The URC won six of its eight opening-round matches, the Top 14 won four and drew one, and the PREM’s eight clubs managed a single win between them and conceded 305 points.
Here’s the league-by-league and country-by-country reckoning after round one of the Investec Champions Cup.
The top line
The URC owned the opening round, winning six of its eight matches and finishing plus 102 on points difference, whilst the Top 14 won four and drew one and the PREM won once, drew once and lost six.
The issue for the English game isn’t the away results, which have their reasons; it’s that the PREM’s four home sides managed one win between them, and two of them, Sale and Bath, led their games and lost them. The issue for France is a negative differential from a winning weekend, which comes from losing heavily in the games it lost rather than from any weakness in the ones it won.
Every league sent eight clubs and every league played four at home and four away, so there’s no fixture-list excuse for anyone, and the figures are on a per-club basis so the country comparison lower down, where Scotland has one club and France eight, reads on the same scale. What that gives you is the order at the start line, three rounds out from the seedings, and a country split that shows the URC’s advantage owes as much to Ireland’s three unbeaten provinces as to South Africa’s cricket scores.
The URC took 30 of the 62 competition points awarded; the other two leagues between them finished minus 102 to the URC’s plus 102; only three sides won away all weekend and two of them were from the URC; and the PREM conceded 305 points across eight games, which is more than the entire URC let in.
Plate 1: League hierarchy, round one
Competition points from the verified round-one table; per-club figures are each league’s totals divided by its eight representatives.
Six from eight
The two away wins are the proof points, because they came at grounds where visitors are meant to lose. Glasgow were 12-0 down at Sale inside the first quarter and then ran in seven tries to win 47-27, which tells you as much about Sale’s last hour as Glasgow’s. Leinster went in at Clermont a point behind and put 33 on the Auvergnats after the break, the game turning for good when Nohem Ez Zahouany was binned for collapsing a Leinster scrum on his own line with Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong going forward. That’s the hardest fixture any URC side drew and they won it by 25.
At home the margins were cricket scores. The Bulls ran in eight tries against a Stade Français side that had openly declared for Castres next weekend and sent a team to Pretoria most of their own supporters would have needed the programme to identify, and the Stormers lost hooker JJ Kotze to a first-half red and still beat a very young Bristol 49-12. Connacht and Saracens shared 13 tries at the Sportsground, and Munster saw off Racing 92 in Cork on the afternoon both clubs had set aside to remember Anthony Foley.
The two defeats need saying properly. The Lions played La Rochelle the day after their lock Hyron Andrews died in the team hotel, aged 31, chose to play in his memory and lost 31-14, and nobody should read a word into that scoreline. Cardiff lost 28-12 at DPD Franklin’s Gardens to the one PREM side that won.
Where the Top 14 stands
Four wins, a draw and three defeats is a middling return for the league that’s won the last three of these, and the wins were earned the hard way: Montpellier trailed at half-time at the Rec and won by 18, Pau put 41 on Leicester, and Toulouse, down to 14 men for an hour, beat Exeter 43-40 only because Henry Slade missed a very kickable penalty after the siren. I watched that one start to finish and Exeter were the better side for long stretches of it.
The three defeats and the draw explain the differential. Stade Français sent what amounted to a second XV to Pretoria and lost by 36, Clermont shipped 33 in 40 minutes, Racing 92 lost by eight in Cork, and Bordeaux, the holders, were held 36-36 at Kingsholm by the PREM leaders. So, in essence, the Top 14 won its four narrowly at home and lost its three heavily away, and that’s how a league wins a weekend on the table and loses it on points difference.
The PREM’s weekend
One win, one draw, six defeats and 305 conceded, which is the sort of total Stourport thirds would be delighted with over a whole season. Four of the six defeats were away, two in South Africa and two in France, and rotation, altitude and travel will cover Bristol’s youngest-ever side in Cape Town and Leicester’s afternoon in Pau; they won’t cover Saracens scoring six tries in Galway and losing, or Exeter scoring 40 in Toulouse and coming home with two bonus points.
Here’s the thing, though. The home record is the one the PREM can’t explain away. Sale led Glasgow 12-0 and conceded 47; Bath led Montpellier at half-time and lost by 18; Gloucester led the holders and drew. The four English hosts managed one win on their own grounds, and in both defeats the home side had the lead and lost the last hour. Make no mistake, the English clubs didn’t lose the weekend in Pretoria and Cape Town; they lost it in Salford and Bath, after half-time.
Country by country
The league plate flatters the URC, because it’s three countries against one against one. Rank the six nations represented by competition points per club, with points difference per club as the tie-break, and it looks like this.
Plate 2: Country hierarchy, adjusted for number of clubs
Scotland and Ireland both earned the maximum five competition points per club; Scotland takes first on the tie-break, from a sample of one. Figures from the 24 club results and the verified competition table.
Ireland went three from three with every province taking the full five points, the only group of more than one club to get through the weekend unbeaten, and supplied half the URC’s wins and half its 30 points. Scotland is Glasgow, one club and one result, but it was one of only three away wins in the round. South Africa won two from three by 36 and 37 and finished plus 56 even with the Lions’ afternoon in La Rochelle. France’s 21 points from eight is a credible return and the minus seven is almost entirely Pretoria and Clermont’s second half. England’s eight collected 11. Wales had Cardiff, beaten at Northampton, and finishes with nothing on the plate.
The takeaways
The URC was the league of the round by a distance: six from eight, plus 102, and both its away wins came at grounds where visitors usually lose.
Ireland carried it as much as South Africa did. Three provinces, three wins, 15 points, the hardest away fixture in the league won by 25.
The Top 14 is competitive rather than dominant. It won narrowly or at home and lost heavily or away, which is how a winning weekend ends at minus seven.
The PREM’s problem is at home, not abroad. Sale and Bath led and lost; the four English hosts won once between them.
The English problem is defence, not attack. Saracens scored six tries and lost, Exeter scored 40 and lost, Gloucester scored 36 and drew; the league conceded 38 a game.
Rotation decided two results, Stade Français in Pretoria and Bristol in Cape Town, and those two should be discounted from any verdict on either league.
Away wins were rare all round: three in 12, two of them URC, one French, none English.
It’s one round of four. A single 56-20 moves a league’s differential by 36, and the seedings won’t be settled until December.
Plate 3: All 12 results
Leagues: URC (Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Wales); Top 14 (France); PREM (England). Each league supplied eight clubs and played four matches at home and four away.
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