Fraser Brown: Glasgow Warriors have a pack to flourish in the Champions Cup but I’m not convinced by new format

Scotland and Glasgow Warriors hooker writes exclusively for The Scotsman...

Fraser Brown leads out Glasgow Warriors for the Champions Cup game against Leicester Tigers at the start of the 2016/17 European campaign. This Friday, they kick off the tournament against Northampton Saints at Scotstoun. (Picture: Gary Hutchison/SNS)

I love Champions Cup weeks, I think they’re brilliant and they bring a whole different type of energy to the club.

It’s as close as you can get to Test match rugby as a club player and it’s especially exciting for Glasgow Warriors to be back in the top tier of Europe after missing out last season for the first time since 2006-07. Opening the tournament on Friday at home against Northampton Saints is special and brings back memories for me of the opening round of the 2016-17 tournament, at Scotstoun on a Friday night, when we beat Leicester Tigers, another one of the traditional powerhouses of English rugby. If this week’s game is anything like that one, then Glasgow fans are in for a treat! It will be a step up for the players who haven’t been fortunate enough to experience play-off games or Test rugby but one I know they will relish.

Northampton beat Saracens away at the weekend so that gives you an indication of the quality they have at their disposal, but they aren’t the only team to be wary of in Glasgow’s group, Pool C. After Friday’s opener they have a trip to France to take on Bayonne in round two on December 15 and then matches in January against Exeter Chiefs and Toulon, our old adversaries from last season’s Challenge Cup final. You’ve got Munster as well, who Glasgow won't play because they are in the same league, but it’s a tough group.

The next fortnight is going to provide a level of competition Glasgow haven’t experienced this season. There has been a good win over Leinster in the first week of the URC but that was really a third-string Leinster team because of the World Cup. There was a victory too against the Stormers at home but, again, they were missing four or five of their Springboks stars. The Ulster game was probably the biggest test Glasgow have had this season and they fought well after a slow start to dominate the game and come away with a deserved victory but the next two weeks will be the first time this season Glasgow have faced two top quality teams at full strength in consecutive weeks.

The new format for this season’s Champions Cup sees the 24 teams split into four pools of six, with each club playing four group matches and the top four in each pool qualifying for the last 16. It’s an improvement but still not ideal. It had to change because the last two years with the two giant pools have been terrible, to be honest. I think the tournament lost a lot of its prestige in terms of the quality of rugby and in the way qualifying became less cutthroat.

Before that, under the old format, it was very, very difficult to get through to the quarter-finals. It was the top team from each of the six groups plus the best two runners-up. It emphasised not just how vital it was to win but the importance of picking up bonus points. You could be losing by some distance but the need for match points was so vital that teams continued to play, continued to scrap for whatever they could get. A losing bonus point, or a four-try bonus point could be the difference between qualifying or not.

Like international rugby, Europe often comes down to the basic fundamentals: defence, the ability to play in the right areas, your kicking game, how you exit and set-piece. And I think that’s why Glasgow are really well placed this year as perhaps compared to seasons gone by.

You look at Glasgow’s front five and their work around the scrum, the lineout and, in particular, their maul, and you think this is a pack that can provide the platform to go out and succeed in Europe. That’s not to say Northampton won’t make it tough for them, particularly with Fin Smith at 10. When he went to Northampton from Worcester last year Dan Biggar was still there but he soon left to join Toulon and Fin was thrust into the spotlight a little earlier than was probably expected.

He’s done well and settled quickly at Northampton. He’s controlled the backline with Fraser Dingwall and Rory Hutchinson, two other good Scottish-qualified players, and those three in particular are vital for getting that backline moving if picked together. But, like everywhere, they need a platform to be able to do that and I think Northampton do have some serious operators in that pack, they’ve just not been as consistent as they would have liked. But you don’t need week to week consistency in Europe. It’s like cup rugby; you can raise your game for two weeks then it’s back to the grind of the league.

And that’s why the Champions Cup is so special. You can get performances and results from nowhere and it’s a higher standard of rugby. The strength of Pool C suggests that there won’t be a team that goes through the pool phase unbeaten, everyone will take points off everyone else. Glasgow have an excellent opportunity to qualify but with such a strong group, everything will depend on how well they start. Having your first game at home is a big advantage and gives you the chance to build some momentum for the second game away the following week.

While Glasgow can enjoy home advantage, Edinburgh go to France in the Challenge Cup to play Clermont on Friday. Edinburgh have started the season really well. There was a bit of turmoil at the end of last season with Mike Blair leaving but the team is building under Sean Everitt.

They don’t have Blair Kinghorn’s game breaking talent at 15 any more but they have a good platform up front and with Ben Healy pulling the strings at 10, they have shown a lot of cutting edge in the backline.

They didn’t just grind out the win against Ulster away last week, they smashed them to be honest. It became a little tighter in the last 10 minutes or so but that’s not unusual for a team with a new coach which is trying to integrate a new shape.

The forwards were excellent especially in the last 20 minutes, really putting Ulster under pressure at set-piece and the breakdown. Healy was excellent as he has been since his arrival from Munster in the summer and has shown why he was in demand at both Edinburgh and Glasgow. He’s a 10 who’s built for games like last weekend and European ties. He’s able to control matches, has a good passing game and his kicking is fantastic.

The addition of Ali Price, whilst undoubtedly Glasgow’s loss, is a huge bonus for Edinburgh. To be able to bring in a starting Lions scrum-half to work alongside Ben just makes Edinburgh stronger and stronger. Ali is one of the best nines in the world at controlling what parts of the pitch you play in.

Clermont have started the season pretty well. They’re mid-table but they had a big win at the weekend against Racing. I know it was at home but Racing are top of the league so it was a statement win.

It’s a big challenge for Edinburgh and it'll be interesting to see what they do with the Challenge Cup. Do they see it as an opportunity to win a trophy or is it a chance to blood other players in the squad knowing that after these two rounds in Europe, they’ll have two huge derbies with Glasgow? I think it’s a competition they could do really well in if they choose to target it but it’s a long season, so they might decide to go really hard in the first two weeks and see where they are in January and use that as an opportunity to reassess.