BRENDAN GALLAGHER casts his eye over the main contenders for this season’s European crown

Super signing at Montpellier: Ruan Pienaar

THE European Cup – alas the European Champions Cup never trips off the tongue like the organisers would wish – has assumed such a solid feeling of permanence that you tend to forget how radically the tournament has evolved and how volatile that process has been. And continues to be.
Twenty years ago, in the 1997-98 season, Bath won the tournament with Toulouse, Brive and Pau as the other semi-finalists. None of that illustrious French triu...