World Club Championship 1996

This idea was inspired by an article on here talking about a one off World Club Championship between the winners of the Super Rugby competition and Heineken Cup each year.

https://www.606v2.com/t6322-heineken-cup-vs-super-15

It got me to thinking about what those match ups would have been over the 15 years that the Heineken Cup has been running.

On 7th January 1996 Toulouse won the inaugural Heineken Cup, beating Cardiff 21-18 in front of 21,800 fans at Cardiff Arms Park. The Toulouse team that day was this;

01. Christian Califano	09. Jerome Cazalbou
02. Patrick Soula	10. Christophe Deylaud
03. Christophe Portolan
04. Hugues Miorin	11. David Berty
05. Franck Belot	12. Thomas Castaignede
06. Didier Lacroix	13. Philippe Carbonneau
07. Herve Manent	14. Emile Ntamack (capt)
08. Sylvain Dispagne	15. Stephane Ougier

16. Ugo Mola 17. Eric Artiguste 18. Richard Castel 19. Christophe Guiter 20. Nicloas Bacque 21. Olivier Carbonneau 22. Pascal Lasserre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995%E2%80%9396_Heineken_Cup]1995/96 Heineken Cup summary

There are some big names in that team, including a young Christian Califano, who six years later became the first Frenchman to play in super rugby, incidentally for the Auckland Blues, a 20 year old Thomas Castaignede, already capped by France, and the wonderful Emile Ntamack leading the side from the wing. There is no doubting that they were a wonderful side, powerful up front, with great flair in the backs, and worthy winners of the first major European trophy.


Four months later on 25th May 1996 the Auckland Blues ran in 6 ties to beat the Natal Sharks 45-21 at Eden Park, and lift the first Super 12 (after 3 seasons of it being Super 10) trophy. The men on duty for them that day were these;

01. Craig Dowd	09. Ofisa Tonu’u
02. Sean Fitzpatrick	10. Carlos Spencer
03. Olo Brown
04. Robin Brooke	11. Jonah Lomu
05. Charles Riechelmann	12. Johnny Ngauamo
06. Michael Jones	13. Eroni Clarke
07. Andrew Blowers	14. Joeli Vidiri
08. Zinzan Brooke (capt)	15. Adrian Cashmore

16. Lee Stensness 17. Cameron Rackham 18. Michael Scott 19. Jason Chandler 20. Kevin Nepia 21. Andrwe Roose

1996 Super 12 summary

That is a serious looking team, particularly up front, with all 8 capped by the All Blacks, and including three all time legends of the game in Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Jones and Zinzan Brooke. This was a team that could run in tries from anywhere, and scored over 400 points in their 11 regular season games on their way to winning the first of their 3 Super Rugby titles.

The teams at this time were coached by Guy Noves and Graham Henry respectively, and what a fascinating match up that would be seeing these two top coaches going head to head in a tactical battle.

Looking at the teams this would be a wonderful match up, full of attacking rugby, but I can’t help thinking that the Blues would have a little too much, although they would need King Carlos to have one of his good days, as I think they would concede a few points to a very good side.

In summary, I think had we have had a World Club Championship in 1996, it would be 1-0 to the Southern Hemisphere, with a wonderful Auckland Blues side running out reasonably comfortable winners against a determined but ultimately not quite good enough Stade Touloussain.

So, let me know what you think. Who would win this match? Who are the stars, and where would one team gain the advantages over the other?

Thanks for reading.

Sources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.espnscrum.com/
http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/

I think that the Blues on paper may just nick it as they have the best Hooker of all time, best 8 of all time, arguably the best winger and an incredible talent at fly half. But what you can never get taught in the SH rugby is the ability to grind the victory when circumstances are not in there favour. SH sides never seem able to do this, as there is so much emphasis placed on free flowing attacking rugby, not winning at all costs.

Certainly it would have been an incredibly interesting match to watch between two great sides. I can't decide between Tolouse being the underdogs, or the class of the Blues.

That Auckland Blues side was amazing. Such a powerful team.

That Auckland team is excellent, but a few of them were knocking on a bit. How many of those forwards were still first choice All Blacks?

I think you are right, but it is an unfair comparison. Toulouse were a club side, so their equivalent would have been the Auckland provincial side (as opposed to the Blues) who won the NPC that year. (sorry can't find any links to that team although I suspect it would have a very similar look to it)

I think what this brings into focus though is the transformation of European club rugby in the intervening decade and a half.

Most of those players were from the Auckland NPC team, with the notable exceptions of Jonah and Joeli who played for Counties-Manakau. Michael Jones was approaching the end of his career, iirc the rest were going strong. And the Blues backed up and won again in 1997, and reached the final in 1998.

It's been pointed out here that on 22 February 1997, Brive, as European champions, were pitted against Auckland Blues who had recently won the Super 12. The French team were no competition to an extra powerful Kiwi side which won easily 47–11.

I'd have said the '96 Blues were stronger than '97. And in Feb'97 that game would have been a warmup for the coming season for them. Though I don't know how strong a side Brive fielded