The Champions Cup in all its forms has proved that challenging for Welsh teams over the years that they may have had more joy trying to solve the Rubik’s cube in the dark.
While wearing a collective blindfold.
No side from this part of the world has made the final since Cardiff RFC managed to do so in the inaugural tournament, when they lost to Toulouse.
How weird, then, that Welsh rugby has managed to make it tougher for its representatives this time.
The Ospreys were always likely to find Pool 4 testing, with Munster, Racing 92 and Saracens for company. That lot are not so much group rivals as a lynch mob.
But with no World Cup men in their starting line-up for Saturday’s visit of Munster, the odds were heavily against Allen Clarke ’s side starting the campaign with a win, and, surprise, surprise, they couldn’t confound expectations.
Nor are all their key men from Japan expected to be on duty for the away encounter at champions Saracens next weekend.
And, guess what? If Saracens field their front liners, the Ospreys will likely lose again.
Injuries are hurting the Swansea-based team desperately, and their squad lacks balance, so we mustn’t blame their misfortunes all on absent World Cup men .
But had the likes of Justin Tipuric, Alun Wyn Jones, George North, Owen Watkin and Adam Beard been available to face Munster, the Irish province would have found the task of winning in Swansea far more difficult than it actually proved to be.
Things are done differently over the garden wall.
Ten players who played for England in the World Cup final a fortnight ago were booked for duty with their clubs this weekend. Henry Slade actually played for Exeter Chiefs a week after figuring for his country against South Africa.
In Wales, just three of the 29 home-based players who figured in Japan featured in the first round of European games, with Nicky Smith, Bradley Davies and Aled Davies operating as replacements for the Ospreys.
The rule in England is apparently that there’s just one week of guaranteed rest within the first eight weeks post-World Cup for elite player squad members — and that’s only if they were in match-day 23s for 80 percent of the competition.
In Wales?
In this part of the world, the general principle is thought to be that players have 4-6 weeks off between the World Cup and the start of the Six Nations.
The precise details are decided on a case-by-case basis through consultation between the regions and the Wales management following medical tests.
Those who were most active during the World Cup will have the most time off, with the suggestion being that they won’t appear for their regions until December.
It makes life brutally hard on the four professional sides and especially on the Ospreys in the Champions Cup.
No one is disputing that rest is important in a collision sport, but it seems odd that in England, who presumably also want to do well in the Six Nations, so many players are back in action quickly post-World Cup while in Wales the situation contrasts so sharply.
The northern hemisphere season remains a mess and a disgrace, but could not other break periods have been found for players here to put their feet up instead of when European games are being played? Do Welsh World Cup players really have to be available for the Barbarians fun and games at the end of the month?
A general set of guidelines have obviously been drawn up with the interests of leading players at heart and the Wales team, too.
But quite how such a situation benefits the regions on the big European stage isn’t clear.
The situation doesn’t have such an effect on the three Welsh teams taking part in the Challenge Cup because the standard is generally lower in that competition and history suggests not every competing side goes flat out, anyway.
But in the main event understrength teams are usually found out.
On Saturday in Swansea, a hugely depleted Ospreys side gave everything. They tackled relentlessly and were in with a shout of a losing bonus point with a couple of minutes to play.
But they never looked likely to win.
They are already pushing the equivalent of a boulder up a hill in their group, and life isn’t going to get easier.
When they bow out at the pool stage in January, as they almost surely will, inquests will start.
But such inquests should take into account the events of late autumn.
Nor is this just about the Ospreys. If the Scarlets, Cardiff Blues or the Dragons were in the Champions Cup minus key players they would almost certainly struggle to cope. All the regions would have signed up to the provisions of the Professional Rugby Agreement, so no one can complain too much. Whether they should have been put in that position in the first place, of reaching a point where they send weakened sides into Europe, is another matter.
Does Welsh rugby truly want to give itself a fighting chance on the biggest European stage?
If the answer to that is in the affirmative, the sport here seems to have a funny way of showing it.
