It wasn’t a great wrong – Nigel Wray of Saracens, perhaps the most odious of the English club owners, ludicrously claimed it was redolent of a “master and serf” relationship but it was still wrong.
Really, the only thing that fans who have no interest in European rugby’s blizzard of confusing acronyms (that is, about 95% of them) will notice is that the newly structured European Champions’ Cup next season will no longer be called the Heineken Cup. In essence, the acrimony of the last two years has been a lot of mindless hot air to get to a point that they really had all essentially agreed more than a year ago.
The RFU’s chief executive Ian Ritchie is the man credited with banging heads together to create the new competition, not least the tricky negotiation between Sky and BT Sport, the rival broadcasters who each had a binding contract to show a European rugby competition of some sort.
Ritchie was able to talk to other countries’ unions from a position of trust. He was also able to act as a conduit between them and the sometimes hysterical English club owners, and the outright deviousness of the French.
But like everyone else in this process no exceptions – he was essentially driven by self-interest; a damaging schism within European Rugby would not look good for England’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup next year.
For all their bluster, all their brinkmanship, all their self-interest, the club owners were essentially right in their central point. The Heineken Cup structure was unfairly skewed towards the PRO12 nations – Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy – and their unions had formed an intransigent cartel against change.
It’s not a proper European Cup unless everyone is represented. It’s also not a proper European Cup if entry into it is not as meritocratic as possible. The old competition fulfilled the first, but definitely not the second. The new competition does both, by virtue of one guaranteed place for each of the PRO12 nations.
What does it mean for Scotland? Privately, SRU bigwigs say they’ll be no worse off financially, which is important as revenues from the Heineken were an important part of financing Glasgow and Edinburgh.
It means the Scottish pro teams have to finish within the top six of the PRO12 to be sure of qualifying for the new competition, with a play-off in future years if they were to get to seventh. Glasgow in particular have had no problem making the PRO12 top six in the last few yearsthey actually “qualified” for next year’s competition last week.
It should concentrate a few minds at Edinburgh. SRU CEO Mark Dodson is confident that the club will be a top-six contender next year, and there’s certainly been a marked improvement to their performances whatever the controversy about Alan Solomons’ recruitment policy.
A regular place in the top echelon of European Rugby, as young Scottish players are coming through, would seem to me to be a decent pay-off for having a few South Africans or Kiwis in the team for a bit. Even a season in the second tier competition might present an opportunity to go deep into the knockout stages.
Anyway, there’s no reason why the Scottish teams shouldn’t be aiming to get both teams in the top event.
Ireland will surely continue their policy of selectively resting their international players, making them occasionally vulnerable in PRO12 competition. The Welsh will surely continue to haemorrhage their best players to England and France as there seems no real peace between their regions and the WRU. The two Italian teams had been improving, but currently hold up the rest of the PRO12.
Only Edinburgh of the Scottish teams have ever got to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, but the teams are almost always competitive.
Glasgow have won four of their last six HEC matches against Aviva Premiership teams, Edinburgh three of their last six. The capital side has lost just one of their last five games against French Top 14 sides at Murrayfield in the competition.
There’s no reason why the new European competition(s) can’t provide a significant boost for Scottish rugby, just as it is most needed.