The long-awaited 2023/24 European Rugby Champions Cup kicked off on Friday, December 8. With one notable exception, the opening weekend was one that Irish clubs will be keen to forget. Four teams from the Emerald Isle saw action, with two experiencing heavy defeats. The third drew its match, while the fourth tasted victory, which was immensely sweet and notable.
On Friday, URC semi-finalists Connacht returned to the Champions Cup, opening its Group A campaign at the Galway Greyhound Stadium against French competition debutants Union Bordeaux Bègles. It wasn't the return coach Peter Wilkins would have hoped for. The Westerners were soundly beaten by a French team intent on playing fast-moving rugby.
When the final whistle blew, Connacht had been run off the park as Bordeaux's Les Girondins scored six tries to one in a comprehensive 41-5 victory. The Galway team will have to work hard on the training ground before visiting London's StoneX Stadium for Saturday's meeting with Saracens.
Even with an improved performance, Connacht, 11/1 in the match betting, should anticipate another long 80 minutes against Saracens. Despite the London club's loss to South Africa's Bulls in Week 1, they are firm favourites for the clash, with odds of 1/9 on offer at the best offshore sportsbooks.
Saturday saw Ulster in action for the first time this season, visiting England's south-west to take on Bath in another Group A fixture. At this stage of the weekend, Irish rugby fans using the best offshore sportsbooks to back their teams must have wished they'd saved their money as the Ulstermen were on the receiving end of a second-half whitewash at the hands of a committed home side.
With the halftime score at 14-8 in Ulster's favour, the match could have gone either way. After the interval, the game changed as Bath ran in three tries and amassed 29 unanswered points for a 37-14 victory. Ulster has now lost three successive matches in all competitions and will want to right their ship before hosting Racing 92 in Belfast on Saturday.
Bookmakers have the French team as narrow favourites for the Kingspan Stadium encounter, offering odds of 19/20 on the visitors. Unlike the Saracens-Connacht match, a close contest is anticipated, with Ulster fetching odds of 49/50. Hopefully, including Springbok World Cup-winning prop Steven Kitshoff will make a difference this time. He couldn't do so against Bath's Will Stuart in Week 1.
Also on Saturday, Graham Rowntree's injury-ravaged Munster, under new captain Tadhg Beirne, came out of the starting blocks well against French side Bayonne on its Champions Cup debut at Thomond Park. By the break, the home team was 14-3 up and looking settled in the Group A clash.
Again, the second half was an Irish side's undoing as the visitors fought back bravely with a try before Muster added a penalty for a seven-point lead. Four minutes from time, Les Ciel et Blanc scored another try after some powerful forward play. A successful conversion then tied the game. The Red Army could have won the game at the death, with a drop-goal attempt from Jack Crowley missing with the match's last kick.
An unsavoury incident somewhat marred the tight spectacle when a Munster fan grabbed the jersey of Bayonne's Georgian lock Konstantin Mikautadze during the match. The fan has subsequently received a stadium ban from the Irish province.
Munster next travels to Exeter, narrow victors over Toulon in Week 1. The match against the favoured Exeter Chiefs (7/10) on Sunday will likely be close, with Munster's 11/8 match odds displaying as much. With Rowntree fitting stamina and longevity training into this week's schedule after Saturday's second half, bettors should expect a better second-half showing from Munster next time.
With two losses and a draw, Irish hopes for a decent start of any kind to the European Rugby Champions Cup lay squarely on last season's runners-up Leinster's shoulders. The problem was that Sunday's game was at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre, home of the defending champions, La Rochelle.
The Leinster Lions had met the Stade Rochelais outfit in the last two Champions Cup finals, losing both. Bookmakers installed the French champions as firm favourites before the match, with Irish bettors preparing themselves for an all-around disappointing weekend. Leinster had other ideas, though.
Whether revenge for three successive defeats at the hands of the opposition motivated Leo Cullen's team isn't clear, but Leinster wing Jordan Larmour's first-half try in a rain-drenched match saw the visitors enter the locker room with a 10-6 halftime lead.
After the interval, La Rochelle dominated proceedings, turning down several kickable penalties in favour of finding the corner flag. Try as they might, the French team could not find the try line, though, and the Irish underdogs came away with a famous 16-9 victory. Irish punters also eventually had a weekend win to celebrate.
Leinster has returned home with a first Group A victory under the belt and the knowledge that a similar performance at the RDS Arena on Saturday should secure more points. The Lions host the Sale Sharks and are overwhelming favourites, according to the best sportsbooks offshore. With match odds of 1/50 compared to Sale's 25/1, bettors should only expect one winner.
After the weekend's result, Leinster (9/4) assumes the mantle of outright favourite for the European Rugby Champions Cup this season. The other Irish teams don't command the same respect in the betting, with Munster (18/1) next best among them. Ulster (125/1) and Connacht (500/1) are outsiders on the oddsboards, with prices on offer that their opening weekend's results project.
