This weekend is a big one for rugby union in Europe. The Heineken Cup (H-Cup in France due to restrictions on alcool advertising) has its grand final between Munster and Toulouse. Next weekend, the Guinness Premiership has its grand final as well, between London Wasps and Leicester Tigers. Last year, Leicester was in both.
To the dedicated European Rugby Union fan, this is old news. To a more casual observer, though, the question might be: What are all of these comps, and why are the same sides in them? For that casual observer, we offer a run-down of the labyrinthine structure of the European rugby union competitions. Get comfortable. This is going to take a while.
Okay, let's start with the top domestic comps:
The Guinness Premiership (henceforth GP) is the top professional competition in England. It features 12 sides, all English. In the past, it's been known by other names due to sponsorship, such as the Zurich Premiership. The side that claims the wooden spoon in this competition is relegated to play in the lower National Division One competition the following year, while the National Division One champ is promoted to the GP. Incidentally, the National Division One is made up of professional and semi-professional sides, and the next levels are National Division Two and National Division Three (the latter of which is divided into North and South).
In France, the top professional domestic competition is the aptly named Top 14. If you need further explanation as to how many sides compete in it, you would make a great rugby league prop forward. The bottom two sides in this comp each year slide down to Rugby Pro D2, who sends its top two sides up to the Top 14. Both of these levels of competition are managed by Ligue Nationale de Rugby, which translates to "National Rugby League," a name that might remind some of the shameful history of the French Rugby Federation's collaboration with the Vichy regime to wipe out rugby league in France.
But we digress. Anyway, Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), Scotland, and Wales all compete together in their top professional competition, the Magners League, so it's more of a quasi-domestic competition. There are currently ten sides in the Magners League: Four Irish (including Northern Ireland), Four Welsh, and two Scottish. Because the sides in this competition are regional and provincial sides, there is no promotion or relegation system (though sides are occasionally eliminated by restructuring implemented by their overseeing unions). Not too long ago, it was called the Celtic League.
In Italy, the Super 10 is the top rugby union level. There does not appear to be a standard system of promotion and relegation with the next level, the 12-team Serie A.
If you got all that, then it's time to share the multinational competitions that sides rom more than one of these comps play in:
The Heineken Cup/H-Cup features 24 sides from the above domestic competitions (based on the previous year's results), which are arranged into six pools of four who play six pool matchs plus quarterfinal, semifinal, and final knockout rounds. The GP and Top 14 each put their top six sides in it, and the top three Irish, top three Welsh, and top two Scottish sides from the Magners League go in as well. One more entrant comes from France, England or Italy (whichever of the three nations produced the top finisher among them the previous year), and the last is from a play-in round between the top Super 10 and Magners League sides who have not already qualified. At this point, you may want to rest up before reading further.
The European Challenge Cup is the next level of pan-European competition. It's essentially a second-tier Heineken Cup. All of the sides from the GP, Magners League, and Top 14 that don't make it to the Heineken Cup go into the European Challenge Cup, as do four clubs from the Super 10 that didn't make the Heineken Cup. Then, just to mix things up, they chuck in a Romanian side, Bucureşti, which is formed specially for the European Challenge Cup. Five pools of four sides each are formed and each side plays six pool matches to determine who makes the quarterfinal knockout rounds, which are followed by semis and the final. Oh, and among its previous names is the Parker Pen Cup.
Ok, we're almost done. The EDF Energy Cup involves only the 12 GP sides and the four Welsh teams from the Magners League, which is why it's also called the Anglo-Welsh Cup. Not long ago, it was the Powergen Cup. Four pools of four sides each (three English, one Welsh) are formed, each side plays three pool matches, and each pool winner makes the semifinals to see who moves on to the final.
So there you have it. A lot of clubs from a fair few nations playing ina lot of competitions. The last source of occasional confusion comes from the timing of the comps. They all overlap wildly. In 2007-2008, for example, the Heineken Cup started pool matches in November (not counting the play-in round in May) and will end this weekend. The European Challenge Cup runs a similar schedule, which started last November and ends 25 May with a Bath v. Worcester final. The EDF Energy Cup began last October and ended in April (the Neath-Swansea Ospreys beat Leicester in the final) The GP started last September and will end next weekend, and the Magners League started at the end of August and ended on 10 May (Leinster won it based on table results as there are no knockout matches).
The Top 14 started in October and will end in June, and the Super 10 started in October and will end this weekend. This year was a little out of the ordinary due to the World Cup, but you get the idea.
If you can keep all of that sorted, you're up on rugby union in Europe. If you can't, I don't think you're alone.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment