Come off it, Vern... Montpellier can cash in this year

VERN Cotter started jockeying for position this week as his Montpellier side, who have blasted their way to the head of the French Top 14 to emerge as one of the early favourites for the European Cup, contemplated their opener in Dublin against Leinster.

Montpellier can field virtually two teams of internationals, including overseas stars of the calibre of All Black fly-half Aaron Cruden and Springbok scrum-half Ruan Pienaar to steer them around the pitch.

Coach Cotter, however, was pushing hard for underdog status, coming up with this interesting take on the strengths of Montpellier’s Pool 3 rivals. “Leinster have got the edge on us just through experience, Glasgow have a number of internationals, and Exeter are tough because of their recent dynamic, so we actually probably start off as the bottom-ranked team in the pool.”

No-one's fooled Vern. We know what Montpellier have in their locker, and given the money spent assembling the latest and biggest multi-national crew in the Top 14, there would be something awry if they did not make a serious bid for their first title.

On European Cup matters no-one is fooled either by some Irish commentators harking back to the old ERC structure as somehow superior, with the implication that EPCR are not delivering.

This is claptrap. Not only is the tournament more competitive, with no makeweight teams and firecracker match-ups from start to finish, it is also much more profitable. In ERC’s last year, revenue was £40m whereas over the last two years it has been almost £63m.

This is a 60 per cent increase. The Irish, Welsh and Scots teams have also benefitted fully from the EPCR uplift with their revenue rising from almost £11m in ERC’s final year to almost £18m.