Rory Best has called on European Cup bosses to review the format of the European competitions. The Ulster captain believes that the second tier of European rugby will "drift away" unless changes are made to the knockout competitions.
Talking to NewsLetter.co.uk, Best echoes Grenoble coach Bernard Jackman's sentiments when the former Ireland hooker called the Challenge Cup "pointless". Best has two issues - the first being that team do not take the Challenge Cup seriously because winning the competition does not guarantee the victors entry into Europe's elite Champions Cup the following season.
This was the case with the old set-up, but that berth is now handed to the winners of a complicated playoff system between a Pro 12 team, a Top 14 side and a Premiership club. Best believes that if this rule was re-instated, and the playoff system scrapped, that that competition would become a lot more important, and prevent the French from de-prioritising the tournament.
In the old Heineken Cup, teams that finished second in their pools but weren't one of the best runners up were given places in the Challenge Cup quarterfinals. Best believes that this shouldn't have been scrapped and the European bosses should try and remedy this.
Ulster could yet finish 2nd in Pool 3 of the Champions Cup, the comprises of Toulon, Leicester Tigers, and Scarlets but would find themselves out of the competition. Best believes that whoever finishes in second place in Pool 3 will have done enough tot merit a quarter-final in at least one of the two club competitions in Europe.
If you happen to finish second in a group containing the Scarlets, Leicester and Toulon, that’s still one heck of an achievement. There probably won’t be a best runner-up to come out of our group because everyone will probably beat each other at home... to win all your home games, lose away games against top teams, finish second in that group and have no knockout rugby at all, I think that’s harsh.
It would be harsh on whoever it could happen to in that group.
Photo credit Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile
