FROM THE BLINDSIDE: The progressive French club have had a couple of seasons to get used to the Heineken Cup and it looks like they're going to really target it this year

THE START of the Heineken Cup feels a bit different this year. No matter how much you just want to concentrate on the rugby and look forward to the matches, you can’t ignore all the meetings and negotiations that are going on behind the scenes about the competition’s future. There were talks in Rome on Monday and there’ll be more in Dublin in a few weeks. The whole situation is just a little bit nervy at the minute.

It’s a shame because the one thing we should be doing at this time of year is checking out the fixtures and the pools and pinpointing the must-win games for all the contenders. But instead, we’re sitting here wondering what the Heineken Cup will look like in a couple of years or, in the worst-case scenario, if it will still exist at all.

That’s a pretty shameful move on the part of the English clubs, it has to be said. Whatever their gripes – and they’re not all wrong, it must be acknowledged – they still should have a bit more class than to threaten such a brilliant competition.

The financial ins and outs of it have been done to death at this stage so there’s nothing to be gained from me spelling them out here. For me, this comes down to the simple fact that the English clubs have always felt they were better than the tournament.

And that’s not always a bad thing, by the way. Many a great victory over the years has been built on the back of underdogs going out to bring an English team down a peg or two. It gave those games an extra bit of oomph and it definitely gave Irish teams something to aim at in the early years.

What has been interesting to watch, though, is the way they’ve changed their tune over the years when they talk about the effect on them of playing in the Premiership. In the early days, they were always going on about how the level of competition over there was what had them battle-hardened when they went into Europe.

I remember it was all we had to listen to after Northampton beat Munster in the final in 2000. We hadn’t had a game for a fortnight before that final whereas Northampton came in having played Saracens the week before.

Martin Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio were always very outspoken about how playing week-in and week-out suited their players and made them better and how it was a big factor in them winning all those Heineken Cups. But if it was true then, how come it’s not true now?

All of a sudden, seeing as Leicester and Wasps aren’t picking off Heineken Cups by the truckload, their system is being seen as a disadvantage. The Irish way of minding our players, of taking care of them and making sure they’re fit for the biggest games, all of a sudden that’s unfair. They want to have it both ways.

This is all about money. Everything they’re complaining about comes down to money in the end. And anything they manage to push through in these negotiations will only matter because of money. They probably have a point in objecting to the automatic entry of teams from each country and it would do the Rabo Pro12 no harm if qualification was more stringent.

But if you follow that argument through to the end, it will obviously mean fewer Scottish and Italian clubs playing in the Heineken Cup, which will mean the competitiveness of their international teams will inevitably suffer.

What the English clubs don’t seem to have grasped is the international game is where the money is. Those clubs might be suffering financially but the RFU isn’t. It has built up a very healthy balance sheet on the back of a very competitive international calendar. But that competitiveness has to grow from the ground up and the only way that can happen is if the countries with the smaller playing pools can still have proper representation in the biggest club competition.

Think of it like this. In Ireland, we pick our international team from basically four provincial teams. In Scotland, they pick from two. Same in Italy. What if a rule came in saying that the English team could only pick from their top four clubs?

That might sound completely off the wall but is it any more anti-competition than condemning the clubs in the smaller countries to a lower-level competition like the Amlin just because the English clubs (a) want more money and (b) are sick of the Paddies winning the competition year after year?

We’ve been here before.

I played in the 1998/99 season when the English clubs withdrew for a year and we definitely missed them.

You would have always looked forward to getting an English team into Thomond Park because it just got everyone up on their toes a little bit more. It brought more buzz and excitement and we were glad to see them come back the following year, even though one of them beat us in the final.

That was a different era though. There is more money involved now, more TV rights, more people through the gates, higher salaries, higher stakes.

Whatever comes out of the talks, I don’t see any way the Heineken Cup will go to the wall. The English clubs might get some concessions somewhere along the way regarding the qualification criteria but there’s just no way they’ll be able to strike out on their own and set up a breakaway league.

The tournament needs them and the game is too professional now to allow something like that.

As for the tournament itself, a lot of the usual big-hitters like Leinster, Toulouse and Clermont are at the top of the betting but I really fancy Toulon.

They’ve had a couple of seasons to get used to the competition and it looks like they’re going to really target it this year. With the resources they have and the amount of English and Welsh imports they’ve brought over recently, they’re going to be very tough to beat.

The bookies have them at around 7/1 or 8/1 but when you think that two of the teams ahead of them – Leinster and Clermont – are in the same pool, Toulon have definitely got the better of the draw. They have Sale, Montpellier and Cardiff in their pool so you would expect them to come out on top there and take a home quarter-final into the bargain. I reckon there’s a bit of value in them anyway.

The fixtures have been kind enough to the Irish teams for the opening weekend and I don’t think it would be going too far overboard to say we can expect four wins out of four. Ulster have beaten better teams than Castres in Ravenhill even at times when they weren’t playing as well as they are now. Leinster shouldn’t have too many problems with Exeter at home, nor should Connacht with Zebre away.

Munster’s task is obviously the toughest, away to Racing Metro, but even so they should be up to it. Racing lost at home last weekend to Montpellier and took a bit of a beating the previous week from Grenoble, who are only after being promoted to the Top 14. That’s not the sort of form you need to be taking with you into the Heineken Cup.

Of course, if the Irish provinces start four from four, it might only give our friends across the water more to get riled up about. Sure what harm?