The Heineken Cup – the competition that keeps on giving

Only eleven days till the start of the 2013 Six Nations but Europe’s premier international rugby tournament can wait – let’s focus on its thriving club rugby.  

The future of the Heineken Cup remains uncertain beyond 2014 but this season’s group stages have produced four compelling quarter final match ups, despite Leinster and Toulouse, champions between 2009-2012, being knocked out early, by their very high standards. And there is every chance that a new name will appear on the trophy in late May, joining the nine names already engraved.

There are, however, three former champions left in the competition; two giants of European rugby and a rejuvenated Irish province with a well-balanced squad, assembled over the last few years. 1999 champions Ulster are top of the Rabo Direct Pro 12 and on Saturday recorded their first ever away win in France. Munster and Leicester, both two time winners and multiple finalists, did what was required in round six and have also made the last eight. 

But their efforts have been rewarded with tricky away ties at Saracens, Harlequins and Toulon respectively.

Firstly to Munster and the pressure is very much off the Limerick province, for the first time in well over a decade. They scraped through to the quarter finals in eighth qualifying position, albeit courtesy of a last round bonus point home win over Racing Metro, which included a fine hat trick from Simon Zebo, and achieved without the talismanic figures of Paul O’Connell and Ronan O’Gara (the first time in fourteen seasons that neither player appeared on the Munster team sheet in a Heineken Cup match).

Harlequins have never made it further than the quarter finals but this is undoubtedly their most impressive squad to play in the tournament and the reigning Aviva Premiership champions will start the match as favourites.

Leicester made it through the so called group of death, overcoming four times winners Toulouse and defending Pro 12  champions the Ospreys (and an improving Treviso, who were ever so close to beating the Tigers at home in round 4). Toulon, currently leading the Top 14, have shown cracks in their armour in recent weeks and defeats at home to Racing Metro and this past weekend away to Montpellier, where they were comprehensively outplayed, will certainly be worrying their coach, Bernard Laporte.

But April conditions should suit the Mediterranean giants and Leicester will need to be bold and brave to come away with a win. A smash and grab approach, built on forward supremacy and any hope for the Tigers will surely rest on Manu Tuilagi returning to provide much needed penetration in attack.

Most teams are punished by Toulon’s experienced global international contingent at the Stade Mayol and if Jonny Wilkinson, as many reports suggest, announces in February that he will retire from professional rugby at the end of the season, this will spur his side on even more, in surely one of the club’s most important ever fixtures.

Ulster’s trip to Saracens’ new Copthall stadium, which opens this weekend, looks to be the most intriguing tie of the round. The Ravenhill outfit have already recorded away wins over Northampton and Castres and have only lost two games this season.

A year older and wiser, Owen Farrell and co have continued to develop despite the club having a nomadic existence this season, playing their home matches at six different venues (including one in Belgium). Their backline has prospered in Europe ties and this has gone someway to removing the unfair boring tag that has stuck with them from their style of play in the Aviva Premiership. Perhaps Saracens’ greater experience with their new artificial pitch could prove the difference and Ulster’s chances could rest on whether the star Lions duo of Tommy Bowe and Stephen Ferris return to action by April.

Clermont will be at home in the final contest, for an all French affair against the surprise package of Montpellier, managed brilliant by former French captain Fabien Galthie. Clermont are seemingly invincible at home, unbeaten in 54 European and Top 14 matches at the Stade Marcel-Michelin and along with Harlequins have a perfect record in this year’s Heineken Cup. But Clermont have beaten Leinster, who have won three out of the last four HCup’s, both home and away, which shows just how strong the central French side are in the 2012/13 season.

Montpellier were hugely impressive in the home win against Toulon and it is great to see another team making the knockout stages for the first time. But Mamuka Gorgodze’s troops will face their greatest challenge in April and will need to be at their very best, and injury free, if they are to stand any chance of progressing further, at the expense of the bookies’ favourites for Europe’s most coveted club rugby prize.

So three English and French sides apiece and two Irish provinces are in with a chance of winning the 18^th edition of Europe’s finest club rugby competition. Enjoy the Six Nations but I expect many fans will be looking forward to the climax of the Heineken Cup just as much.

A final thought.. If Harlequins, Toulon, Saracens and Clermont decide, as expected, to play the ties at their natural homes, the accumulative attendance will be a maximum of just over 60,000. If Twickenham, the Stade Veledrome in Marseille, Wembley and football grounds in either Bordeaux or Lyon were used for the respective ties, the possible attendance would be well over the 200,000 mark.