Saracens and Leinster shoulder burden of Champions Cup’s pan-European dream

Increasingly it feels as if European club rugby is turning into La Liga. In the ever-familiar world of Spanish football the domestic title has been won for 13 of the past 14 years by either Barcelona or Real Madrid, with only Atlético Madrid briefly interrupting the established hegemony. This year’s Champions Cup has a similar vibe before a ball is passed or kicked.

Since 2011 just three teams have won Europe’s elite club trophy – Leinster, Toulon and Saracens. Substitute a fading Toulon for their French rival Racing 92, the most extravagantly backed French side in this year’s tournament, and you have the three main candidates for this season’s podium. As far as rugby is concerned, Europe is a shrinking concept regardless of Theresa May’s next move.

Champions Cup 2018-19: six players to watch in Europe’s elite competition | Robert Kitson

This is not simply a consequence of the relentlessly high standards at Leinster and Saracens, two organisations apparently twinned in their desire to grow stronger every day. Talks are already happening behind the scenes to reduce the number of competing teams in the Champions Cup from 20 to 16 (it was 24 before 2014), partly to ease the pressure on the players’ groaning fixture schedule. Italian representation is now zero and the future direction of the tournament after 2022, when the current broadcasting deals expire, remains to be seen.

It makes this season a crucial one quality-wise if the pan-European dream – and what a waste it would be if the best invention in the short history of the professional club game withers on the vine – is to be rekindled. The rugby, frankly, will have to be dazzling if the finalists can be predicted with reasonable confidence seven months in advance and shock away wins occur only once in a Leinster blue moon.

The potential risk of deja vu, as things stand, is inescapable. Neither of the two early front‑runners in France’s Top 14, Clermont Auvergne and Stade Français, are involved this time and nor are La Rochelle, such a buccaneering, bold addition in 2017-18. Of the English contingent, it would be pushing it to describe Newcastle, Leicester or Bath as in-form contenders primed to tear down the houses of the continent’s aristocrats.

Wasps and Gloucester will also swiftly discover their true worth when they face the champions of Leinster and Castres respectively on the opening weekend. Wasps already have some crucial absentees, the Friday weather forecast is not great and Leinster already have a record fifth European title in their sights. Gloucester, should they slip up at home against the French champions as they did against Harlequins last month, must then go to Thomond Park to face Munster. Start slowly and their Pool 2 challenge will already be over.