The Sunday Times May 29, 2022 15
European rugby as
we knew it is dead –
South African sides
are going to kill it off
Stuart Barnes
The 27th Heineken Champions Cup
final yesterday was the end of an
era. From its earliest origins, when
Toulouse beat Cardiff in 1996, it has
been a tournament that recognises
the victors as champions of Europe.
Not any longer.
EPCR, the competition
organiser, really needs to change its
name. European Professional Club
Rugby lacks the global clout
required from next season. The
tournament comprises competitors
from three leagues: the French,
the English and the United Rugby
Championship (URC). The latter,
once the smallest of the three,
predominantly Celtic with a splash
of Italian colour, has grown into
another beast altogether with the
arrival of the South African sides.
The impact on European
competition was inevitable. While
the other nations were scrapping
away for the URC’s eight automatic
Heineken Cup qualification spots,
did we expect the South African
sides to twiddle their thumbs,
missing out on the serious
European action? Those games
are broadcast gold dust, and they
wanted a sprinkle of it.
So into the URC they came.
And now there will be three
South African teams playing in a
tournament to decide the best team
in Europe. “Distorted” is the word
one former France international
used to describe the arrival of a
whole other continent. As if South
Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs were playing
in football’s Champions League.
The European Champions Cup
is history. Cheerleaders for the
revised competition will point out
the extra boost of the South African
challenge, and the Stormers from
Cape Town, the Sharks from
Durban and the Bulls from Pretoria
have great histories and potentially
great futures. But they do not
belong in Europe.
The strength of the Heineken Cup
has been the intensity of rivalry
between clubs, provinces, nations.
The opportunity for supporters to
follow their team to other
countries. Are vast numbers of
followers going to make the trip
from Limerick to Pretoria? More
pertinently, should they?
World Rugby loves to mention its
commitment to “sustainability”.
Well, maybe World Rugby should
be pointing out that we are living
through a climate crisis. Hopping
from one European airport to
another isn’t ideal, but thousands
of supporters being encouraged to
fly from Europe to Africa is, I would
suggest, certainly not part of World
Rugby’s sustainable dream.
How long until the final is played
in Cape Town, or Johannesburg?
EPCR has ignored Italy for the best
part of a quarter of a century, but
South Africa has more clout.
And what if the finalists happen
to be Johannesburg-based EmiratesLions and the Sharks? A cherished,
identifiable tournament becomes a
geographically sprawling switch-
off. The South African entry is
professional rugby’s Trojan horse.
I understand this is hard on
South Africa. Especially now, at a
time when it has turned its back on
its rugby traditions by withdrawing
from what was once Super Rugby.
In the early days of this competition
in which the best sides from New
Zealand, South Africa and Australia
took on one another, the standard
of the game flourished. But
financially the three nations
remained the poor relations.
The Springboks are committed
to the southern hemisphere version
of the Six Nations, the Rugby
Championship, until 2030. But you
can be certain that the financiers
will be pushing for South African
participation in the Six Nations,
never mind the “distortion” of
adding a seventh team from
another continent.
Rugby union is going through a
period in which the savage costs of
the pandemic have made the sport
susceptible to the lure of profits.Professional sport requires income,
of course it does. But it doesn’t have
to roll over and allow the great
traditions that link the past, the
present and the future to be eroded
with the flash of cash.
The South African presence in
the URC was inextricably linked to
its best teams becoming a global
contingent in what we should stop
recognising as the European Cup.
International alliances — the Seven
Nations — are the next stage of the
plan. The charms of localised
rivalry will give way to the long haul
of a competition that hurts the
sport as well as the planet.
I have tremendous sympathy for
a great rugby nation, but South
Africa is going to stretch the idea of
a European Cup beyond breaking
point. It needs to reinvigorate its
domestic game — the Currie Cup is a
competition with deep roots and
great passion, but for now not the
financial pulling power of Europe.
And so rugby union becomes
still more global; “European
action” attracting television
audiences the likes of which the
URC can only dream of. But what
seems a dream is in fact another
globalised nightmare — the age-old
authenticity of regional rivalry
tossed into the rubbish bins which
overflow with such dying concepts
as nostalgia.Sport doesn’t have to
roll over and allow
the great traditions
to be eroded with
the flash of cash
La Rochelle weren’t
so much targeting
the fly half as the
space outside. It
looked a brilliant
double bluff on the
part of his old foe
glorious piece of attacking play. They
should have scored again when
Alldritt took a front peel and ham-
mered up the touchline, but again
Leinster were saved by a penalty on
their line. La Rochelle shunted Lein-
ster back in the scrum but, amazingly,
won a decision in the next one. If it
was a call by the assistant referee, it
was a very poor one indeed.
Although Danty gave Leinster
trouble, they did not quite have the
range of kicking to cash in, and when
Sexton kicked his fifth penalty to
make it 15-10 after eight minutes of the
second half we were on the point of
seeing all that work by the men in
white and yellow come to waste.
The glorious driving try by the big
French pack put Leinster under
massive pressure, as the conversion
by Ihaia West brought the gap
between the sides back to a point.
Even in the final quarter Leinster
were totally shut down, and even
when Thomas Lavault was sent to the
sin-bin for a trip and Sexton kicked his
seventh penalty La Rochelle ham-
mered in, and on. Only desperate
defence by Leinster forwards kept out
another drive-over try, and in a suc-
cession of penalties conceded by
Leinster they were lucky not to lose at
least one man to the sin-bin.
Still it was La Rochelle residents
who were making all the noise, and
the last five minutes were played a few
feet from Leinster’s line — still La
Rochelle powered on, and still Leices-
ter kept a full complement, against
the La Rochelle 14.
After the try the clock ran down.
The conversion was a formality.
Sensational result. And the little town
became an empire for the day.Scorers: Leinster: Pens Sexton 6 (5, 9, 22, 40+2,
47, 53), Byrne (64). La Rochelle: Tries Rhule (11),
Bourgarit (61), Retière (78). Cons West 3. Pens
West (41).
Leinster H Keenan; J O’Brien, G Ringrose, R
Henshaw, J Lowe; J Sexton (R Byrne 62), J Gibson-
Park (L McGrath 75); A Porter, R Kelleher (D
Sheehan 14), T Furlong (M Ala’alatoa 62), R Molony
(N McCarthy 76), J Ryan, C Doris (R Ruddock 66), J
van der Flier, J Conan.
La Rochelle B Dulin; D Leyds (J Favre 67), J
Sinzelle, J Danty (L Botia 68), R Rhule; I West, T
Berjon (A Retière 64); D Priso, P Bourgarit (F Bosch
66), U Atonio (J Sclavi 62), T Lavault (sin-bin 64-74;
R Sazy 74), W Skelton, W Liebenberg (R Wardi
53), M Haddad (R Bourdeau 29), G Alldritt.EUROPEAN CUPS WON
Leinster’s defeat means they
lag one behind Toulouse’s
record totalLa Rochelle became the 13th
club to lift the trophy — Brive,
Ulster, Bath, Northampton
and Exeter Chiefs also have
one winToulous e
5
Leinster
4
Saracens, Toulon
3
Leicester, Munster, Wasps
2
Alldritt celebrates
La Rochelle’s
second try, scored
by Pierre BourgaritEURO
STARS
Stephen Jones
picks his best ever
teams from
European
competition, plus
Stuart Barnes,
Peter O’Reilly and
Neil Francis on
yesterday’s big
game in Marseille
THESUNDAYTIMES.
CO.UK/SPORTLa Rochelle weren’t so much
targeting the fly half as the space
outside. The opportunities were
being created on the left flank.
The game was going on outside
him. Targeting Sexton? It looked like
a brilliant double bluff on the part of
his old foe.
Just to remind Sexton that he
wasn’t forgotten, La Rochelle gave
his neck a little illegal roll. One from
“ROG”, for old times’ sake.
Head still on shoulders, Sexton
brought the first half to an end with a
simple penalty, but the tactical nous
of O’Gara was evident.
It wasn’t until the 48th minute that
Danty finally sprinted into Sexton,
who bounced backwards, but the
French carrier came off second best.
Six minutes later, Sexton stood
his ground against the same
powerhouse — being big on rugby
brains doesn’t mean there’s a
shortage of guts. But with La Rochelle
scoring after a weary-looking and
indecisive play by Sexton, his
afternoon ended with him hobbling
off the field in the 62nd minute.
It was to be a “different” Leinster
for the last 18 minutes, with the game
in the balance.
Sexton had kicked five from five
penalties. Ross Byrne made no error
from his first effort. Nothing different
off the tee. Nothing different in the
Leinster pull-back style of play either,
as La Rochelle continued to force
mistakes and penalties. In the end,
the wave after wave of powerful
French surges proved overwhelming.
The last ten minutes could have
been Munster with extra power.
Instead of Sexton’s headlines there
was revenge and glory for the
Munster man. O’Gara out-thought not
so much Sexton as Stuart Lancaster
and his coaches. This was a dramatic
win for both brawn and brain.JAMES CROMBIE/INPHO/SHUTTERSTOCK