Investec Champions Cup: How Prem Rugby can beat Top 14 budgets
It seems to come around quicker every year; not Christmas but the Investec Champions Cup.
Some criticise the competition – whether it is because of the inclusion of the South African United Rugby Championship teams, its availability being restricted to Premier Sports or its odd pool format – but it is the very best of global club rugby.
For me, there’s just one problem: the French keep winning it.
Since a brace of English winners in 2019 and 2020 – Saracens and Exeter Chiefs – Toulouse and La Rochelle have won the title two times apiece while Bordeaux Begles lifted their first title earlier this year in Cardiff.
The budgets in France are far larger than in the English Prem while the runners-up in 2022, 2023 and 2024 – Leinster – also have a healthy pay package for their squad of Irish internationals. Meanwhile Northampton Saints, last year’s losing finalists, were outspent despite housing a number of Steve Borthwick’s England starters.
It proves you can have all of rugby’s wealth and be bad at turning that into trophies, especially in the case of Leinster, or unable to continue a dynasty beyond two years in the cases of Toulouse and La Rochelle. But can you be on a shoestring budget and be good?
Champions Cup question
That’s the fundamental question facing England and its domestic Prem Rugby teams at the moment. The TV deal with Canal+ in France dwarfs the TNT Sports deal enjoyed on these shores, while the lower TV income across the United Rugby Championship is often offset with central funding – especially in the Celtic nations.
That doesn’t always help the likes of Wales, while South Africa have only been official signatories of the Champions Cup governing body EPCR for a few months, but the point stands.
It means the Prem sides need to be smart and savvy in how they target their matches. With the current structure seeing the English teams play two French and two URC sides in the pool stages, two wins is usually enough to progress through to the round of 16 – and in some cases one can be enough.
Expect the English sides to go strongest against their weakest opponents and then hope for the best in the other fixtures. It’s the way it has to be when the depth enjoyed in France and Ireland cannot be replicated by the Prem’s finest.
And don’t be surprised if teams cut their losses and enjoy dropping down into the second tier Challenge Cup and going on a run in that competition, much like last year’s winners Bath did.
The way through
Five out of every six teams in each of the four pools will advance out of the group stages, whether that’s to the Champions Cup round of 16 or the Challenge Cup. But progression through to the latter rounds of the Champions Cup does have its rewards and they’re not just financial.
Though one of the two teams will have home nation advantage – last year it was Leinster at Croke Park and Bordeaux at Matmut Atlantique – all semi-final teams split the gate receipts as part of a competition agreement.
It means the four semi-finalists don’t directly benefit from the spectacle they put on, and instead get funds distributed through a central pot. For the English clubs, that money could be huge. But the likelihood of being the home team is low.
Davids do beat Goliaths, but it is difficult to see how an English team will be able to compete with the French and Irish on the pitch when the balance sheets are so different off the pitch.
I’m calling a sixth consecutive French winner.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11