O’Callaghan fears Reds will struggle in cash-rich Euro future

Munster will struggle to reach the levels of consistency they achieved in the Heineken Cup in the new European Champions Cup due to the levels of finance being injected into the game by French and English clubs, according to Donncha O’Callaghan.

The competition has been scrapped and the ERC disbanded following a club dispute over television rights.

The new format will be based on merit with the lowest performers relegated to a third tier of European competition.

“Next year it’s a new competition and it’s going to become tougher because the pool stages will be made up of less teams so it will be really high quality,” O’Callaghan said.

“That’s why days like yesterday [Sunday] really hurt. Days like that don’t really come around. We can see the way rugby is going. It’s just becoming massive... with the money injected by these French clubs.”

O’Callaghan accepted that the concession of a penalties at crucial periods was the key to their 24-16 downfall in Marseille against Toulon.

“We’ve a bit of pedigree in this competition and we know what we’ve to do to get to the business end of the championship. The disappointing thing for us was that it was all our own errors. The penalties, mine included,” he said.

“You always have a chance and it was a five-point game with five or six minutes to go. With some of the players we have they can always pull out big plays but we just made too many big errors ourselves and that’s the hard bit to take.

“You don’t mind if a team thumps you out the gate and you can come away going ‘they’re really good’ but when you make mistakes yourself and it lands on your own doorstep it’s hard to take.”