The Investec Champions Cup needs more strength-versus-strength contests like the Gloucester-Bordeaux Bègles thriller and fewer weakened touring teams, writes MARK KEOHANE.
Writing for the Sunday Times, Keohane believes the defending champions’ 36-36 draw at Kingsholm demonstrated everything that makes the tournament special – and why clubs must take their strongest available squads on the road.
Bordeaux arrived with a star-studded lineup but were pushed to the limit by a Gloucester side that finished eighth in last season’s English Premiership.
Roared on by 16,500 supporters, the hosts scored five tries and threatened to stun the champions before Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Maxime Lucu combined to level the scores in the final quarter.
“That is the romance of this competition,” Keohane writes. “It is the best clubs in France, England and the URC being forced to prove themselves in places where the home team, the crowd and the occasion can turn a match into something much bigger than a fixture.”
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He contrasts that spectacle with the approach taken by Stade Français and Bristol, who sent weakened squads to face the Bulls and Stormers respectively in South Africa.
“Those choices may reflect the strain of balancing two competitions and the importance clubs place on their domestic campaigns. But they also diminish the contest supporters have paid to see.”
Keohane also highlights the challenge of winning over South African supporters, with Champions Cup attendances at Loftus and Cape Town Stadium falling 60% compared to the previous weekend’s URC derbies.
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With the tournament’s stop-start schedule already making it difficult for local supporters to embrace, Keohane argues that clubs fielding their strongest combinations is essential to its long-term appeal.
“The tournament also needs to give them a reason to care before the knockouts. Strength against strength is that reason.”
Photo: Ben Brady/INPHO
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The Investec Champions Cup needs more strength-versus-strength contests like the Gloucester-Bordeaux Bègles thriller and fewer weakened touring teams, writes @mark_keohane
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