Investec Champions Cup: Cardiff, Chippy Lane and rugby’s selling point
Walking down Cardiff’s iconic “Chippy Lane” in the shadow of the Principality Stadium on Saturday night after the Investec Champions Cup final was a reminder of the very best of club rugby.
Bordeaux fans celebrating their 28-20 victory alongside Northampton Saints fans drinking away their sorrows – before the mad dash back across the border – was a common sight in the Welsh capital.
But it was the groups, draped in their club colours, from Clermont, Georgia and from across the Irish Sea and the River Severn there to watch 46 men have a good old European dust-up that really did it.
Few had skin in the game and instead wanted to see a great Champions Cup final. And a great Champions Cup final they got.
How it went down
Northampton got off to a shaky start, losing some of their key players to injury, but managed to stay in the game deep into the second half.
But the class of Bordeaux showed in a gritty win, claiming their first Investec Champions Cup title and extending the number of consecutive years where French teams have got their hands on the trophy to five.
Referee Nika Amashukeli may have relied on his TMO one too many times and there may have been a couple of empty rows at the very back of the Principality’s top tier – EPCR set the lowest ticket price at a hefty £60 – but the final was reminiscent of a classic European ding-dong.
Champions Cup upgrade?
European Professional Club Rugby chairman Dominic McKay, though, used the pre-match media buzz to confirm a Club World Cup, which is set to take place quadrennially from 2028 and has the backing from the sport’s global unions.
But having watched a melting pot of rugby cultures within reach of one another come together on the streets of Cardiff does make one wonder whether a global competition would see its novelty quickly worn away over a lack of accessibility.
It’s what makes the Champions Cup so great; aside from reaching South Africa for a decent price, every club on the European continent is within reach.
Over 20,000 fans watched at Place des Quinconces – one of Europe’s largest city squares – back across the English Channel. Are bosses really suggesting a Club World Cup can replicate what the Investec Champions Cup has done in the last 30 years? It’s a tall order for sure.
Bordeaux’s 32,000 capacity Stade Chaban-Delmas needed little motivation to be packed to the rafters before their European triumph, but tickets will be hard to come by next season.
Northampton’s Franklin’s Gardens, Munster’s Thomond Park and Toulon’s Stade Mayol will be similar. And in their own rugby sphere the three qualified South African franchises will pull good crowds for their home matches in 2025-26.
This year’s Investec Champions Cup combined two teams who know how to entertain with a host city that can put on a show, and with that in mind this year’s competition cannot be seen as anything but a success.
Rugby’s selling point
There will be those who complain about the pool structure, which some believe should be changed, while others want to be rid of the Round of 16 stage and the broadcast deal with Premier Sports. But the end result was a first-time winner and an opponent looking for their first title in 25 years, while favourites like Leinster and Toulouse fell earlier than expected.
So when rugby chiefs continually look to change the calendar, alter the number of games teams are playing and endlessly aim to shake up parts of the game that fans find sacred; supporters only need to point to the goings on down Chippy Lane in Cardiff hours after Bordeaux’s inaugural Champions Cup triumph to prove a point.
And so the curtain falls on an epic season of continental club rugby. Only one year to go, then, until next year’s finals in Bilbao. The culinary heart of northern Spain may be beautiful but has some way to go to beat Cardiff’s rugby and lamb donor combo from Saturday.