European Cup: a funny formula ... which appeals to Top 14 coaches

Is this the shape of this ball with unpredictable rebounds?

Or too long monotonous videoconferencing meetings?

What prompts the brains of top rugby leaders to these incessant hooks, these side steps, these counter-feet to make them dizzy?

This time again, they have outdone themselves.

And they found a formula, a new concept for the European Cup which launches this Friday.

The problem statement was: Organize fewer matches with more teams.

Pandemic forces, the European season indeed begins later this season or it brings together 24 teams (8 of the Top 14) in the Champions Cup, 4 more than last season.

After a few brain convolutions, the result fell: 2 pools of 12, and inside each, each team faces two others in two-way matches.

The first four in the standings of each pool will qualify for the round-trip quarter-finals.

The semi-finals and the final, on May 22 in Marseille, will remain in a single match.

Take, for example, Racing 92 and Toulouse, reunited in pool B. The Ile-de-France, defending vice-champions, face off against the Irish from Connacht (first round at Paris La Défense Arena this Sunday) and the English from Harlequins.

The Toulouse, them, are opposed to the Irish of Ulster (first leg this Friday night in Ireland) and the English of Exeter, the title holders.

The two French clubs will therefore fight from a distance for their place in the final phase without meeting.

“It will probably take three wins with some additional bonuses to qualify, considers Ugo Mola, the Toulouse manager.

A defeat and we are no longer master of our destiny.

"

"We don't have the right to make mistakes, we don't have a joker"

The coach of the reigning French champions, however, is in favor of this formula.

"I campaigned for that," he says.

This double round-trip confrontation brings us back almost directly to finals matches with a round of 16 and eighth round.

Laurent Travers, the manager of Ciel et Blanc is also impatient.

“It's a sprint,” he explains.

Before, we used to say that it was a 100m.

Now it's a 75m, it's even faster.

We don't have the right to make mistakes, we don't have a wild card.

And we are dependent on others and their results.

"Henry Chavancy, the three-quarter center of Racing considers the solution found" clever "and" coherent ".

Even Christophe Urios, the manager of Bordeaux-Bègles, who in Pool B, goes to Northampton (England) this Friday evening then will challenge the Welsh of Newport, is pleased with the find.

"With the Top 14 which is very long, in a season which is special with this Covid, we have the possibility of having an extremely short format", he underlines.

For everyone, in the end, whatever the formula, however convoluted it is, the main thing is to reduce the number of matches.

Proof that a general reform of calendars is now urgent.

The program

This Friday night.

Pool A: Northampton (Ang.) - Bordeaux-Bègles, 6.30 p.m.

Pool B: Ulster (Irl.) - Toulouse, 9 p.m.

Saturday.

Pool A: Bristol (Ang.) - Clermont, 2pm;

Toulon - Sale (Eng.), 4:15 p.m.;

Montpellier - Leinster (Irl.), 6.30 p.m .;

Edinburgh (Eco.) - La Rochelle, 9 p.m.

Sunday.

Pool B: Lyon - Gloucester (Ang.), 2 pm;

Racing 92 - Connacht (Irl.), 4:15 p.m.