THE GUINNESS PRO12 campaign has crept up on us amidst all the focus on the World Cup but the league returns with lofty ambitions on Friday night, when Connacht, Leinster and Ulster are all in action.
With meritocracy involved for the first time, Sky Sports and Guinness getting involved, and a new winner in the shape of Gregor Townsend’s deservedly popular Glasgow Warriors, last season was the biggest and best Pro12 yet.
Paul O’Connell lost out in last season’s Pro12 final and is moving to the Top 14 post-World Cup. Source: Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Now tournament organisers are hopeful that 2015/16 will see more growth, even if the World Cup will understandably dominate the rugby agenda in the coming months.
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While the Pro12 itself is happy with their rate of progress, comparisons with the Aviva Premiership and Top 14 remain slightly unfavourable, in a commercial sense as well as competitively in European competition in recent times.
Pro12 outfits Leinster and Ulster made up the 2012 Heineken Cup final, but only English and French clubs have competed in the decider since, five of the six finalists in 2013, 2014 and 2015 having been French.
The IRFU have a degree of fear around the spending power of the French sides in particular, but Pro12 chief executive John Feehan is more relaxed about that wealth.
“You talk about their league, but you’re actually talking about only two or three of their clubs. That’s two or three individuals with massive amounts of money to spend and there’s no commercial return, other than the fact that it’s satiating somebody’s ego.
“The reality is we can’t do that here, so we’ve got to find cleverer, easier, better ways to do it. The fact of the matter is, if you look at the Pro12 over the last seven, eight, nine years, our record would stand up against any of the other leagues. I’m pretty comfortable that we’re there or thereabouts.
“In any given year, you might have one or two of the French clubs that poke their head above the fence. Clearly money is no object and that helps. Money is an object to the rest of us, but that doesn’t mean to say we can’t have really strong squads and be really competitive.”