Cut-throat nature of Cup tough on provinces
The veteran Toulouse and France full-back will go into round five of Champions Cup pool games in line for his 90th appearance in top-flight European competition when the four-time Heineken Cup winners play Bath on Sunday. Poitrenaud surpassed Leinster legends Shane Horgan and Brian O’Driscoll in round three to become the seventh most-capped player in the tournament and Leo Cullen is next in his sights on 92 appearances as Toulouse close in on a 15th European last-eight appearance.
As well as Cullen, the other names ahead of him are all Irish, O’Callaghan, Stringer, Hayes, D’Arcy and, top of the crop on 110, O’Gara, reflecting the consistency of Leinster and Munster in going a long way in this greatest of cross-border club rugby competitions.
Yet, just as three-time winner Poitrenaud is moving onto the honours board as the only non-Irish player in the top 10, the provinces are feeling the pinch as the cut-throat nature of the new-look Champions Cup becomes fully evident. The reduction in participants from 24 to 20 clubs demanded by the Anglo-French clubs in keeping pan-European competition alive at the expense of the old Heineken Cup was always going to make success harder across the board, more difficult again for Pro12 clubs now needing to qualify for the Champions Cup.
And that will be thrown into sharp focus this weekend in the penultimate round of matches in the scramble for the knockout stages. It may be billed as “the biggest game of rugby roulette” by Champions Cup organisers, who laud the situation which finds 16 of the 20 teams still in the running to top their respective pools, but from an Irish perspective this weekend could turn out to be all black. Only Leinster have home advantage, for starters, as Matt O’Connor’s side welcome French side Castres to the RDS on Saturday evening, with Munster kicking off Irish interest in their early kick-off at Saracens followed by Ulster’s trip to Toulon as the filling in the baguette.
Defeat at Scarlets in round four has all but consigned Ulster to also-rans following an opening away loss to Leicester Tigers and a home defeat to the French giants in search of a hat-trick of European titles. And their fragile confidence in the wake of pre-season turmoil at management level was painfully evident last weekend when, having raced into a 24-0 lead against Treviso in Italy, they surrendered a losing bonus point to the home side after hanging on for a 24-20 win. That hardly bodes well for a journey into the lion’s den that is Stade Felix Mayol.
Munster’s trip to north London and the artificial 4G pitch Saracens call home at Allianz Park might be equally as daunting following back-to-back defeats in rounds three and four to Clermont Auvergne. It leaves Anthony Foley’s side needing nine points from their final two pool games to have a chance of getting out of Pool One, which means two wins from two and a bonus point against Sarries or at home to down and out Sale Sharks a week on Sunday in Limerick.
Miracles have happened for Munster before and the late Sunday kick-off at least allows Foley’s team the luxury of knowing exactly how the other pools stand and what is required if one of the three best runners-up spots remains up for grabs. But that assumes the Reds can get the job done at Saracens this weekend on a ground where Mark McCall’s side have only lost once this season, to Premiership leaders Northampton Saints.
At least Foley should get a boost from the return of Keith Earls to a less than cutting-edge backline and loosehead prop James Cronin to bolster the front row after both players appeared to successfully come through their comeback games in the bonus-point league victory at Zebre on Saturday.
That may be offset by the late return from Italy which necessitated yesterday as a recovery day, two days after Saracens got their narrow defeat at Gloucester out of their system but Munster will be glad to have removed the New Year’s Day loss to Connacht from theirs and will also welcome the return of Paul O’Connell.
Of the three Irish provinces in Champions Cup contention – Connacht play Exeter in the Challenge Cup at the Sportsground this weekend — the best placed is Leinster, although they welcome the already eliminated Castres needing a big win to send them into the final round in good heart to Wasps and their new home, the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Wasps must return to London first for what promises to be a blockbuster with Harlequins, a game which can only muddy the waters heading into the last weekend.
At least Leinster’s destiny will remain in their own hands, Munster’s season hangs by a thread.
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