Jack Conan: 'If I was paying a lot of money to see my team away it would be frustrating'

Many of the opening round games in this season's Champions Cup were undermined by clubs playing understrength teams

Harlequins rested several big name players in their defeat to Leinster in the opening round of the Champions Cup. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

European club rugby’s golden age passed Jack Conan by, but not by much. The Leinster back row was still a cub in the academy and making his debut at the back end of the 2013-14 season when the Heineken Cup breathed its last.

The competition had changed name, format and HQ, upping sticks from Dublin to Switzerland, by the time he got his first run in the continental event the following season with a brief cameo off the bench against Castres at Stade Pierre-Antoine.