THE HERALD REVEALS

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer March 28 2008
CommentEdinburgh and Glasgow Warriors are to be punished for their feeble performances in European competition in recent years by finding themselves ranked among the bottom tier of seeds for next season's Heineken Cup.

The pair are lucky to be guaranteed involvement in the competition with tournament organisers having extended the dispensation that sees Scotland alone excepted from the rule that every country's contestants are forced to earn qualification.

That has caused some concern among leading English and French clubs in particular, however they will be at least partly placated by the introduction of a new ranking system that means the top Scottish and Italian teams are no longer guaranteed a place among the top seeds.

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Previously the No.1 seeds from each of the six competing nations were placed in separate pools, but European Rugby Cup's new system ranks teams on the basis of their performances in the Heineken and European Challenge Cup over the past four years.

That is a much fairer system, more in line with other sports. Consider that, for example, Colin Montgomerie's domestic status counts for nothing when it comes to invitations to major championships, which explains his absence from this season's Masters field.

The new rankings make for embarrassing reading for the Scottish sides. Glasgow Warriors just squeeze into the top 24 by virtue of having avoided bottom spot in their Heineken Cup pool this season; Edinburgh are ranked 27, below the leading Italian side Treviso.

The limits on the numbers from each participating nation means their rankings for the 2008/09 competition will be higher than that when the draw is made in June, though.

Among those above them are nine English clubs and seven from France and a maximum of 13 teams from those two countries can take part.

However, with all four Welsh provinces ranked above them and likely to get through - the lowest ranked Welsh side has to beat the third-placed team in the Italian Championship - and all three Irish qualifiers also likely to be ranked better, it is very unlikely that they will finish higher than 21st of the 24 competing sides.

That could only happen if a lower-ranked English or French club managed to get in. That is highly unlikely at this point, with only Scott Murray's Montauban the only team with a realistic chance of making that happen.

The Scots can have no complaints, though, and indeed should count their blessings. While Scottish members of the ERC board were delighted with the new tournament agreement reached last year, which guaranteed two Scottish places, negotiations were conducted on the basis of the prospect of a third Scottish team, based in London or Aberdeen, competing in the Magners League next season.

There is little prospect of that happening in the foreseeable future yet, temporarily at least, the argument that it is in the tournament's interests for participation to be spread across more rather than fewer countries, seems to have held sway. That surely only pertains, though, if they become more, rather than less, competitive year on year.

While Edinburgh may count themselves slightly unlucky that the rankings only take in performance since 2004/05 whereas they reached the Heineken Cup quarter-finals in 2003/04, they have finished bottom of their pool in each subsequent season.

There may also be a technical argument to be made about English and French clubs that habitually participate in the lesser competition, having gained higher rankings than the Scottish teams.

That, though, gets back to the issue of how teams qualify, and few can genuinely believe that finishing bottom of a Heineken Cup pool represents a better effort than getting to the last four of the Challenge Cup.

This article was originally posted on 28-Mar-2008, 08:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 28-Mar-2008, 15:38.