Rugby Union: Conference remains to confound Sir John

Sir John Hall may not be bowled over by the format governing Continental club rugby, but the Newcastle tycoon's opinions clearly carry little weight where it matters most - in the boardroom of European Rugby Cup Ltd.

As Chris Hewett reports, the decision to run both European competitions again next season means Sir John will have to put up or shut up.

European rugby is either manna from heaven or a sharp toe-poke in the bank account, depending on the tournament in which a club finds itself competing. Qualify for the Heineken Cup and you guarantee yourself at least six weeks of glitzy, glamorous and generally lucrative exposure. Slum it in the European Conference and you can kiss a fond farewell to a month and a half of Premiership or top league action and take on humungous attractions like Padova, Farul Constanta and the Dutch national team instead.

Club rugby in the northern hemisphere so favours the haves over the have- nots that it is something of a shock to discover that the directors of ERC Ltd, the organising body of the two existing cross-border tournaments, do not include Baroness Thatcher among their number. There have been moans and whinges about the unfairness of it all, but, as a result of last Friday's get-together in Dublin, the competitions will proceed next year along broadly the same lines as this season.

The news will not please those English clubs who have been bellyaching about their lack of meaningful rugby during the recent domestic hiatus, although they will presumably be more than happy to hitch a ride on the Heineken gravy train should they happen to be in the top four of the Allied Dunbar Premiership come the middle of May. A number of big-spending sides - Newcastle, Saracens, Richmond - declared themselves thoroughly cheesed off with backwater life in the unsponsored second-string Conference competition, to the extent that Sir John Hall, self-styled king of the Geordies, called for its abolition even as his side were battling away in last Saturday's semi-final against Agen. No chance of that, it seems. The 12-strong ERC board have given the green light to another 32-team Conference next season and if Newcastle fail to make the Heineken cut, they will be involved. Unless, of course, Sir John takes his ball home and scratches from the tournament, a move that would leave his side with no one at all to play against, not even the Dutch.

Only two significant changes have been made to the competition formats. The Heineken, in which home and away pool games will be played in two blocks to allow for a fortnight of World Cup qualifying activity, will not feature a quarter-final play-off phase; the last eight will feature the five winners of the four-team groups plus the three best runners-up. The Conference, meanwhile, will contain only a dozen French teams - there were 16 this season - and that creates space for four fledgling national sides. Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Portugal are among the possible starters.

Meanwhile Gloucester, one of England's more enthusiastic Conference competitors, were busy on the transfer front yesterday. The West Countrymen were expected to complete the signing of Brian Johnson, the England A wing who captains the Army and scored 27 league and cup tries for Newbury last season, and were simultaneously pushing hard for the services of Steve Ojomoh, the former England loose forward transfer-listed by Bath earlier this month.

Johnson, whose pace made him a target for a number of Premiership clubs, was thought to have agreed a professional deal under which his military career could be kept on hold. Ojomoh, meanwhile, was being pursued as a natural back-row replacement for Ed Pearce, who undergoes groin surgery next month and will not return until mid-April.

Saracens, the Premiership leaders, go into their important Boxing Day match with Leicester at Vicarage Road without Richard Hill, their versatile England back-rower. Hill is suffering from a hamstring injury so Alex Bennett, a signing from Orrell, completes the breakaway trio alongside Francois Pienaar and Tony Diprose.

Wasps have two England internationals, Will Green and Simon Shaw, back in their tight five for Saturday's visit to Northampton while Bath also make changes for their awkward trip to Sale. Jon Callard, whose five penalties guided the club to victory over Pau in last weekend's Heineken Cup semi- final, gives way to Matt Perry at full-back while Mike Catt moves to centre to allow the transfer-listed Richard Butland a run at stand-off. Up front, John Mallett replaces Victor Ubogu on the tight head and Brian Cusack replaces German Llanes in the second row.

l The former International Rugby Board secretary, Keith Rowlands, has been appointed chief executive for the 1999 World Cup.