The Daily Telegraph's Mick Cleary previews this season's Heineken Cup.
"The Heineken Cup adds colour to the canvas, intensity and vibrancy on the field of play, noise and passion around it. Given that we’ve already had the season’s climax in the Rugby World Cup, it is only right that the Heineken Cup should show that it too can hit a few sweet spots. There is a raft of new stars to follow, principally Wales's thrilling young World Cup brigade, but taking in battle-hardened warriors such as Toulouse’s Thierry Dusautoir or Biarritz’s Imanol Harinordoquy is never a task to cause regret.
"English and French clubs in particular relish participation for the simple reason there is no guarantee that they will qualify. For once, that feeling will be shared by the opposition at the Stoop this evening when Connacht, for too long seen as the country cousins of Irish rugby, take their bow in the Heineken Cup by dint of Leinster winning last season’s tournament.
"What is true for Connacht will also hold good for Harlequins. Old-stagers they might be but, burnished by ‘Bloodgate’ three seasons ago, it has taken them until now to reclaim the status lost that day. The manner of the narrow quarter-final defeat to Leinster in April 2009 triggered a period of calamity for Quins. Controversially, they were allowed to compete in the following season’s Heineken Cup. It was a pyrrhic triumph, for Harlequins lost all six pool games, slumping also in the Premiership and having to work their way back through the Amlin Challenge Cup."
RSS feed
