Nigel Wray going out with a bang

Tonight’s third game is at the Stade Ernests Wallon and will showcase one of the matches the Rugby Champions Cup is aimed at avoiding as four-time champions Toulouse host Zebre, the Italian outfit who have lost all six games at this level.

The current Cup is ending because Sarries and the other English Premiership teams have joined forces with France’s Top14 clubs to wrest control of the jewel in the European rugby crown away from European Rugby Ltd. There are huge sums of money involved with the English clubs having signed a £152million television contract with BT Sport in complete opposition to ERC’s deal with Sky. Does Wray have any regrets about the situation? “The contract with ERC Ltd is ending, that’s all, it happens.”

In a bid to retain control, ERC chiefs are trying to get the English and French clubs to negotiate but the television deals are a seemingly immovable obstruction and even if the Anglo-French push for 20 not 24 teams and no automatic places for Scottish and Italian sides was granted, it would not appease the hawks. This is now about control of the club game in Europe, something that has been at the heart of the conflict with the governing Unions in the Northern Hemisphere since 1995.

Wray added: “My view is that the English clubs would be crazy if they accepted the current deal because we are permanently outvoted by nations that are not contributing a lot of money. Sometimes you have to leave the room in order to create a change.

“We are not losing a great European tournament, we are creating an even better one. The proposed new one would be more democratic — one vote for the Aviva and one for the Rabo Direct (the league for the Celtic and Italian teams). What could be fairer than that? More money will be created for all and the Unions will remain in charge of the international game and the governance and discipline of the whole game. But, we, the clubs, will pursue our own commercial destiny just as any other business does in any other industry.”

Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis is leading the Celtic bid to keep the Heineken Cup alive and rumours abound that the current sponsors could still be involved in a new version of the tournament.

The players who have been bystanders as the battle for control of the Cup has raged, love the competition. It creates a playing pressure close to Test rugby and has helped elevate European club rugby to new levels.

For Jonny Wilkinson, leading Toulon to a first Cup triumph last season sits alongside the emotions he experienced 10 years earlier as England lifted the Rugby World Cup. He said: “It’s a fabulous thing and the more people who can experience it, the better.”

To the outsider, the controversy must be difficult to comprehend as it revolves around a tournament that delivers on so many different levels and captivates both spectators and players. There will be big crowds in Galway, Belfast and Toulouse tonight and if, as Wray is right and this is the final season of the Heineken Cup in its current form, then it will be a hugely enjoyable, season-long wake.

Let’s just hope that an 18-year battle for control of the game is not about to claim its biggest casualty.

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