Wasps win salvages English interest but big picture remains bleak
In the end it could have been worse. At no stage in the history of European club rugby have England’s clubs endured a leaner pool return in Europe but a dismal January afternoon in Coventry did belatedly yield some solace. Whatever Saracens do in the knockout phases they owe a big debt to their former local rivals Wasps for supplying their passport into the tournament’s latter stages.
But for Wasps’ hard-earned 26-7 victory against an outgunned Ulster on a gluepot of a pitch at the Ricoh Arena there would have been no Premiership interest whatsoever in the last eight. The upshot is that Sarries will now travel to Dublin to face the top seeds, Leinster, in the quarter-finals, still clinging to their hopes of winning a hat-trick of European crowns.
Not even the thickest-skinned of little Englanders, even so, would remotely portray the last‑eight draw as a triumph given the Premiership had five entrants at this stage just two years ago. While the Scarlets deserve special recognition for becoming the first Welsh region to reach this point since 2012, it is impossible to ignore the bigger picture of Pro14 sides staging three of the four quarter-finals.
By comparison, Premiership sides have mostly flattered to deceive. Saracens were unrecognisably poor at home against Clermont before Christmas and would have paid the price had Wasps not bailed them out. Exeter, by their high standards, were not sufficiently clinical at crucial moments and were punished in a way they rarely are domestically. Northampton, Harlequins, and Leicester all finished bottom of their pools and only Bath, with an Italian side in their pool, managed even to win two-thirds of their pool games. Not that it did them much good qualification-wise.
The question of why the collective return has been so modest could just as easily be: “Why not?” English clubs have never had a divine right to Champions Cup immunity and, as stated in these pages back in October, pre-tournament expectations this season were not especially high, Saracens apart. Wasps and Quins kicked off under a heavy injury shadow, Northampton were at sixes and sevens on and off the field and Bath remain reliably inconsistent.
Leicester? They showed more fight against Racing 92 at a snowy Welford Road, having gone 14-0 down early on, but their eventual 23-20 defeat still left them at the foot of Pool 4. George Ford’s post-match assessment – “We’ve been nowhere near good enough” – was hard to dispute. At one stage it also appeared they were shoving Saracens over the edge, turning down a kickable late penalty that would have spared their compatriots before Wasps even kicked off.
Luckily for Saracens there was to be a last-gasp reprieve. Their director of rugby, Mark McCall – as well as Eddie Jones – will now be hoping that Saturday’s latest 62-14 thrashing of Northampton suggested his players’ midwinter slump is now behind them. “I think that performance was the culmination of the last six weeks since the Monday night when we played Clermont and we were in a tough situation,” McCall said. “We’ve shown ourselves that if we can get into knockout games, we’ll be tough to play against. It doesn’t really matter where it is, I know that on our day and when we play like that we’re very difficult to beat.”
Those tempted to blame the inclement weather for Saracens’ relative underachievement – what if the fateful home game against Clermont in December had not been postponed until the following afternoon? – are missing an essential truth. Excuses are like belly buttons: everyone has one but they swiftly lose any relevance. Yes, England’s Lions have played more rugby than their Celtic counterparts this season but it is only mid-January – surely that should have more effect between now and June? Of course they have endured injury disruption but so too have many others.
The most glaring difference lies in the continuing ability of the big Irish sides to hold their players back for their big European games. Even Leinster’s head coach, Leo Cullen, is contracted to the Irish Rugby Football Union, rather than his province. This also helps players, mentally, to target Europe more effectively. Leinster have won only one fewer pool game away from home this season – against Glasgow, Exeter and Montpellier – than all the English sides put together.
But then along comes a team such as Scarlets, who gloriously buck every trend. It is remarkable to recall now that they lost their opening two pool games; those of us in west Wales on the monsoonal Friday night when they were beaten up by Bath’s big forwards drove home suspecting their obvious attacking promise was not quite going to be enough to elevate them to the next stage.
How thrillingly they have rebounded from that disappointment: Tadhg Beirne is among Europe’s most influential forwards and Gareth Davies, Dan Jones, Hadleigh Parkes, Scott Williams and Rhys Patchell have all been terrific behind the scrum. The last time the west Walians – then still playing as Llanelli Scarlets – reached the knockout stages, in 2006-07, they ended up reaching the semi-finals and, as Toulon discovered on Saturday, this is not a team short of spirit or self‑belief.
Their reward is a potentially thrilling duel with La Rochelle at Parc y Scarlets, with away quarter-final wins likely to be at a premium when the tournament resumes over the Easter weekend. Leinster and Clermont, however, remain the tournament frontrunners, with the semi-final draw set to keep them apart.
There is also continuing Welsh interest in the Challenge Cup, where Cardiff Blues have made the last eight, generating further overdue oval-ball Welsh optimism in Europe. Between now and the end of the season there will be plenty of glasses raised to absent friends across the Severn Bridge.