Mighty Montpellier are team to beat
BRENDAN GALLAGHER casts his eye over the main contenders for this season’s European crown
THE European Cup – alas the European Champions Cup never trips off the tongue like the organisers would wish – has assumed such a solid feeling of permanence that you tend to forget how radically the tournament has evolved and how volatile that process has been. And continues to be.
Twenty years ago, in the 1997-98 season, Bath won the tournament with Toulouse, Brive and Pau as the other semi-finalists. None of that illustrious French triumvirate have even qualified for this year’s competition while Cardiff were quarter-finalists that year as well, but are also missing this time around.
That 1997-98 tournament – which doesn’t seem that long ago – also featured Milan, Swansea, Pontypridd, Scottish Borders, Caledonia and Bourgoin. All considerable clubs at the time who faded, some with alarming alacrity, into obscurity as the strident new order took hold.
There was no Clermont, Saracens, Toulon or Racing 92 involved back then and even Munster were bit players, finishing a distant and dispirited last in their pool.
The Heineken Cup, as it was then, was virtually done and dusted by Christmas with just the final in Bordeaux being held over until January when it was slotted in just a week before the Five Nations. BBC were the broadcasters, not Sky who took over for many years, or BTSport who currently hold the rights.
So despite being the foundation stone of the elite club season in Europe, almost the defining characteristic of the European Cup is its unpredictability. Expect radical change, new teams and new winners. Nothing is forever.
On that score the smart money would be against Saracens emulating Toulon and taking a third title on the bounce this season. That great Toulon team of recent memory operated before a proper wage cap in the Top 14 and was achieved with a squad the like of which we will probably never see again. Toulon could have put a second team out that would have given most opponents a run for their money.
But don’t dismiss Saracens, they still have a sporting chance to emulate Toulon. What distinguishes them from all the other great European dynasties – Leicester, Toulouse, Leinster and Toulon – is that they are still a developing team. They are by no means the finished article.
Many of their key players are only now entering their pomp – Jamie George, George Kruis, Maro Itoje,
right, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode – while others of huge influence such as Brad Barritt, Schalk Brits and Schalk Burger are free of international commitments. I was going to add Richard Wigglesworth to that list but it seems the ageless scrum-half is still being monitored by Eddie Jones so let’s not write his international obituary yet. Saracens probably remain the team to beat, the benchmark, with the ever hungry and ambitious Clermont in close attendance. Clermont won’t rest until they have won this trophy and it surely has to happen someday. Whether, in fact, Clermont have a better or stronger squad than in recent years is a moot point. They probably don’t, but then again playing personnel has never really been the problem; over the last decade they have always had talent in abundance. Clermont’s Achilles heel has always been an inexplicable tendency to ‘play’ for only 30-40 minutes in any given game. Get that right and the world is their oyster. For me the team to watch are Montpellier, who have the feel of Toulon a few years back with a determined big money man in Mohed Altrad who is absolutely hell bent on bringing success to the club and not too bothered if he ruffles a few feathers on the way. Montpellier have gathered a mighty squad, almost certainly the strongest on paper in Europe, but that guarantees very little if the chemistry isn’t right and thus far they have been falling short in Europe and the Top 14. The arrival from
Ulster this season of a humble but supremely talented team-maker like Ruan Pienaar could be the missing part of the jigsaw for Montpellier. All Black Aaron Cruden is another facilitator, a player who invariably draws the best from others and makes the collective stronger.
Add to that the canny coaching of Vern Cotter who did so much to regenerate Clermont, and indeed Scotland, and you have a heady brew. If Montpellier are not to win the trophy this season their conquerors will almost certainly be the team that prevails.
Toulon will be strong and much more organised than of late under new coach Fabian Galthie and Racing, on paper, should also challenge again although that club and the players therein have a strong capacity to shoot themselves in the foot with their off-field behaviour. Leinster won’t be a million mile away although they have lost that touch of invincibility they possessed during their purple patch.
And who might emerge from the hungry chasing pack? Glasgow, La Rochelle, Scarlets or perhaps Exeter? Historically the competition has been full of tipping points when one or two teams, perhaps unexpectedly, got to another level.
Exeter’s Rob Baxter is very interesting when talking about what has possibly held his team back so far in Europe after, successively, finishing runners-up and then winners of the Premiership.
“Sometimes you hear the players talk a little bit too much about this being the closest thing to international rugby,” Baxter says. “Well, yes and no. It’s still a game of rugby; the difference is that you’re playing someone that you don’t play as often. But actually, if we’re good enough to win the English Premiership, our game is good enough to stand up in Europe. We don’t need to dramatically change week by week; we need to be very good at what we do.
“The one thing that I really hope that we’ve learned from last season and that I want us to take into Europe is not letting the pressure of the situation buckle you away from what you do. I don’t think that we’ve ever done really well in Europe, especially not in the first two rounds. It always feels to me like we change something or we feel like we have to change something.”
Baxter is right. To succeed in Europe, you must surely keep doing what you were doing successfully in the first place. There is no one game plan or approach that guaranteed success, just the game plan that works for you. The challenge for him and the other wannabees is keeping cool and remembering that.