Ruaidhri O’Connor: Rory Best should fear losing Ireland captaincy as he misses tour to Australia

HEINEKEN will once again be the title partner of European Rugby’s premier club competition, starting from the 2018-19 season.

The four-year deal will see the tournament renamed as the Heineken Champions Cup, re-igniting a long association that dates back to the very start of the tournament in 1995.

The Dutch beer company sponsored every edition of the tournament from that inaugural outing until 2014, with the exception of the 1999 tournament won by Ulster which was known simply as the European Cup.

EPCR chief executive Vincent Gaillard said: “We have substantially developed the Champions Cup over the past four seasons and it is fitting that at such an exciting time for the tournament, we welcome back a world-leading brand in Heineken.

“They are steeped in rugby history and inextricably linked with the heritage of European club rugby and we are delighted to be embarking on this journey with their full support.”

Hans-Erik Tuijt, global sponsorship director of Heineken, added: “It is an exciting time for Heineken to return as the main partner of the European Rugby Champions Cup. The expansion of the tournament to emerging rugby territories (Bilbao 2018) and new cities in traditional strongholds of European rugby (Lyon 2016, Newcastle 2019) provides Heineken with the opportunity to create engaging fan experiences and brings our association with rugby to new audiences throughout Europe.”

The draw for the newly-named competition’s pool stage for 201819 is on June 20.

THIS month, Rory Best will face an unusual and potentially uncomfortable experience as he watches his team play in Australia without him. As he does, he will wonder whether it will be his team when they come back.

Since the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Ireland have played 28 games and Best has captained the side in 22 of them.

Three of the games missed came last summer when he was away with the Lions, while Joe Schmidt rested him for the wins over Canada in 2016 and Fiji a year later.

The only match of real consequence he was forced to sit out was the Six Nations win over ItalyinRomelastyearwhenhe suffered a stomach bug on the eve of the game.

He has led his team to history in Chicago and Cape Town, and captained them to a Grand Slam,butthelingeringdoubt surrounding his captaincy has centred on his age and his capacity to lead the team to Japan next year when he will be 37.

Often we are too quick to rush players into early retirement, but as he maps out his 2019 vision, Schmidt must wonder how long the Ulsterman can continue to operate at the very highest level.

Already there are signs that he is slowing down.

Although he was available for every Test match, he has been beset by injuries and started just seven games for Ulster this season.

He was prominent during the final showdown in Twickenham, but in the other Six Nations games he was probably Ireland’s least influential forward.

After lifting the trophy on that freezing evening in London, Best sat alongside his coach at the post-match press conference when Schmidt was asked: “How much would you like to see your Grand Slam skipper stay on and skipper Ireland through to the next World Cup?”

At the time, his contract had been agreed but was yet to be announced, but the head coach was evasive as he slowly and deliberately delivered his answer.

“He’s getting faster and faster on that zimmer frame,” Schmidt said.

“That’s something that could come to fruition hopefully sooner rather than later, but it’s like everything. Rory, it’s hard to get him to make a decision, but we’ll see how we go with that.”

However, there has never been any indication that the captaincy was up for debate and, when the squad was announced a week ago, the letter ‘C’ was inked in beside Best’s name as usual.

Heattendedtheeveof departure function at the Australian embassy and spoke about the series on stage with Schmidt and Wallaby legend Michael Lynagh. The first word that Best was out came from Schmidt, who casually dropped thenewsintoananswertoa question about the big news of the day; Joey Carbery’s move fromLeinstertoMunster.

Although he has yet to finalise his plan for the captaincy, it appears to be to proceed with Peter O’Mahony and Johnny Sexton (right) as the co-leaders