acute but the biting cold will have braced those who spent much of October and November in Australia, for the onset of the Heineken European Cup.

It's nearly December so the start of European rugby's premier club competition must be pending.

Yesterday, ensconced in the committee room under the West Stand at Lansdowne Road, players (Reggie Corrigan, Dave Pusey, Paddy Wallace amongst others), management, sponsors and officials gathered to trumpet the Irish launch of the European Cup.

Similar scenarios will be played out next week in London and Paris, albeit with a more hard-core news value. The venue for the 2004 European Cup final will be confirmed on those stages.

European Rugby Cup Ltd (ERC) took the bold step last season of announcing prior to the start of the tournament the final would be held at Lansdowne Road. The fact that it was contested by two French teams in Dublin, thereby denying a full house, has not dissuaded ERC from a similar undertaking this year.

The suggestion is that it will be either Twickenham or Stade de France. The rota of final venues appears to favour London but, while the final has twice been held in France, it has never been staged at the Stade de France. France, with a little help from their Celtic cousins, beat England to the right to stage the World Cup in 2007. It will be interesting to see if they make it two from two off the pitch.

Toulouse are the defending champions but England were crowned the best team in the world last Saturday. Maybe the latter's reward for elevating the reputation of Northern Hemisphere rugby will be to host the final of Europe's premier club competition.

Yesterday's launch may have been a little low key - the fact that there is still a round of Celtic League matches to be played out this weekend is also a factor - primarily because all innovative measures governing this season's competition are already in the public domain.

There will be a new bonus points scoring system: teams scoring four tries or more will receive a bonus point, the same as a team losing a match by seven or less points.

Four points will be awarded to a winning team and two each to the participants if a match is drawn.

Sky television has won the UK broadcast rights, RTÉ the Irish Republic's with FR2 and Sport+ (Canal) sharing the rights in France.

Webb Ellis will manufacture the specifically branded match balls for the competition, a development for which ERC deserve credit.

If the fanfare was a little muted, there can be no doubting the impact the competition has made in improving the quality of rugby in Europe, a point reinforced by Australian coach Eddie Jones in his post World Cup final analysis.

This season marks the ninth European Cup tournament and, despite a few teething problems in the early years, it has produced a succession of marvellous matches.

From an Irish perspective this season sees Leinster decamp from "fortress" Donnybrook to Lansdowne Road for the pool stages. Munster will stage all their home pool matches in Thomond Park, while Ulster will play Leicester in the New Year on a Sunday, the first time that they have staged a home match at Ravenhill on the Sabbath.

It is not, as has been asserted, the first occasion on which the province has played a "home" game on a Sunday as Ulster took on an Irish XV at Queen's University a few years ago.

The reason for the switch from the traditional Friday nights at Ravenhill to a Sunday for this game was the demands of Sky television.

Ulster Branch chief executive Michael Reid pointed out that while Sunday was not the ideal day, consultation had already taken place with the two local churches and the police and Ulster "were looking forward to getting stuck into Leicester in the New Year". Reid was not willing to denounce Sky for their decision.

All the provinces have confirmed they are moving into marketing overdrive, focusing on three home game packages. The response has been very encouraging and will hopefully guarantee that the manner in which Irish supporters have embraced this competition in the past will continue.