The European finals in sweltering Bilbao proved to be a humbling weekend for Irish sides with both Ulster and Leinster taking a hiding against Top 14 opponents and predictably those brutal defeats resulted in renewed claims that nobody can compete with the cash-rich French anymore.

It’s an uneven playing ground, the odds are too heavily stacked in favour of the French. It’s just not possible to match them. So say the doomsters anyway.
Except it’s much more nuanced than that. Of course it is. Leinster fielded a full 23-man squad of internationals – 22 Irish and All Black Rieko Ioane – and th...