You have to laugh. Otherwise, you’d cry yourself a river.
According to a public vote organised by the folk who run (for want of a better word) Europe’s major club tournaments, only one Englishman deserves a place in the crème-dela-crème team chosen to mark three decades of cross-border action.
And yes, that Englishman was playing for a French club. We speak of the saintly Jonny Wilkinson, whose back-to-back titles with Toulon give him the nod at No.10 – hardly a bolt from the blue, for in rugby terms, Jonny sits on God’s right hand. But that means no Owen Farrell, which seems just a little harsh.
Farrell won three finals with Saracens, kicking seven out of seven against Racing 92 in 2016, five out of six against Clermont Auvergne the following year and four out of four against Leinster in 2019.
He played all but a minute of those three showpieces and was one of the forbiddingly jagged rocks on which the Londoners built their success.
Just as head-scratchy is the absence of Alex Goode, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Maro Itoje (yes, really) from the genius selection.
This column is not known for wrapping itself in the flag – quite the opposite – but there comes a point when the least myopic of us are forced to wonder if English clubs might be marginally less popular than those from other nations.
Still, there is a smidgen of good news to go with the landslide of bad. Thierry Dusautoir, the wondrous French flanker who failed to receive his dues even when he was operating at peak wondrousness, is safe and sound in the back row.
His partners? Josh van der Flier of Leinster and Gregory Alldritt of La Rochelle, which sounds about right. Wonders will never cease.
READ MORE: Chris Hewett – Can Bath outdo the team that Jack Rowell built?
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