David Humphreys and Mark McCall lifted the Heineken Cup together when Ulster defeated Colomiers in the 1999 final in Dublin. Playing colleagues then and Premiership directors of rugby now, they will this week be in Edinburgh on the trail of European silverware – consolation for one and reward for the other.
Humphreys’ Gloucester face Stade Français in the Challenge Cup final at Murrayfield on Friday night; the following day McCall’s Saracens will be looking to retain the European Champions Cup by seeing off Clermont Auvergne. Though the venue is the same, the two English clubs have this decade been a study in contrasting fortunes, with Gloucester reflecting Saracens before McCall joined the coaching staff.
The paths of the pair have diverged since their playing days with Ulster, London Irish and Ireland, but their friendship has endured. As Humphreys looks to haul Gloucester out of the backwaters Saracens were wallowing in less than 10 years ago, McCall’s achievements and the way a club consistent only in its inconsistency was transformed into a European powerhouse drive him on.
When McCall arrived at Saracens in 2009 they had finished ninth in the Premiership with 47 points and only Newcastle, Worcester and Bristol were below them. Gloucester started their final league match of the season on Saturday in eighth on 46 points with Newcastle, Sale, Worcester and Bristol behind them. The Challenge Cup offers the consolation of a trophy but its greater value lies in the passport it provides for entry into the play-offs for the Champions Cup the following week.
“This season has been hugely frustrating,” says Humphreys. “It was summed up last month when we became the first team to win at La Rochelle this season to get into the final and in our next match had our worst 40 minutes of the campaign at Bath. We can perform at a very high level but the top teams do it back-to-back and back again.
“We will not emulate Saracens without consistency. We can perform to a very high level but it is about doing it back-to-back-to-back like the top teams. What has been hard to take this season is that we have been so close to victory so many times with different things stopping us from winning. It is a long time since Gloucester were successful and we have a new head coach coming in [the 46-year-old former Springbok Johan Ackermann]. We are full of ambition.
“Saracens are doing well because they have stability on and off the field, like Exeter. Mark and Rob [Baxter, the Chiefs’ head coach] have been in position a long time and they do not make wholesale changes to their squads at the end of every season. History shows that, if you have a big turnover of players and coaches, you are not going to do well.”
Humphreys led Ulster in the 1999 final because McCall, the club captain, had been forced to retire during the campaign because of a neck injury. “Mark and I go back a long way,” he said. “We talk regularly about rugby and what makes successful teams. Of course you need good players but also a stable environment. Mark is an outstanding coach and you have to aim to match what he has done. It takes time.”
Gloucester have finished in the top half of the Premiership only once in the past six seasons, fifth in 2012-13, but they are one of the best-supported teams in England, they are based in a rugby area and have a rich tradition. “The Irish provinces built their success on a really strong identity and we want young players in our region to aspire to play for Gloucester,” says Humphreys. “We have been building for the long-term and 21 of the players who appeared for us in the A League final this month were English.
“Winning the Challenge Cup is important, because you do not have too many chances to secure trophies, but it is a stepping stone for us. We want to be in the Champions Cup and I still remember the huge disappointment of missing out two years ago when we lost to Bordeaux-Bègles very late on in the play-off. You want to be playing the best teams in Europe every season, not every now and then.”
Twelve hours after defeating Munster in the Champions Cup semi-final in Dublin last month, Saracens flew their players to Barcelona so they could spend time together in a non-rugby environment. It is a long-established policy of the club, one of the reasons why its previously soft centre has hardened.
“If you watched how our players defended in our 22 against Munster – we made 92 tackles in our 22 – you start to get a sense of the togetherness, the connections and the fight that they have,” says McCall. “Those things don’t just happen but come about by spending a lot of time together at the training ground and seeing each other socially. The players look forward to trips like Barcelona and we believe that over the course of time it’s a really strong way of making the relationships they have even closer and even tighter.”
Gloucester showed that togetherness at La Rochelle last month, holding tight when the Top 14 leaders threatened to take control, but they have again this season been like an umbrella on a day of frequent showers, up and down: they have defeated Saracens and Wasps and drawn at Exeter, but been doubled by Newcastle and allowed big leads to turn into defeats, not least on the opening day of the campaign when Leicester came from 31-7 down to win by seven points.
“We have to learn from this season,” says Humphreys. “We have proved we have a good team and a strong squad but players need to be managed during a long campaign so that they remain fresh and in good shape. We will be looking at a number of aspects of the way we do things during the summer at a club that is geared for success.”
Success in the first instance will be getting into the Champions Cup by beating Stade and then winning the play-offs.
