The difference between the Champions Cup and the old Heineken Cup is revealed by a glance at the pools, now five groups instead of six. There used to be one pool of death but now it is a case of a single pool of life, which tends to be the one that involves the Italian representatives.
Wasps are the Premiership club fortunate to have drawn Zebre, who have lost by 54 and 44 points at Ospreys and Munster this season, along with Connacht, who have made a stuttering start to the defence of their Pro12 title, and Toulouse, the most successful club in the history of the European Cup with four titles but who have made the knockout stage only once in the last four seasons.
It is one of four pools to contain two former winners. Leicester and Munster are grouped together as are Toulon and Saracens, who meet at Stade Félix Mayol on Saturday in probably the most compelling of any opening-round fixture yet.
Northampton and Leinster, who in 2011 showed a final need not be a dull, no-risk affair, have a double-header in December. The fifth pool contains one team that has been crowned European champions, Ulster, but Clermont Auvergne have appeared in two finals this decade.
Saracens last May scratched a nine-year itch when they became the first Premiership side to win the European Cup since Wasps defeated Leicester at Twickenham. They were one of three English clubs to make the semi-final stage, along with the Tigers and Wasps, and at a time of Brexit, they are anxious to make Europe a single market.
The two previous winners of the tournament, Leinster and Toulon, both retained the trophy at least once, a feat only Leicester had achieved before, but the club that swept all before them last season is making no predictions.
“You cannot go into a tournament like this thinking about retaining the trophy,” says Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby.” Your focus is getting out of your pool and you are not looking beyond that. You have to pick up every point you can and you have to fight for everything. We know that, if we get into the play-offs, we will have a chance if we are healthy as a squad but getting there is a tall order.”
Toulon, who lost to Racing 92, the team Saracens defeated to win the Champions Cup last May, in the Top 14 final, have made a slow start to the season, losing at Bayonne and at home to Brive to leave the club’s owner, Mourad Boudjellal, wondering aloud whether it was time to get out of rugby and count what was left of his fortune. But they have also recorded some notable victories, at home to the previously unbeaten Clermont and the Challenge Cup holders, Montpellier, after a 32-15 triumph at Toulouse.
“Their squad is a rugby who’s who,” says McCall. “Toulon is a brilliant place to play rugby, one of the most atmospheric grounds in Europe. They have never lost at home in the Champions Cup and it will be a hell of a task for us.
“Last season was not our only really successful one. We have had a strong seven years and have been very consistent in the last three. We have appeared in five of the last six finals in Europe and the Premiership, which is a considerable achievement, but I do not get the sense that people here are satisfied. They want more; there is a real hunger in the group. Everything, though, is getting harder.”
There have been only 11 winners of the tournament as it enters its 22nd year and while a debate now is whether England can enjoy a period of dominance after significant increases in the salary cap in the Premiership. Toulon’s three-year run of success spawned the theory that the riches of the Top 14 would leave the other leagues trailing and before that, as Ireland provided the champions in four out of five seasons, the notion was that the lack of relegation in the Pro12 meant that teams could rest their top players, who would be fresh for Europe and give their sides an advantage over the English and French clubs.
History shows the balance of power has been broadly equal. France has supplied eight champions, England seven and the Pro12 six, all Irish. While Zebre’s cause seems hopeless and that of the Scarlets, Wales’s only team this season after Ospreys failed to finish high enough in the Pro12 to qualify, not much rosier after an unimpressive start to the campaign, Ulster, Munster and Leinster look stronger than last season and Glasgow will expect to beat Leicester on the opening night of the tournament at Scotstoun Stadium this Friday.
Two of the five top seeds are from the Pro 12, Connacht and Leinster, as well as two of the bottom five, Munster and Zebre. “You look for the easy games in your pool and when you examine this group you quickly realise that you are the easy game,” says Munster’s director of rugby, Rassie Erasmus, as he contemplated facing Racing – who last week were forced to defend doping claims against three of their players, including Dan Carter – Glasgow and Leicester. “We have to change that perception.” Let the mind games begin.
It is a case of let the games commence for Schalk Burger, the South Africa flanker who joined Saracens this season having watched previous tournaments on television. “Quite a few South Africans have been involved in it in recent years and it is always good to check on your mates,” he says before the reunion in Toulon with Bryan Habana, Duane Vermeulen and the injured Juan Smith. “It will be a different story when we face each other and I have always thought the tournament to be a phenomenal one.
“I like the way it is played in blocks of a couple of weeks, high on intensity. It is different from Super Rugby which has now become such a long season. The best competition I played in was the old Super 12 which was played over three months with the best players in the southern hemisphere condensed into a dozen teams; the quality is diluted now and playing in the Champions Cup has been an ambition of mine for a while having watched it on the TV for so long.
“Super Rugby is about high tempo, dominating the ball, with referees favouring the attacking team, and most matches are played in great conditions. The game in Europe is more attritional with the focus on how you exit, get territory and put teams under pressure. The emphasis in the south is on skill set and skill execution; here there is more of a technical focus.
“I am enjoying it at Saracens, a club where there are very high standards and massive expectation. We cannot get ahead of ourselves: no game, or season, is perfect. Each week you try and take a step forward. We will need to do that in the next six days with one big game against Wasps followed by another in Toulon; it will be about how we manage the energy.”
