The tone struck by Alex Sanderson and Mark McCall after heavy Investec Champions Cup defeats might have caught some by surprise. “I couldn’t be prouder of the group,” Sale boss Sanderson emphasised after his side were beaten by 23 points at Toulouse. “There is a lot to like, a lot to learn and a lot to be proud of,” Saracens counterpart McCall stressed after a rampant Toulon surged to a 72-42 thrashing.
Yet there was a certain validity to each man’s remarks. No one had given either side a hope of competing with the French giants – for both to be leading at the half-time hooter represented a real achievement. While they could not survive the second-half surge that always felt likely to come, these were creditable showings in which Saracens particularly threatened something spectacular.
But that betrays a troubling truth for the Premiership; the English top flight may provide eight of the Champions Cup’s 24 representatives but few are live contenders to lift it any longer. Northampton, back to somewhere near their best against Clermont, ensured a degree of respectability as the lone representative into the last eight but elsewhere it could hardly have been a more damaging weekend. While Sale and Saracens emerged in credit despite their defeats, there were precious few positives to take from a wretched Harlequins showing at Leinster, while Leicester weren’t too much more competitive against Glasgow despite the Warriors’ early profligacy.
The Premiership clubs’ struggles have been a developing trend of recent years. Not since Exeter triumphed at an empty Ashton Gate in 2020 to secure a fourth title in five years for the league has an English side made it to the continental showpiece. While both the Saints and Harlequins made last year’s final four, not since Saracens were in their pomp has a Premiership team begun the season among the top contenders to lift club rugby’s biggest prize.
And to think that it was only a decade ago that the Premiership and Top 14 possessed sufficient power to strong-arm the competition organisers into a revamp of the competition for their benefit. While the French league has grown again out of a relative trough, the English division would appear a pale imitation of that within which Saracens, Exeter and others thrived.
Which is not to say that the Premiership is a poor competition. For entertainment value, it now surpasses both the Top 14 and the United Rugby Championship in terms of consistency – the highs may be higher when Toulouse meet Bordeaux-Begles or Leinster a fully-loaded Sharks, but for those addled on the e-numbers of attacking rugby, the game-to-game sugar rush of the Premiership is highly-addictive. Dan Biggar, who will conclude his playing career with Toulon this summer having spent time at Northampton beforehand, wrote in the Daily Mail last week that he felt the English competition is superior in many ways to that which he now calls home.
But that does not necessarily mean it provides best preparation for the colossal continental contests. The relative lack of jeopardy brought about the removal of relegation has only encouraged a more free-wheeling style to emerge league-wide – where once Bristol and Harlequins were offensive trailblazers, now it is hard to find an English side that would not consider attack their stronger suit. Sale are perhaps the division’s best suffocators, as shown in the first half at Toulouse – but even they could not sustain the effort for 80 minutes.
Naturally, it is apt to mention at this point the difference in budgets enjoyed by the competing sides, with the French giants and Leinster – with their Irish core complemented by a few star overseas recruits – particularly notable for their depth. Toulouse, for example, have four starting international full-backs on their roster. It is not just splashing the cash in recruiting, though, that makes a difference, with investment into the pathways in Dublin and elsewhere paying dividends with the talent pipeline always seeming to flow.
There is confidence in the English game that the next generation will soon come through to upfill the talent gap left by a number of high profile departees in the last few years; this has already been seen a little at Franklin’s Gardens, where a group of backs are growing together. McCall last week used the example of Toulouse, who built around Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Francois Cros and co. having experienced their own lean times not that long ago. Perhaps the Saracens coach sees similar potential in Theo Dan, Olly Hartley, Angus Hall and Tobias Elliot – all impressive in the Stade Fellix Mayol cauldron on Saturday.
Opportunities abound for this crop and others like them across England given the general direction of travel for the elite or those just outside in recent years. Toulon’s squad on Saturday included David Ribbans, Lewis Ludlam and Kyle Sinckler, three members of Steve Borthwick’s squad at the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the kind of player which the English clubs perhaps now lack. There are almost too many expats to mention: Will Collier, Sam Simmonds, Jack Nowell, Joe Marchant – not necessarily world-beaters, but all the sort of professionals that once helped English clubs to success.
Things are opening up nicely for Northampton with Castres a relatively kind quarter-final opponent, especially at home, but even they have felt the effects of the talent drain severely in a Premiership title defence that has floundered. The best equipped in terms of strength-in-depth and foreign stardust of the English clubs might be Bath – but Johann van Graan’s men could not even escape a curious group-stage campaign that showed their focus perhaps lied domestically.
Such matters can be cyclical, the fortunes of each league ebbing and flowing with the fluctuating forces of club sport. But with 80 per cent of the 10-team league making the top tier of European competition, the Premiership’s relative non-competitiveness is perhaps concerning.
