The Cup that cheers

Addicts of the round ball game tell me that the club scene, particularly in the form of the Champions league, has some claim to be better than the international matches. A full strength Barca side would always beat an international team, they say. Laying to one side the obvious point that the Spanish national side is pretty much Barcelona’s, it is worth drawing some comparisons with rugby. Would we find that, say, Toulouse would beat England ? Northampton v Wales anyone?


On balance, I suspect that the club sides would struggle to match the front line national sides. Top soccer sides can go shopping for the very best players. Even in these sobering economic times, the Premier League, La Liga et al can still afford to pay out eye watering amounts of cash. Some subs benches are groaning under the weight of the money stuffed into the back pockets of their occupants. Although a club such as Toulouse are “rich” in rugby terms, they would struggle to compete in the Championship in our Football League. Rugby teams simply demand such a reservoir of specialist talent that at this stage of the season even the big squads are under strain. Look at Leicester - one of the biggest, richest clubs in Europe, but they looked forlorn this weekend against a rather more tigerish Ulster. Too many injuries to cover. Sir Alex Ferguson would simply whistle up some multi millionaire junior pro on loan at Accrington Stanley, and problem solved.

But the Heineken continues to be compulsive viewing. Cardiff struggled to put Irish away - doubts remain over the power of their front row. They’ll be in it as long as Gethin stays fit.

In a similar vein, The Scarlets were always going to find the going tough against the Saints. Once Mallinder’s boys decided to stick the ball up their tight fitting jerseys, the flying West Walians were grounded.

The most disappointing match of the weekend was the Sarries v Biarritz face off, which proved to be a pretty dour affair. When will this talented French outfit face the plain fact that their negative approach keeps costing them matches? Both sides were crammed full of talent in the backs, but the game was dominated by slow, slow “rucks”, where robotic forwards formed an orderly queue and heeled the ball back as slowly and as carefully as if it were made of crystal glass. The idea, of course, is to give the scrum half as much distance between the ball and the opposition, but as a tactic it is as dull as very murky ditch water.

 If rugby is to refresh the people that other games cannot reach, it needs to sort this out.