It was a good weekend for the French and Irish teams in last weekend’s Investec Champions Cup and an equally poor one, Northampton Saints aside, for the English and South African sides. It is still precipitous to choose eventual winners but there is little serious money being bet on teams from outside the two first-mentioned countries. What does this say about the quality of club rugby in England, or South Africa for that matter?
The answer is precious little, beyond what we already know. The Irish and French sides are stronger per squad and that is not going to change any time soon.