An alignment between national team and leading domestic sides delivers thriving ecosystem, offering optimism for Europe
Six Premiership teams began this weekend’s Champions Cup last-16 round and it is hard to know what to expect based on domestic matches since the Six Nations. We’ve seen sides get thrashed, then dish out a thrashing themselves and of all the six in Champions Cup action, not a single one managed to string back-to-back Premiership wins together in the previous two weekends.
That doesn’t immediately point to optimism but I do believe there are grounds for positivity. It might not necessarily be the year that we see an English winner again but there were improved performances and results in the pool stages and that can continue over the next two weeks.
