Heineken Cup: Scottish Rugby set for cash bonanza in wake of Edinburgh success

By DAVID FERGUSON
Published on Monday 23 January 2012 12:24

EDINBURGH have set up a revenge mission with Toulouse after securing a home quarter-final in the Heineken Cup, but will also trigger a cash windfall that could open the door to professional rugby finally taking off in Scotland.

As part of an historic shift in European rugby, Edinburgh are one of five teams from the Celtic league, now the RaboDirect PRO12, into the last eight for the first time in the tournament’s 17-year history. It is only the second occasion that England provide just one qualifier, Saracens, while France have only Toulouse and Clermont Auvergne.

The Scots defeated London Irish 34-11 at Murrayfield yesterday to top Pool 2 and clinch a home quarter-final with the same French side they faced on the previous occasion they reached the quarter-finals, in 2004. Then, they had to return to France and lost 36-10.

For coach Michael Bradley, winning the pool was enough to be joyous, but he is excited by the potential of cutting down the four-times European champions in his first season coaching in the Heineken Cup.

“I am delighted,” he said. “Toulouse at home is much better than having Toulouse away. They can be stunning, but if you do your work and are clinical you can put them under pressure and Gloucester did that and Harlequins did that.

“This is a huge step forward for Edinburgh Rugby. There is a talented group of players here and they made a commitment to each other in August, talking about a way to play and a commitment to areas that we weren’t good at in the past. It’s produced some fantastic games here.

“The boys have done what they set out to do, so far. It was great to see the size of the crowd. Week on week it’s building, with people maybe coming back or beginning to connect to provincial rugby. Glasgow have been going very well and their support is growing, so it is very important for Scottish rugby that this continues.”

Edinburgh defeated Toulouse at home in the 2003-4 season, but have since lost to them twice at home, and the French team famously won the Heineken Cup at Murrayfield in 2005.

Guy Noves was the Toulouse coach in all of those encounters and he said last night: “Edinburgh are a complete team. I watched them during the pool games and especially during the game against Racing Metro in Paris they were impressive.

“People think Edinburgh have good backs but lack power with their forwards, but I disagree. Against the Racing Metro they had good continuity and went through the phases and were very good at turnovers.

“Edinburgh really represent Scottish rugby well, which is actually in a positive time at the moment. They have got better and better the last few years.”

There is a greater confidence around Scottish rugby eight years on from that last quarter-final meeting, backed by the new SRU leadership, and it will now be enhanced financially. As well as promising a bumper crowd at Murrayfield on the weekend of 6/7/8 April, the pool success has ensured a pay-out of around £450,000 supplemented by a share in the gate receipts.

The SRU, Edinburgh and Glasgow have always agreed to divide tournament winnings between the two professional teams, which means if Glasgow reach the RaboDirect PRO12 play-offs they will also inject fresh money into the pot. But with Glasgow failing to qualify for the Amlin Challenge Cup knockout stages, after losing in Bath, if their supporters and any others across Scotland buy tickets for the quarter-final they will ensure more cash for Scottish rugby. It was this kind of success which provided the platform for Irish rugby to build from.

If Edinburgh win, they would face a semi-final in Ireland’s new Aviva Stadium against the winner of Munster v Ulster.

• Injury fears over Brown and Denton

THE Heineken Cup may have produced a magical day for Scottish rugby yesterday, but it also presented international coach Andy Robinson with fresh injury worries, as No 8 Kelly Brown suffered a suspected fractured fibula during Saracens’ win in Treviso, while David Denton missed Edinburgh’s victory with a hamstring strain. Joe Ansboro is also a major doubt for Scotland’s Six Nations opener against England in the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield on 4 February as he struggles to recover from a back injury.

The national squad gets together at St Andrews this evening to begin preparations for the championship, with full fitness updates expected.

Comments

There are 9 comments to this article

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

9

jimmybro

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 09:21 PM

Awesome. Now all I have to do is get out of going to my sister-in-laws wedding so I can go to the quarter final. The moans from the English Premiership don't really stand up. You can't say Leinster aren't taking the Rabo League seriously as they are 9 poins clear at the top! And of the 5 Rabo teams in the quarters, only Edinburgh are realistically not in contention for a play-off place. Perhaps the English teams need to concentrate more on their own game before worrying about how others are playing? Of the teams that wouldn't have qualified for this year's tournament under the proposed 8-8-8 allocation, Connacht and Treviso had some fantastic wins and Glasgow let themselves down by not making it into the Amlin Cup competition. You can't say they've not been worthy of their places in the Heineken Cup!

• Report Unsuitable

8

buccaneer

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 06:11 PM

Excellent. We get a great performance from an exciting Edinburgh side, we get a home draw with one of the top sides in Europe, and we celebrate the wider impact on Scottish rugby. Quite right too. Shame we then get the same old same old moan about English rugby from someone who just can't let a day pass within croaking at perfidious albion. Congratulations Edinburgh, and congratulations Michael Bradley!

• Report Unsuitable

7

Fly

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 04:50 PM

The premiership administrators are already expressing their upset at so many H Cup places being allocated to RaboDirect teams compared with the number of teams from England and France. Their main issue is that Scottish and Italian teams don't need to qualify. Watch this space for a concerted effort at a change in the rules. The QFs this year would have been much the poorer for more premiership teams in them.

• Report Unsuitable

6

victor is back

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 04:43 PM

Fantastic stuff. Other than a bit of mismanagement regarding the upper tier it was a simply fantastic day all round.With a bit of belief, bit of luck, an even bigger and even noisier crowd and a lot of hard work then toulouse are definately beatable. Then it's the semi's and from there who knows! We are allowed to dream at the moment. If there is anything to learn from this it is that there is the potential for a really good, competitive, decent sized rugby club here who would be capable of competing with all of europes bigger clubs. 11'000 is a great attendance - the support is there - we must somehow start capitalising on this. It's an old theme i know but....imagine if we had our own ground, a proper rugby ground with a bit of old style terracing but also with all the other modern facilities required on and off the field, capacity of between 10 and 16'000...imagine what the atmosphere would have been like on Sunday and imagine what it would be like in april for the toulouse game.

• Report Unsuitable

5

countrycousin

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 02:59 PM

Not only a great win by Edinburgh Rugby but a great campaign. This is a good advert for Scottish Rugby as a whole. The 5 wins out of 6 showed grit, determination and flair. And what a turn out of nearly 11K.

• Report Unsuitable

4

delboy29

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 01:23 PM

To be fair, Bradley is used to talking in terms of Irish 'provinces' -he didn't mean provincial in a negative sense

• Report Unsuitable

3

Fighter Pilot

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 11:29 AM

450,000 reasons to overlook a 'provincial' slip of the tongue I reckon! Well done!

• Report Unsuitable

2

Mr Twatter

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 10:41 AM

Does anyone know yet what actual date the quarter final is being played on - 6,7 or 8th April ?

• Report Unsuitable

1

O. Kontrayr

Monday, January 23, 2012 at 09:54 AM

Mr. Bradley, what is this "provincial" rugby?

• Report Unsuitable

Order by:

• Newest first
• |
• Oldest first

Page 1 of 1

• 1
• Show all

Logged in as:

Comment here. Start typing your comment here:

Post comment

Please adhere to our Community guidelines

Your view

Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.