Rugby Union: English clubs under attack over European boycott

The Celtic nations rounded on England's leading clubs in unison yesterday, accusing them of committing all seven deadly sins at once by announcing their boycott of next season's Heineken Cup and European Conference competitions.

But, as Chris Hewett reports, there were clear signs that the red rose recalcitrants would be brought back to the negotiating table.

If nothing else, the decision of the English clubs to tell the organisers of the European Cup to go hang themselves seems certain to add some spice to this season's Five Nations' Championship. The Scots and Welsh left their powerful neighbours in no doubt what they thought of them yesterday: greedy, self-serving, arrogant and short-sighted. At times, it sounded like an over-hyped shouting match between a pair of Don King boxers.

Terry Cobner, one of the more uncompromising international flankers of his day, was almost apoplectic at the English boycott of next season's Heineken Cup and European Conference tournaments. "They are attempting to put in place a structure that best suits them, which is no great surprise because hidden agendas have been flying around all over the place in recent weeks," the Welsh Rugby Union's director of rugby said. Meanwhile, Ian Rankin, coach of the Scottish district champions, Caledonia Reds, said: "This has money and personal gain stamped all over it."

None of which will have worried the big-buck owners of England's Premiership clubs one little bit. The decision they took in London on Wednesday night was designed to force the board of European Rugby Cup Ltd to tear up their fixture list, scrap the six-week block-booking for Heineken and Conference pool matches and switch to a more piecemeal format, possibly based on a football-style programme of midweek Euro matches. There were strong hints yesterday that an early agreement would be reached.

"There will be a meeting of the ERC board in Dublin on 23 January and I am hopeful we can discuss the problems again and find a solution," Alan Meredith, one of the Welsh delegates, said last night.

He was speaking in the knowledge that the English clubs held two trump cards: the reluctance of Heineken and BSkyB to pump money into a discredited and, ultimately, meaningless competition and the voices of support flooding across the Channel.

Heineken are in the final year of their initial three-year sponsorship deal and while extension talks began some time ago, an English withdrawal would almost certainly send the negotiations hurtling towards a brick wall. "We're disappointed that the Heineken Cup is once again being used as a political football, a bargaining chip," a spokesman for the brewing giant said. "If we can arbitrate in any way, we will. This is very serious news."

The French were virtually united in their support of the English initiative. "The English clubs' arguments are reasonable," said Jean-Jacques Madrias, the president of Brive, the reigning champions who defend their title against Bath in Bordeaux in three weeks' time. "In order that this competition remains a proper event, it must involve English and French clubs. Without English clubs, there is no point in having a European Cup."

Seraphin Berthier, who presides over the French elite rugby association CNRE, also sympathised, while Pierre Labourdette, president of Pau, this season's beaten semi-finalists, said: "Basically, the English are right. They want a well-structured championship, as do we in France." However, he detected an element of brinkmanship in the boycott. "It's no more than a threat. It would surprise me very much if the English clubs withdrew. Among reasonable people, one always manages to find a solution."