France 3 England 0: Champions Cup semi-finalists show consistency of Top 14
No English sides in the Champions Cup semi-finals then, after Exeter Chiefs and Sale Sharks both saw their European campaigns come to an end over the weekend in the last eight.
That sounds rather stark, but in fact it’s not been that long since the final four in Europe last assembled without any representation from the Gallagher Premiership - just three years. Saracens were the eighth seed and only English side through to the quarter-finals back in 2018, losing to Leinster to end any English interest in that season’s competition.
Ireland were without a representative in the semi-finals last season after Saracens defeated Leinster in Dublin in the last eight, while with Wales and Scotland, it’s more interesting to see when they actually had a team who reached the semi-finals.
We had Wayne Pivac’s Scarlets back in 2018, beaten by Leinster, while it hasn’t happened for Scotland since Edinburgh’s semi-final with Ulster way back in 2012. Italy meanwhile have not had a team get out of the pool stages, let alone reach the last four.
Instead, when examining the Premiership clubs' record of reaching the penultimate stage of the Champions Cup, what’s fascinating is how many years in a row there has been a side from France in the semi-finals: every season dating back to 2009-10. When you compare that to the rest of the nations involved, it’s quite an achievement.
Not since Toulouse were the eighth seed in a dire year for Top 14 sides in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup and were duly knocked out by Cardiff Blues, have we had a semi-final line-up without any French teams. Since then, at least one Top 14 side has reached the semi-finals over the past 12 years. And in seven out of those 12 years, there has been more than one French team.
In 2021, for the first time in this run, we have three French sides through to the semi-finals in four-time champions Toulouse plus first-time semi-finalists Bordeaux-Begles and La Rochelle.
We haven’t had three semi-finalists from a single country since Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints and Wasps all made it to the semi-finals back in 2007, with Wasps going on to defeat Leicester in the final. And the last time France had three teams through to the final four came in 2005, when Stade Français, Biarritz and Toulouse all made it through, with Toulouse going on to beat Stade Français after extra time in that season's final.
The obvious reason for such a strong French presence this late in the competition over so many consecutive years probably comes down to budgets, and therefore squad depth. Outside of Leinster, and Saracens and Exeter at their respective peaks, the Top 14 clubs have consistently had the best resources in terms of talent pools, dwarfing the Pro14 clubs financially in particular (which in a way is a credit to Leinster).
But what’s interesting about France’s sustained success in getting teams through to the semi-finals is that we haven’t actually had a French winner since Toulon in 2015, when they defeated Clermont for their third title in a row.
In four of the past five years, a Top 14 side not only reached the semi-finals, but went on to reach the final and lost: Racing 92 on three occasions — to Saracens, Leinster and Exeter Chiefs — while Clermont were also beaten by Saracens in the 2017 final.
Since France’s last Champions Cup winner, there have been four winning sides from England (Saracens three times and Exeter once) and one from Ireland in Leinster. That's a poor return from the Top 14 clubs considering how often they have gone this deep in the competition.
As for Bordeaux-Begles and La Rochelle, if they’re looking for inspiration that being a first-time semi-finalist can lead to further success then they only need to look at Exeter, who reached their first Champions Cup semi-final last season and went on to win the tournament.
