The Heineken Cup's unloved, slightly spotty cousin will certainly be harder to win after a significant overhaulThe inspired invention that is European club rugby returns this week in all its glory.
To gauge the impact the Heineken Cup has made since its inception 15 seasons ago, just try to imagine the game without it.
A life lived in black and white, as opposed to glorious technicolour, with only domesticity to enliven the winter months? It is possible that professional rugby union would never have flourished in the way it has without its most stunning centrepiece.Loitering in the shadows, though, has always been its unloved, slightly spotty cousin.
The newly restyled Amlin Challenge Cup, which aspires to be an oval-ball Europa League, has mostly been regarded as a consolation prize that not every competing club seems to cherish.
Only in the knock-out stages has it traditionally come alive as everyone suddenly appreciates it might just be a pot worth lifting.
The sense of Heineken Lite, even so, remains hard to shake.And so, somewhat belatedly, changes have been made.
Only the five pool winners will go through to the knock-out stages this season where they will be joined in the quarter-finals by the third, fourth and fifth ranked Heineken Cup pool runners-up.
There is an incentive to be the best Challenge Cup qualifier, as that team will avoid the three incomers, all of whom will have away draws in the last eight.
The winners will also qualify for the Heineken Cup next season (as long as another club from the same country does not win that tournament, in which case the organisers would withdraw the prize and reward the highest-ranked non-qualifier from one of the other five nations instead).Will it work? The Wasps' coach Shaun Edwards rightly makes the point that the tournament will now be harder to win, which has to be progress.
A new sponsor is also a welcome development but also serves to underline the uneasy truth that no backer has remained involved for several years.
The event has to be seen to be doing more than simply offering fixtures for those with their noses pressed up against the Heineken Cup's glass window.One alternative might be to adopt a more all-inclusive policy and expand the Heineken Cup to, say, a 44-team tournament (14 from France, 12 from England, 4 from Ireland, Wales and Italy, two from Scotland and one apiece from Spain, Romania, Portugal and either Georgia or Russia) split into 11 pools of four.
The advantage would be to spread the lower-ranked teams more evenly across the draw and introduce a 'round of 16' phase made up of the 11 pool winners and the five "fastest losers".
Nor would the likes of Saracens, Castres or Wasps have to spend all season cursing their luck.
The disadvantage, potentially, would be a few more mismatches initially (Munster v Bucuresti Oaks, anyone?).Either way, there seems more enthusiasm for the Challenge Cup this time around.
Even without the delayed influx of talent later on, it is possible to pick a very handy 23-man squad from players inhabiting the supposed second tier: Chris Latham; Paul Sackey, Francois Steyn, Felipe Contepomi, Rico Gear; Jonny Wilkinson, Justin Marshall; Matias Agüero, Schalk Brits, Carl Hayman, Simon Shaw, Lionel Nallet, Juan Fernández Lobbe, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Joe Van Niekerk.
Replacements: Aleki Lutui, Olivier Milloud, Carl Hoeft, Louis Picamoles, Sébastien Chabal, Sébastien Tillous-Borde, Andrew Mehrtens, Sonny Bill Williams.
If Mehrtens and Danny Cipriani aspire to be this year's Pied Piper of Amlin, they must also wrestle with fellow internationals François Trinh-Duc and Derick Hougaard for the No10 jersey.Down in Spain, too, they can hardly wait.
Olympus Rugby XV Madrid are an invitation side who have stepped in to replace league winners CRC Madrid after the latter felt unable to enter the tournament.
Some CRC players will feature in the combined squad, guided by the former Orrell and England A coach Ged Glynn, now in charge of Spain's national side."We believe this is the best way forward to help develop the game in Spain and give our home-based players the chance to compete at this higher level," says Keith Chapman, the national team manager.
"Everyone is really enthusiastic and excited about competing in the tournament as it is something we have been after for a number of years.
We now have the avenue and opportunity of six matches against quality opposition to develop our Spanish players.
We have around 18,000 registered players and, although some of the best of our internationals play their club rugby with French clubs, this is a real showcase for us.
Ideally we would love to get one or even two wins and we would be very disappointed if we don't get around 9,000 crowds for our home matches." They kick off in Connacht this Friday night.
Olé!What time can you get here?On the subject of attendances, it will be interesting to see whether Europe refreshes some pretty sluggish turnstiles.
If they are going to start complaining in Spain about crowds of 9,000 not turning up, where does that leave Newcastle and Leeds Carnegie who both attracted fewer than 5,500 to their weekend home Premiership games? Aside from London Irish and the newly-expanded Leicester, the business of putting bums on seats has rarely been so problematic.Island heartacheHeaven help those affected by the tsunamis and earthquakes in south-east Asia, not least the islands of Samoa and Tonga.
The former Samoan captain and prop Peter Fatialofa is among those to have lost a family member and the worldwide rugby community is rallying around.
The Australian Rugby Union has already donated US$8,700 (£5,470) to the relief effort as well as training and playing equipment, while Wallaby players plan to raffle or auction gear, including playing jerseys and boots, to raise further funds.
The New Zealand Rugby Union organised collections at domestic matches, while the Welsh and French authorities plan fund-raising ventures around Tests against Samoa in Cardiff and Paris next month.
Maybe now is the moment to ask the All Blacks to put financial issues to one side and finally agree to play a Test match in Apia.
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