Champions Cup failings helped bring about this perfect Pro12 storm

GIVE THANKS TO the gods of rugby — Dan, Richie, Paulie, I love you all — because today’s Guinness Pro12 promises to be an absolute rollercoaster of emotion.

Well, perhaps it’s not the gods’ doing, so tilt your neck down a bit. The pantomime villains of the great European rugby debacle deserve thanks too.

We were all concerned for the fate of the Heineken Cup when Mark McCafferty and Paul Goze were digging their heels in and promising to tear up the structure of the game as we knew it. Premiership Rugby and the LNR wanted meritocracy to apply to Pro12 clubs as well as their own. In the end, they got what they wanted.

Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO

As we all feared, the new-look Champions Cup suffered as a result and by the time the final came around there was minimal non-French buzz about a final in sparsely-populated stadium.

The knock-on effect, however, is that the league is a vastly improved product. England and France have inadvertently created quite a likeable monster.

Just look at what’s on the line in the final round of regular season fixtures today. Even though the identities of the top four teams are already known, each of them still have a claim to top spot and all could drop in to an away semi-final if they take their foot off the pedal.

In mid-table, Connacht are still clinging to hope of achieving their ultimate aim for this season and yet could be left with nothing. Hell, even lowly Zebre have a big incentive to go all-guns-blazing in Cardiff, because they are only three points behind Treviso, and the highest-ranked Italian team will go straight in to the Champions Cup.

Source: James Crombie/INPHO

All in all, if you count Leinster’s task of ensuring they are seeded no lower than third in the Champions Cup group next term, then only two teams have nothing more than points and pride to play for.

The presence of the Champions Cup carrot and the stick of missing out means more than just heightened interest in round 22. All season long the competition has been more, well… competitive. Connacht threw all their resources at a drive for a top-half finish and forced Scarlets and Edinburgh got their act together and reel them in.

The three league leaders are tied on 70 points ahead of today’s 3pm kick-offs. In the four previous 12-team campaigns 81 points has been the lowest total for a table topper and in 2011 and 2012, 70 points was enough to earn a home play-off. No more.

As soon as his side were cut out of contention for the play-offs, Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor suggested the eastern province were the biggest losers in the new reality, because the reigning champions failed to rise with the tide.

“Meritocracy has made the league more competitive, points every week are at a premium,” O’Connor said, and now his team are seeking a best-case-scenario 62-point haul, 20 fewer than the tally that put them en route to the title 12 months ago.

The dwindling Irish interest in the Champions Cup had an impact too. Only Leinster were involved beyond the group stage and so the remaining three provinces saved their energy for the league.

The current strength and the money that backs French teams makes it difficult to see how the Toulonopoly can be broken, but it will be. And when their run cracks, provinces and supporters alike will have league and European competitions that are in rude health.

So here’s to McCafferty and Goze, for battling long and hard to make the Pro12 a more exciting league than their own.

Ireland Women still calling on newcomers to rugby with a World Cup in view‘We can go away and win anywhere’ — Ulster centre McCloskey