Forget the money, French clubs are winning thanks to sheer brilliance

At the start of the weekend, England was represented in the European Champions
Cup by its largest contingent of clubs since 1998.

Four teams had qualified
for the last eight — the question to be answered was whether English club
rugby was running high on quantity or quality.



In the history of this tournament there has been an average of one away win at
the quarter-final stage.

As the English quartet were all away from home
there was a pretty simple yardstick to measure performance.

More than one
victory would have been a triumph for the Aviva Premiership, four defeats a