Jeff Probyn: Heineken Cup row could damage the Six Nations

The Heineken Cup, despite all the trials and tribulations is rumbling along in its usual fashion, with all but one group topped by either English or French which, despite their constant protestations proves they aren't disadvantaged in any way.
The demand to change the numbers and qualifying needs of the Heineken and the Amlin is supposedly because it is unfair on the English and French clubs that have to compete to gain entry whereas those in the Rabodirect get automatic places.
The change is being sought despite the fact that each of the Rabo's participating Unions have a smaller number of teams than either France or England in each competition.
More to the point, the idea that any of the Rabo nations gain an advantage by playing weakened sides in that competition, flies in the face of the facts.
All players will testify that you get better only by playing against better opposition; it stretches and improves you as a player which makes you think and react faster.
If, as the Premiership claim, they were resting players, it is unlikely that those players would be able to raise their game when necessary, particularly in the knockout stages of the European competitions.
While I do believe that the Premiership and Ligue National de Rugby have true concerns about the future of the Heineken, neither really takes the Amlin seriously, often fielding development squads during that competition and they have very different agendas.
The English want more control over the European finances (a bigger share) partly because they have an agreement that shares the money between the whole of the Premiership not just those teams competing in it, while the French are more concerned about the timing of the competition because it clashes with their real money earner, the Top14.
What I find incredulous, is neither the Premiership nor the LNR seem to understand the potentially disastrous consequences of what they are asking for!
As rugby is trying to grow as a sport its hardest task is to make all teams competitive at an international level and, as every World Cup proves, they still have a long way to go.
It remains a fact that when 2015 arrives, the World Cup will most likely be won by one of the foundation Unions and probably either New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, France or, with any luck, England. And therein lies the rub.
The only way to improve teams is to offer them better competitions to play in, as Argentina's results have shown this autumn after just one season of competing in the newly formed Championship and also Italy's continual improvement year on year since the creation of the Six Nations.
Both Argentina and Italy have made tremendous progress, much of it because they have been able to call on a pool of players that have been playing overseas in better leagues. Although they are still some way off being confident of being able to regularly beat the top teams, they are steadily improving.
Part of the reason Scotland are currently experiencing so many problems is that they no longer have a big enough player base to guarantee a high enough level of competition to develop enough players of international standard.
As the country with the smallest player base of all the foundation Unions, Scotland have always punched above their weight, but the dawn of professionalism was always going to start them on a downward path that would be hard to reverse.
The formation of the two regions was Scotland's last hope of being able to compete in the future by condensing all the talent into those regions and by those being exposed to a level of competition that cannot be found in Scotland, by playing in the Rabo and the Heineken,  it was hoped that they can stay competitive.
If the Premiership and LNR get their way, then it is likely that Scotland and Italy will have at best one team playing in the elite European club competition and that will have a negative impact on those countries' abilities to compete at international level.
If that were the case, it would undermine the Six Nations Championship as the pre-eminent rugby tournament and could lead to a total collapse of the finances of the game.
This may seem a bit ‘far fetched' but if Scotland and Italy are in an annual battle to avoid the Wooden Spoon it will have a negative impact on player recruitment (and public support), which would add to the downward spiral. This would also impact on ticket sales for matches involving those nations whether during the Six Nations or on tour, making them less desirable opponents from a financial perspective with far-reaching consequences for both Unions.
What seems like a simple argument about qualification and timing could have a damaging potential to restrict the quality of opposition necessary to make those countries competitive, even within the Radodirect, let alone Europe.
If they are to remain competitive they must be allowed to play the best teams whenever and wherever they can – for as Jason Leonard famously said while lying on the floor of the changing room after England's 1995 World Cup drubbing at the hands of New Zealand, “If we want to beat these b*****ds, we have got to play them more regularly.”
They did and they did!