The Premier European Club Rugby Competitions

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With the advent of qualified rugby in 1995, the game changed all over the world. Inside the Southern Hemisphere, SANZAR was formed as well as the Super 14 and Tri-Nations competitions have been started.

In Europe, the ERC (European Rugby Cup) was setup. This was based in Dublin and it runs two specialist competitions, the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup. They run these in collaboration with all the premier competitions in every nation to ensure that there is certainly not a clash amongst games from the numerous competitions.

The ERC has an ambition: 'to lead club rugby to unparalleled levels of reputation and profile... generating a distinctive and significant contribution to the improvement and progression of rugby union.' Their motto is 'ERC - Driving European Club Rugby Competition'

So it may be noticed that the ERC was set up with lofty ideals and visions. The truth that the two competitions are nevertheless operating (as of 2013) shows that they're undertaking win an iPad 3 some thing proper while it may be debated as to no matter whether they're reaching their ambition as stated. These two rugby competitions continue beneath the ERC even as you will find rumblings and discontent within member nations regarding the format and who qualifies for every single competition, ordinarily for motives to complete with self-interest by the countries involved.

What are these two competitions that the ERC run in European rugby?

The Heineken Cup may be the premier club rugby competition in Europe. It truly is played for by teams from the 6 IRB nations that contest the six Nations Championship: England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy. Every single country may well use a distinct way of deciding which teams play within the Heineken Cup but there are 24 teams in total. The number from every single nation might differ depending on benefits in several other competitions. They at present play in 6 pools of four teams. The pool winners as well as the subsequent best two runners-up qualify for the play-offs.

The format has changed more than the years, both with the quantity of teams and variety of pools. For instance, inside the 1st year there had been only 12 teams.

There is certainly speak of additional alterations soon after the 2013/14 season.

The other competition will be the European Challenge Cup. It has been identified, for sponsorship motives, as the Parker pen Shield, the Parker Pen Challenge Cup and is currently (2013) generally known as the Amlin Cup. It's the 2nd tier rugby competitors in Europe and teams that don't qualify for the Heineken Cup play in it. You will find also teams from Romania, Spain and Portugal participating.

More than the years additionally, it has had a variety of formats and numbers of teams. At present (2013) it has 20 teams playing in five pools of four teams. The pool winners along with the subsequent ideal 3 runners-up qualify for the play-offs, exactly where they are joined by 3 teams 'parachuting' in in the Heineken Cup competition. These are the next very best 3 teams that did not qualify for the Heineken Cup play-offs.

The ERC runs these two competitions in Europe and they may be very complicated to run because of the number of teams and nations involved. It may very well be said that politics inside the sport have a main bearing on the way items are done. Obtaining stated that it does mean that there's a lot of top quality qualified club rugby becoming played in Europe.