Season out of the ordinary?
host of top French internationals, speaks volumes to the size of their budget.
While Ulster are no paupers, there’s a good few million between the sides.
The same goes for Bristol and the Dragons, with one of the biggest-spending English clubs going up against the team with one of the lowest playing budgets in their league, with a not entirely suprising outcome, albeit one exacerbated by some pretty fragile defence.
But it would be wrong to say there is no money in the PRO14.
Leinster’s overall player wage bill is among the highest in Europe, estimated to be somewhere between £8m and £10m.
In contrast, the English wage cap is £6.4m, plus two marquee players, a figure that is about to go down to £5m.
Now people may well snort when the wage cap and Leinster’s vanquishers, Saracens, are mentioned in the same breath.
And, yes, Sarries were guilty of repeatedly breaching the cap and some have argued they shouldn’t be in Europe, given they qualified with a squad that was breaking the rules.
But they have received their punishment in way of relegation, while they have also had to significantly trim their playing roster to conform to the cap.
So Leinster’s playerspend is clearly the larger of the two at the moment, yet they came second-best.
They aren’t the only
PRO14 side with a budget that’s bigger than a number of Premiership teams.
Scarlets and Munster would fall into that category as well, with Edinburgh and Glasgow not far behind. So, as is often the case, finance is a pretty nuanced issue when it comes to rugby.
PREPARATION
IT’S fair to say this has been a season like no other for rugby.
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen all the conventional norms and longestablished schedules thrown out of the window.
What’s intriguing to consider is the impact that has had on Europe.
Usually, all the teams go into the quarter-finals on the back of pretty much the same build-up.
This time around, there has been no consistency.
In France, they opted to cancel the remainder of the 2019-20 TOP 14 season altogether, while the PRO14 was condensed to just two rounds of derbies and the play-offs.
In contrast, they decided to complete the full Premiership programme in England, which has seen a packed fixture list over the past five weeks.
In recent years, you’ve also seen the Irish provinces peaking for Europe, with everything geared towards getting players in the best possible shape for those games, playing where needed, resting where needed to keep fresh.
The ability to do that, without suffering in terms of league position, has often been cited as a reason why they have performed so well compared to teams
Heineken/ Champions Cup 3
Heineken/ Champions Cup 1; Challenge Cup 0; Total 1 0-0; Total 0 1-0; Total 1
2-0; Total 2 1-0; Total 1 2-1; Total 3 2-1; Total 3 1-1; Total 2 0-1; Total 1 2-0; Total 2 1-1; Total 2 1-0; Total 1 3-0; Total 3 2-2; Total 4 1-1; Total 2 3-0-; Total 3 1-1; Total 2 1-0; Total 1 1-2; Total 3 0-1; Total 1 2-0; Total 2 3-1; Total 4 2-0; Total 2 0-0; Total 0
from other countries.
This time around, there’s not been the same flow to the schedule, with play-offs to be played, so tried and tested strategies have been thrown out of kilter somewhat.
Perhaps the most significant change of all has been the timing of the European quarter-finals.
Normally teams would go into them off the back of the Six Nations, meaning their top players would be attuned to that level of intensity and physicality.
This time around, we are six months on from the last Six Nations fixtures.
Instead, teams have gone into Europe purely off the back of their domestic leagues.
In theory, Leinster, Ulster and Edinburgh should still have been in decent shape as they all competed in the PRO14 play-offs.
Leinster, in particular, seemed well prepared and well set, having convincingly beaten Ulster in the grand final to complete a remarkable unbeaten league campaign.
And yet, when they came up against Saracens on Saturday, they found themselves outgunned physically, with the pummeling they took up front in the first half leaving them too much of a mountain to climb.
CONCLUSION
GIVEN the circumstances have been wholly unique, it would be unwise to make definitive judgements about the respective teams and their leagues based on the weekend’s results.
These things often tend to be cyclical and sometimes sides just have off days.
For whatever reason, Leinster just didn’t show up in the first-half, leaving it too late to demonstrate their undoubted class.
They will be very much in the European mix again next season, while Munster, Ulster, the Scarlets, Edinburgh and Glasgow all have the potential to make their mark.
With a more regular schedule, you would expect PRO14 sides to challenge again. The debate goes on.
Of course, there is one simple solution. If we were all playing in a British & Irish League, we wouldn’t have to have these discussions.
So, roll on the B&I!