The Independent's Chris Hewett looks at the growing divide between the French clubs and the rest in the Heineken Cup.
"It has all the makings of a humdinger: Saracens, the English champions, travel to Swansea tonight for a Heineken Cup match with Ospreys, the strongest side in Wales, that will go a very long way towards deciding who qualifies automatically for the knock-out stage of the world's best club tournament. Unfortunately for those on the red-rose side of the Severn, there may not be many more humdingers ahead. Collectively speaking, the Premiership contingent are struggling badly in Europe, to the extent that 2011-12 may turn out to be 2009-10 revisited.
Two seasons ago, Northampton were the only English side to make the quarter-finals. It was, statistically as well as in every other sense, a low point for the professional club game in this country, so the growing threat of what might be called "cross-border calamity redux" is alarming indeed. Most alarmed of all are Northampton themselves, for they are already out of a competition that is only halfway through its pool phase. Bath, pioneering European spirits who broke new ground by winning the Heineken Cup in 1998, are on their last legs – defeat against Leinster, the holders, in Dublin tomorrow evening will end their campaign for another year – while Harlequins, the Premiership leaders, are by no means guaranteed to advance. Leicester, two-time champions? Ditto. As for Gloucester... let Bryan Redpath, the director of rugby at Kingsholm, tell it how it is."
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