It’s funny how the new order has effectively scrapped the wonderful Heineken Cup for a revamped new tournament without a title sponsor, on foot of which the nouveau riche breezed into the quarter-finals and yet, when there were four, the old order had re-established itself. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The European Champions Cup has a decidedly familiar ring to it, with back-to-back champions Toulon being joined in the last four by fellow semi-finalists Clermont Auvergne and Saracens for the third year running. The tournament, in all its guises, has never had such repetition at this exalted stage.
In maintaining the familiarity, for Munster read Leinster, and in truth Munster can reflect with some justification that as semi-finalists for the previous two seasons they were dealt a cruel hand by a draw which abandoned the old seeding system and pitted them in the same group as Clermont and Saracens.
Against that, it could be argued Munster were beneficiaries of a ‘soft’ draw last season in the same way Leinster were in this campaign. Last season, Munster won a group containing Gloucester, who finished ninth in the Premiership, Edinburgh, who finished eighth in the Pro12, and Perpignan, who were relegated from the Top 14.
This season, Leinster won a group containing Harlequins (now eighth in the Premiership), Wasps (currently sixth) and Castres (13th).
Wafer-thin margins
Yet whereas Clermont and Toulon were breezing past Northampton and Wasps, familiarity with the knock-out stages of this competition was critical for Leinster and Saracens in winning encounters decided by wafer-thin margins.
Bath, backed by Bruce Craig’s millions and Racing Metro, funded by Jackie Lorenzetti’s millions, came up short in the quarter-finals through an uncannily familiar mix of ill-discipline and missed opportunities.
Bath had much more of the potent running threat against Leinster, and ditto Racing against Saracens, but a plethora of soft penalties and mistakes cost them both dearly against opponents who simply kept their nerve better until the end.
Having been there and bought the T-shirt, Leinster were winning their 16th of 19 knock-out matches in the last five seasons, and their seventh of 11 quarter-finals in this competition, as against a rebuilt Bath side who were contesting their first European Cup quarter-final in six seasons. It’s worth recalling Leinster lost three of their first five quarter-finals in this tournament. No less than in its football equivalent of the Champions League, there’s usually no gain without pain in this competition.
Likewise, whereas Saracens were competing in the quarter-finals for the fourth year running, Racing Metro were competing in their first. You can buy a lot of things with lots of money, but you can't buy experience. Then again, you can to a degree, but the one Racing player with the most proven European Cup pedigree, Johnny Sexton, had been replaced when his team-mates decided to riskily run down the clock with pick-and-jam tactics within kicking range of their own posts, when he surely would have spiralled the ball deep into Saracens' territory.
Nothing would have sent tremors through Leinster's ranks more than Peter Stringer speeding up Bath's tempo and earning the three-pointer which took them to within three points of forcing extra-time – warmly received though he was on the occasion of his 100th European Cup cap at the ground where he won the last of his 98 caps just over four years previously in Ireland's 24-8 Six Nations' finale at home to England.
Neither Leinster nor Saracens could score a try, but each are in the last four; their misfortune being that the luck of the draw has handed them away semi-finals against French heavyweights Toulon and Clermont.
Fully fit
Leinster did win the 2009 Heineken Cup after an away semi-final draw, albeit that seminal game at Croke Park against Munster. Michael Cheika was less fortunate with a semi-final away to Toulouse in 2010, when the ravages of the Six Nations also left him without Sexton, whereas Joe Schmidt had a fully fit Sexton et al for a home semi-final against Toulouse a year later.
Perhaps the finest of Leinster's three titles was in 2012 given they had to overcome Clermont in Bordeaux in the semi-finals before routing Ulster in the final.
Fate has not been so kind to Matt O’Connor, who arguably has been dealt the cruellest hand of all given the compressed knock-out stages in the competition’s new format which has handed Ireland’s bulk suppliers a quarter-final and now semi-final within four weeks of the Six Nations climax. Now they face an away draw against reigning French champions Toulon who are are seeking an unprecedented third Cup in a row.
Nothing about Leinster’s ‘form’ suggests they are going to win this game. If there had been one trademark sign of O’Connor’s Leinster last season it was in their often obdurate defence, but of late even their ‘D’ has had more holes than a soup strainer. Nor, despite more ambition last Saturday, has there been much evidence of progress in their attacking game.
Yet 34 other clubs across the three major leagues would swap places with them, and it could be that last Saturday’s quarter-final will have been the game to blow away the cobwebs in a manner akin to a post-Six Nations derby in the Pro12.
There’s one other crumb of comfort. Right now, Toulon look preferable opponents to Clermont.
gthornley@irishtimes.com
