The Heineken Is Here

Just four days ago began one of rugby union fans’ favourite events of the season: the Heineken Cup. To say the least it’s back with a bang, with some of the most promising professional rugby players sacrificing nothing less than blood and sweat (maybe not tears though, they’re a little too badass) in attempts to help collectively further their team to the finals. The matches that have been played in the last four days have been difficult, and while some have prevailed, others have sadly been handed defeats.

So far this season we have seen some incredible matches, with Edinburgh getting owned by Saracens 0-45, a close win for Leinster against the Exeter Chiefs 9-6, and a 37-16 win for Toulon over Montpellier. These are only three of the twelve matches that have been played during Round 1, so there is much more to come.

It’s certainly good to see the Heineken Cup well on its way, especially since there was a great deal of high-level debate over the future of the tournament. Delegates from all six competing nations met on October 8^th to discuss the future of the competition and to work out a way to hold it together if it did proceed. The biggest worry during the discussion were threats from the English and French to walk away in 2014. The two countries have asserted that the system of guaranteed places was unfair and that there was a need for tougher qualification based on results. This is still being discussed.

Last season we saw Leinster Rugby win the cup 42-14 on May 19^th against fellow Irish and RaboDirect PRO12 team, Ulster Rugby. If winning the 2012 cup wasn’t impressive enough, they already had one win under their belt from 2011, and there’s already some debate as to whether we will see the team go three years as the reigning winners come Spring 2013.

It’s a little early to cast any solid predictions in my opinion, but seeing as my team, the London Wasps don’t have any fixtures in the tournament, I’ll be cheering on Toulon and my (sexy) man, Jonny. But I guess we’ll see, after all Round 1 has only just finished. Round 2 of the Heineken Cup starts up October 19^th with Castres v Northampton and Glasgow v Ulster, both at 20:00 – get your rugby shirts on lads, it’s going to be a good year!

Picture © of ulsterrugby.com