Talk Heineken Cup and the names will just coming, whether those players are born-and-bred Europeans or big-name players from the southern hemisphere, they want to experience knockout club rugby at its very best.
Europe’s premier club competition, the Heineken Cup grows and grows with every year. So much so, in fact, that names like Stade Francais, Perpignan and Wasps didn’t even make it to the pool stages this season. Their omission merely serves to illustrate the temperature of the contest.
Look at the Tigers pool this year and you’ll have wall-to-wall international names.
Aironi are new to this level, but they boast half the Italian national squad and the player voted the tops in last season’s Six Nations.
Look at Ulster, with teak-tough Irishmen led by the incredible Stephen Ferris and overseas signings of the calibre of Ruan Pienaar.
Then look at ASM Clermont Auvergne.
The Clermont side is led by Aurelien Rougerie, a man who has been at the top of the European game for a decade. When he laces his boots in the Stade Marcel Michelin dressing room he looks across at a galaxy of international players in his club’s kit, including countrymen David Skrela, Julien Pierre, Morgan Parra and Julien Bonnaire, and imports like Lee Byrne, Brock James, Regan King and Sitiveni Sivivatu.
There is no room for make-weights in this competition, every player and every team will know only their best will do.
The Tig absolutely loves it.
And while we’re looking at the star names, let’s not forget to look close to home.
We know them and love them, and their names will bear comparison with anything in the cream of European rugby. Toby Flood, Ben Youngs, Martin Castrogiovanni for instance. Or how about Geordan Murphy, Dan Cole, Tom Croft? Don’t miss Manu Tuilagi, Alesana Tuilagi, Marcos Ayerza. The list goes on.
The back-to-back meetings with Clermont Auvergne will have a huge say in the direction the season takes for Tigers. When they lock horns at Welford Road on December 17 there will be more than 30 players who have played international rugby and around 20 who went to the year’s World Cup in the matchday squads.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
