DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
ComeAllWithin (Harlequins Rugby)
HTML https://comeallwithin.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: ComeAllWithin Board
*****************************************************
#Post#: 148292--------------------------------------------------
The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible for
everyone else
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: January 21, 2026, 3:44 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Brian Moore
Uncompetitive games, even featuring loads of brilliant tries,
are awful for the neutral and are not helping the competition
Brian Moore
Brian Moore
19 January 2026 6:59am GMT
Related Topics
European Rugby Champions Cup, Saracens Rugby, Harlequins Rugby,
Glasgow Warriors, Union Bordeaux Begles
118
Gift this article free
Toulouse
Toulouse scored 11 tries against an under-strength Sale Sharks
Credit: AFP/Lionel Bonaventure
If you managed to watch more than one match in the Champions Cup
last weekend you will have seen some quality rugby. It appears
to be the sort everybody wants, and which is essential as a
bridge for players between domestic club rugby and international
rugby. Big scores and a mountain of tries left fans of winning
teams purring and the world is good – or is it?
Gradually the front-runners for honours are beginning to emerge,
and the good news is that unlike some previous years, there
appear to be genuine challengers from at least four, possibly
five, countries. Fans of the historic aristocrats of European
rugby might not like this, but tournaments that invariably
feature only a few potential winners do not pull in spectators
in the long run and they do not increase a tournament’s
broadcast rights. It is in the interests of all rugby fans, not
just neutrals, for competition to be widespread.
Advertisement
Let us start with a couple of the headline-grabbing results.
Last Friday there was a 63-10 thumping of Edinburgh by English
champions Bath. In a muscular forward performance Bath
registered a bonus point before half-time, after which their
backs decided to join the party and add another four tries.
English fans will be pleased that Bath and Harlequins are still
carrying the English flag after Saracens fell to Glasgow, who
are genuine contenders for the title.
Toulouse fans watched some of the best tries you will ever see,
scored by their team in an 11-try romp over Sale Sharks. The
fluency and precision with which the French champions executed
their numerous chances should be in the “How to play rugby”
textbook. The try which started from their own goal-line
drop-out was as near to perfection as it is possible to get. Not
just in terms of the ambition to kick the ball short and
regather it, but also the incisive lines, good support runs, and
properly timed passes that led to them running almost the length
of the field.
For rugby fans, indeed all sports fans, watching the concurrent
brilliance and inexplicable irascibility of Toulouse full-back
Thomas Ramos is worth the entry price alone. The true successor
to Mike Brown for the “Angriest Number 15 Award” produced
another stellar performance, though what motivates his
irritability is something that psychologists could debate
endlessly.
Advertisement
There were closer and more competitive games involving the Cape
Town Stormers, Leicester Tigers, Munster and Leinster that might
not have thrilled, but which were eminently watchable. Overall,
this week the crowds appeared better with fewer half-empty
stadia and so the competition is slowly taking shape.
If you look closer at last weekend’s games the picture is, like
most things in rugby, a little more complex. With the positives
there are balancing negatives and nobody appears to know how to
keep the former while eliminating the latter. This is where the
theoretical runs into the practical – and guess which one always
wins?
Changes to the format of the Champions Cup were said to address
several previous problems. It aimed to provide a clearer, more
understandable structure for fans and ensure a diverse range of
opponents in the pool stage, avoiding repeat domestic matches.
The expanded knockout stage is said to offer more teams a chance
to compete for the trophy.
The format is easier to understand – four rounds of pool-stage
matches, followed by four knockout rounds – but the divided
nature of the season still produces a maddening hiatus just when
interest gets piqued; there are now almost three months to wait
until the first knockout matches.
It is also true that more teams from more countries appear to be
in contention this season, but that could also be because the
number of potentially qualifying countries has risen.
If you just glanced through the results and scoring lists, you
might not appreciate the large variations in team strengths.
Team managers have to manage their squads and they will claim
justification for playing understrength sides. Some teams did
not play any of their current international players and this
puts a different colour on some of the results. The problem will
not reoccur now that the pool stage has finished, but the damage
is done by allowing it to happen at all.
Uncompetitive games, even if they feature a load of tries, even
brilliant ones, are not helping the competition longer term.
They are great for the faithful and those who just want to see
tries. They are terrible for everyone else and, ultimately, they
do little for the reputation of the tournament and the value of
its broadcasting rights.
Fans and viewers deserve better than this sort of manipulation,
however understandable it is for coaches, and those in charge
need to look at this point again. There is no easy solution, but
it needs to stop.
Recommended
#Post#: 148294--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: January 21, 2026, 4:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
He's not wrong.
If teams continue to put out weak, backup teams, the question
has to be asked as to whether they should be in the competition
at all.
#Post#: 148296--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: January 21, 2026, 5:14 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: FrostAndFire link ---
>
> He's not wrong.
>
> If teams continue to put out weak, backup teams, the question
has to be asked as to whether they should be in the competition
at all.
>
--- End Quote ---
Problem is over two or three seasons that would include most
teams so you'd end up with a very small field.
#Post#: 148297--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: MaidstoneQuin
Date: January 21, 2026, 5:32 am
---------------------------------------------------------
One way of making games with more of a buy in stopping the B
sides rolling out would be simply to introduce a smaller
confirmed squad ahead of the tournament, and the only way of
swapping a player out would be due to injury (and then the squad
can be tinkered with again once the knockout stages begin). Just
a thought
#Post#: 148298--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: January 21, 2026, 5:36 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Brown Bottle link ---
>
> Problem is over two or three seasons that would include most
teams so you'd end up with a very small field.
>
--- End Quote ---
Possibly. But I do think there's a difference between normal
rotation versus putting out a squad that is in no way
competitive. It may be symptomatic of a championship that teams
don't value, and if so, that needs fixing, too.
Being able to get through the first round with a single win is
farcical, for instance.
#Post#: 148299--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: January 21, 2026, 5:48 am
---------------------------------------------------------
There are too many teams in the present format, reduce it to 16,
four groups of 4, top two in each into a knockout phase, winners
at home 2nd place away, neutral semi final venues, or keep the
present numbers and 2 leg knockout format.
Challenge cup, straight knockout competition also.
#Post#: 148302--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: Yareet
Date: January 21, 2026, 8:22 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: MaidstoneQuin link ---
>
> One way of making games with more of a buy in stopping the B
sides rolling out would be simply to introduce a smaller
confirmed squad ahead of the tournament, and the only way of
swapping a player out would be due to injury (and then the squad
can be tinkered with again once the knockout stages begin). Just
a thought
>
--- End Quote ---
You'd be amazed how many players get injured just before an away
game
#Post#: 148304--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: January 21, 2026, 9:47 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: FrostAndFire link ---
>
> ...
> But I do think there's a difference between normal rotation
versus putting out a squad that is in no way competitive.
> ...
>
--- End Quote ---
I'm sure everyone is well aware there's a difference but I'm
pretty sure BM isn't talking about rotation and I doubt anyone
else is.
#Post#: 148306--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: Fursty
Date: January 21, 2026, 11:41 am
---------------------------------------------------------
If you were to insist on putting about near full strength sides
you’d need to make the SA teams play their ‘home’ games in
Europe- I can completely understand why given the 1 week
turnaround teams send weak squads down to SA.
#Post#: 148311--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Champions Cup is great for fans of clubs but terrible
for everyone else
DIR By: thatchapcarnell
Date: January 22, 2026, 4:03 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Rugbycat link ---
>
> There are too many teams in the present format, reduce it to
16, four groups of 4, top two in each into a knockout phase,
winners at home 2nd place away, neutral semi final venues, or
keep the present numbers and 2 leg knockout format.
>
> Challenge cup, straight knockout competition also.
>
--- End Quote ---
But the clubs need those home games to remain financially
solvent. How will you compensate them for that. I don't disagree
with the tenet of your argument but it's not that simple.
The big clubs will fight against knock outs (FA Cup style) for
the same reason - revenue risk.
Also, how do you divide 16 teams by three leagues? 6 teams from
Top 14, 6 from Prem and 6 from URC - who gets the remaining two
spots?
There are just no easy solutions to any of this. I'd also like
to see the Challenge Cup given increased status. A recent
podcast suggested making that a straight knockout but including
Pro D2 and Champ clubs for FA Cup style upsets. Racing 92 having
to travel to Caldy would be quite the thing.
Football is struggling with the same issues - the Champions
League is now so bloated and long that the early games are of
little interest or consequence.
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 3
DIR Next Page