As Brian O’Driscoll, the former Lions captain, makes clear a fast start imperative in this year’s Covid-affected competition
If you wanted to launch a vibrant new European club rugby tournament you would possibly not start from here. The spectre of Covid already stalks the 2021-22 Heineken Champions Cup and scheduling its entire pool stages in the deepest, darkest and dampest weeks of a northern winter is not the obvious catalyst for a dazzling cavalcade of festive sporting cheer.
Already the quarantine-affected Scarlets have had to forfeit their opening game, unable to raise a competitive side to face Bristol, with Cardiff and Munster also still without players who were marooned in red-listed
South Africa last week. The ripple effects are likely to be swiftly apparent, with the misfortune of a few threatening to skew the entire competition and massively assist those clubs who kick off with a rush this weekend.