Premiership benefits as Pro 12 fails to shine in European Champions Cup

It says something about the Pro 12’s current standing when the team leading the league, Ospreys, managed just one victory in their pool

• European Rugby Champions Cup talking points

The European Champions Cup proved refreshing in at least one regard: only two of the final round of matches had nothing riding on them while most of the groups had already been decided at the same stage of the Heineken Cup a year ago.

The make-up of the quarter-finalists suggests a tilt away from the Guinness Pro 12 with the Aviva Premiership benefiting. Only Leinster have made it through from the four-union league, realising fears expressed there during the long negotiations to make European club rugby’s premier tournament more meritocratic that the outcome would be an Anglo-French affair with a Celtic tassel.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1yCRXGX