The Road to Riches Weekend of 1st-2nd August

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, Over the jumps at Goodwood, Hamilton, Lingfield, Newmarket and Thirsk.
• Cricket, the Hundred continues
• Golf, the Wyndham Championship on the USPGA Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Canadian Open.
• Commonwealth Games, the final weekend in Glasgow

NFL 2026 

2026 Regular season package now available for £125 here 

Last year the package won 313 points with a ROI of 10% on the regular season..

Here is the publishing Schedule for the next six weeks:

• Friday August 14th: What to expect from this column this season

• Friday August 21st: Ante-Post Team Markets

• Friday August 28th: Ante-Post Player markets

• Tuesday September 8th:Opening game Patriots at Seahawks (on Wednesday Sept 9^th)

• Wednesday September 9th: Thursday Night Football Rams versus 49ers, Melbourne (in the early hours of Friday Sept 11th)

• Friday September 11th: Sunday week 1 Matches

• Weekend of September 12-13th: Monday Night Football Week 1 Broncos at Chiefs

Free Tip

The Hundred: MI London v Manchester Super Giants Sunday 2nd August 6pm The Oval

The Hundred continues apace, ten days into the tournament each of these two teams have played four games each.

Triple defending champions MI London (the former Oval Invincibles) chased 144 to beat Sunrisers Leeds then lost to the Welsh Fire last weekend failing to chase 167, chased 127 to beat Southern Brave and then failed to defend 167 against the London Spirit. So a mixed start in comparison to performances in recent years at a 2-2 win-loss record.

Manchester Super Giants (MSG) meanwhile defended 138 to beat the London Spirit then scored 187 against the Birmingham Phoenix, dismissing them for 100 to win easily before losing twice in a row this week to Sunrisers Leeds and the Trent Rockets.

The MSG odds for top batsman on Sunday in London are as follows:

Buttler 13/5

Markham 3/1

Seifert 3/1

Klaasen 9/2

Du Plooy 13/2

No surprise to see Jos Buttler favourite, with three fifties in four innings so far including his 90 off 50 balls in their second game

Amongst the MSG overseas players is Tim Seifert a New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman renowned for his explosive 360-degree stroke-play and aggressive powerplay batting. A T20I regular since 2018 with over 2,200 runs, he holds New Zealand’s fastest domestic T20 hundred record and has starred in global leagues, notably winning the 2024 LPL Green Cap and hitting a joint-fastest CPL century in 2025. In the 2026 T20 World Cup, he was the second-highest run-scorer, helping New Zealand finish runners-up.

This is his first year in the Hundred, and he scored 67 in game one, then just one in their second game and 28 off 16 balls in the third with 12 on Friday. This is the highest variance cricket betting format and the big hitting players such as Seifert are the highest variance options within it.

10 points Tim Seifert Top Manchester Super Giants batsman at 3/1 Bet365/others to follow over the weekend

Blockbuster

In early June the LA Rams and Cleveland Browns agreed to a trade to send star defensive player of the year pass rusher Myles Garrett to LA, in exchange for former defensive rookie of the year Jared Verse and a 2027 first-round pick plus day two picks in 2028 and 2029.

Last season Garrett led the league with 23 sacks including 11 sacks on 3rd down and 33 tackles for loss, both league leading figures. Garrett became only the second player with 20+ sacks & 30+ tackles for loss in the same season after T J Watt in 2012.

Rarely do trades for defensive players move markets but this trade moved LA from -2.5 to as high as -3.5 for Week 1 versus the 49ers in Australia and from 7/1 to 6/1 for the Superbowl, 4/1 to 3/1 for the NFC and 11/8 to Evens to win the NFC West.

In part this trade reflects the current league meta. A defense getting home to pressure/sack the Quarterback with just the four defensive players across the front is key to allow defenses to run two-high shells in the secondary and restrict explosive plays. Garrett rushing next to the Rams Defensive tackles (Turner and Fiske were 5th and 14th in pass rush win league-wide at the position) is (on paper!) nasty, nasty stuff.

In the NFL the most valuable positions are commonly understood to be Quarterback, wide reciever, tackle, edge and cornerback, reflected in contract size. The Rams now have a Top-5 player at each position having also acquired Trent McDuffie this off-season.

In roster terms this is moving “all-in” with their win-now window closing soon under 40-year-old Quarterback Matthew Stafford. They absolutely improved by adding Myles Garrett. However, you can also make a case that the Browns, still rebuilding their roster towards competitiveness, won in value. Jared Verse is a young talent, in addition they received a 2027 1st round pick + other draft compensation with the main aim to securing a franchise Quarterback in the near future,

The Rams have only drafted in the first round in two years over the last decade with what has become known as a “eff them picks” strategy trading future commodities for known commodities now. The hardest part is managing the salary cap and they go very top heavy in this. When you don’t draft in the 1st round, draft pick cap hits are significantly less.

It’s not a foregone conclusion now that the Rams will win the SB.. I went back and looked at teams in similar odds ranges (80% to reach the play offs, 6/1 to win the Super Bowl) over recent seasons to see how those teams also fared. Only 2 of a sample of 16 teams won the Championship and only 63% (10/16) actually made the playoffs, well below expected. You just never know in a sport with so many injuries!

The Road to Riches Weekend of 25th-26th July

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, Over the flat at Ascot, Lingfield, Salisbury and York and on the all-weather at Newcastle.
• Cricket, the opening weekend of the Hundred.
• Formula One, the Hungarian Grand Prix
• Golf, the Rocket Classic on the USPGA Tour.
• Tennis, ATP City DC and Los Cabos Opens.
• Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow

Free Tip

The Hundred: Welsh Fire v MI London 6pm Sunday Cardiff

The first weekend of the 2026 hundred, the highest variance/shortest cricketing format. Each of the 8 teams has the same budget therefore the selection of franchise and auction players is key, as is the premium on coaching and strategy. Much of this is still a work in progress in this relatively young competition/format, for example establishing what is a good score? In recent years the competition has often been played on tired pitches (just after the Blast) and this year squares will be dry and worn so low scores/the importance of spin might be another feature. Small sample but first innings scores to open this competition have been 143 and 135.

The MI London team (formerly the Oval Invincibles) have won the last three Hundred tournaments but the Hundred this year has seen a huge amount of change, notably in team ownership. The Invincibles are now one of five MI teams worldwide and several of the key elements of their previous success has changed notably coach Tom Moody (who was well ahead of the game in this format) and captain Sam Billings have left as have some key players notably Australian spinner Adam Zampa.

They are 100/30 favourites based on past tournaments but this year more than any other this is likely to have no relevance to this year.

This was their line-up in their opening game in midweek, which they won comfortably at home to Sunrisers Leeds for player market purposes here:

Jacks, Vince, Roy, Pooran, S Curran, Phillipe, T Curran, Rashid, Gleeson, Boult,  Sowter

Nicholas Pooran has now scored 164 runs off 55 balls for once out across his last two short-form innings: Wednesday: 106 off 33 for MI New York at the Oakland Coliseum(!) This week: 58* off 22 for MI London at The Oval.

The Welsh Fire have struggled in each year of the Hundred and are 15/2 pre-tournament, seventh of eight teams in the betting yet the annual auction has allowed them to build what looks to be a much stronger line-up.

This was their XI for the first game at the Southern Brave:

Salt, Short, Root, Ravindra, Cox, Tribe, Kellaway, Jansen, Woakes, S Cook, Ferguson.

Ravindra and Root are clearly high-quality players but it doesn’t look like the punchiest 100-ball middle order, but they have a strong opening pair and Cox is a very talented hitter.

Looking at Salt, Short and Cox’s career records in the Hundred before this year:

Salt (at the Manchester Originals) is the top scorer in the six years of the Hudred:

43 innings, 1,138 runs at a 153-strike rate

He began this season by top scoring with 47* in the win over th Southern Brave in their first game on Wednesday.

Cox, (also at the Manchester Originals)

29 innings, 940 runs at a 154-strike rate

Short (at the Northern Superchargers for 2 years)

15 innings, 276 runs at a 138-strike rate.

Odds at the top of the Welsh Fire top run scorer market are as follows:

Root 3/1

Salt 3/1

Short 15/4

Cox 4/1

Bar 8/1

With his record in the format, opening the batting I think Salt should be a clear favourite.

10 points Phil Salt Top Welsh Fire run scorer at 3/1 BetVictor, Bet365, 29/10 William Hill, 11/4 Ladbrokes/Coral.

All Change

The ECB is considering allowing the new England Test cricket head coach to work in the IPL alongside the England role following the sacking of Brendon McCullum from his Test role though Andy Flower has stated he will not return to the role, preferring to retain his role with double IPL Champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

The ECB is operating in a modern cricket world where players are trying to balance between county and international cricket plus lucrative franchise opportunities worldwide in an overcrowded calendar. They may have to adapt to the same with their coaching and supporting staff.

McCullum stepped down from his role at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) when he took on the Test job, but England staff have previously held concurrent roles with T20 franchises. Tim Southee left the Ashes tour after one match to play in the ILT20, while several backroom staff have worked in the IPL alongside England duties.

However, the IPL's dates occasionally clash with England's Test commitments. This year, Jacob Bethell and Jofra Archer both missed a training camp before the first New Zealand Test (Archer missed the Test itself, too) while in India; next year, England are due to play a one-off Test most likely against Bangladesh in late May which could overlap with the playoffs.

The recruitment process for McCullum's successor will be led by Rob Key who has been backed to continue as England's managing director on a "long-term" basis" which most commentators regard as being extremely fortunate given the results, lack of administrative process and chaos of the last six months. The ECB hope to make an appointment ahead of their next Test series against Pakistan, which starts on August 19. They are unlikely to appoint a successor to Ben Stokes as Test captain until a new head coach is in place, most likely Harry Brook with McCullum gone, though appointing a captain across all three formats will probably be avoided.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 18th-19th July

*Betting Emporium results updated, see below*

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, Over the jumps at Doncaster, Haydock, Newbury, Newmarket and Ripon and over the jumps at Cartmel and Market Rasen.
• Football, the 2026 World Cup Final.
• Cricket, the England-India ODI series continues at Lords on Sunday.
• Rugby Union, the new Nations Championship continues including Argentina v England and New Zealand v Ireland.
• Formula One, the Belgian Grand Prix
• Golf, the 3m Open at TPC Twin Cities on the USPGA Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Generali and Estoril Opens.

Glorious Goodwood

After a great Royal Ascot week next up for us is Goodwood from 28th July. Get all the write ups and bets for the 5 day festival for £150 here 

Free Tip

Nations Championship Rugby: New Zealand v Ireland Saturday 8.10am Auckland

The third and final weekend of the summer Nations Championship games before the competition continues in the Autumn in Europe.

This game in Auckland this weekend sees two of the three unbeaten teams in the tournament after two weeks meet, the other being South Africa who have beaten England and Scotland to top the Southern Hemisphere pool. Ireland are top of the Northern Hemisphere pool.

New Zealand have beaten France 34-32 and last weekend Italy 47-17 scoring a combined 12 tries. A year out from the 2027 World Cup in Australia New Zealand changed the coaching team in March with Scott Robertson dismissed mid World Cup cycle and replaced by David Rennie.

Through the first two games under Rennie New Zealand are being asked to play at a different pace under the new regime and that it was something that the players have needed to adjust to, plus playing in areas of the field they haven’t been asked to do for 4-5 years. There are new combinations too, plus a new fly-half so perhaps it’s understandable to see some mixed performances whilst everything beds in. Of course, there is tremendous natural talent in the line-up if not quite the depth of resources from previous teams. For example, against Italy winger/fly-half Will Jordan scored three tries to become New Zealand's all-time leading try-scorer with 50 in 56 matches.

Ireland beat Australia 33-31 to start their tournament before beating Japan 36-20 to record their second bonus point win. Against Japan, probably with an eye on the New Zealand game, Ireland fielded a much-changed side with 11 changes and four debutants.

Back to full strength here they’ll be a determined challenge for the All Blacks albeit this is at THE toughest New Zealand venue for visiting sides. New Zealand are unbeaten in 52 games at Auckland since 1994 including most recently beating World Champions and top ranked side South Africa 24-17 last year.

So far, this column has backed two underdogs getting a score-plus in this new tournament and lost twice (England + and Australia +) This weekend Ireland are +10.5 points in the Auckland game

Ireland +10.5 points at 10/11 generally

Pointless

The 127 points shared between Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears in mid-May set a new record aggregate for the Prem. On their way to a 94-33 loss in the 54^th minute Bristol scored a fourth try and gained a consolation bonus point. Northampton had already scored 12 tries themselves. What made the scoreline even more remarkable was that at the time Bristol were still chasing fourth place in the league. This wasn’t a match between a top side and a bottom side with absolutely nothing to play for in a league with no relegation.

Bonus points were introduced before the 2000-01 season. Play-Offs were introduced at the same time. The bonus-point system in England’s top tier is unchanged since: one point for scoring four tries, whether you win or lose, and one for a losing team that finishes within seven points of their opponents. As a mark of how much rarer they were in that maiden season, Bath garnered the most four-try bonus points during the regular schedule. They picked up nine across 22 matches.

Fast forward to 2025-26 and that heavy Northampton match represented Bristol’s ninth four-try bonus point this term, in their 16th league fixture. Five other sides (Northampton, Bath, Leicester Tigers, Exeter Chiefs and Saracens) were in double figures after round 15.

A variety of factors have sent us into this era of dizzying scorelines: better pitches, increased athleticism, intuitive coaching, sharper skills, law tweaks to encourage more broken-field situations amongst them. Defences do seem particularly flimsy in the Prem. Only one club last season, Exeter, were conceding fewer than 20 points per match on average.

There is a different system that incentivises defences. In 2014, the French Top 14 altered the rules so teams picked up a bonus point for scoring three more tries than their opponents. Super Rugby moved to the “three ahead” rule in 2016. The Prem and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have stayed put, though there does appear to be greater emphasis on defence in the latter competition. A “three ahead” system maintains intrigue during matches, because sides who have piled up a sizeable advantage cannot switch off, and recognises truly dominant performances.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 11th-12th July

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, Over the jumps at Ascot, Chester, Hamilton, Newmarket, Salisbury and York.
• Football, the World Cup Quarter Finals.
• Cricket, the England-India T20 series continues at Southampton on Saturday.
• Rugby Union, the new Nations Championship continues including Australia v France and South Africa v Scotland
• Golf, the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next week.
• Tennis, Wimbledon finals this weekend

Free Tip

Nations Championship Rugby: Australia v France 8.40am Saturday Brisbane

Last weekend saw the “away” Northern Hemisphere teams win 3 of the six inaugural Nations Championship matches (Wales, Scotland and Ireland). This weekend sees the second round of three summer games, with the stand-out being in Brisbane where two losing sides from last weekend Australia and France meet on Saturday morning UK time.

Australia were beating Ireland with three minutes to go in Round One, went 31-33 behind and still had a kick to win the game (they missed) in a game that could have gone either way.  France lost 34-32 to New Zealand with virtually a “B” team missing 12 Toulouse and Montpellier players, the game coming just a week after the Top 14 final. France secured two losing bonus points from a narrow loss and scoring four tries. However, New Zealand scoring five tries continued a recent trend in French games having conceded 19 tries in the Six Nations, second-most in the tournament despite running out winners.

Nine players have been called up to the French squad for the second round including six from Toulouse. Recent starters Bielle-Biarrey, Ollivon, Ramos, Alldritt, Gros, Flament, Cros and Aldegheri are still absent, and Panaud was injured last week too.

Australia are a year out from a hosting a World Cup and at the end of their summer go through a coaching change from Joe Schmidt to Les Kiss and in terms of results there is much to improve.

Last year they lost to the British Lions 2-1, winning the third game by ten points after 8- and 3-point losses.

The 2025 Rugby Championship began with a famous win in South Africa but was one of only two wins from six games, the other against Argentina.

In the Autumn European Tour they lost to England by 18 points, Italy by 7, Ireland by 27 and France by 15 points.

Although their scrum is a much-improved unit they certainly missed the heft of huge second row Will Skelton last weekend but the team has a lot of big ball carriers, and probably the best ball-handling pack around and a very good back row at the breakdown.

What they are too used to yet is turning close games into wins!

The team this week has fly-half Gordon and back-row Hooper absent with injury.

This is expected to be a high-scoring game, the points over/under is 59.5 and Australia are priced up +8.5-points at home a line that moved out a point on confirmation fo Gordon's absence and a debutant fly-half Declan Meredith in his place, but, a line which they can cover even if they don’t win.

Australia +8.5-points at 10/11 generally.

Self-Indulgence

England have now lost seven of their nine most recent Tests, and suffered their first home series defeat (in a Test series of three matches or more) since 2012 against New Zealand recently. They are seventh in the World Test Championship table (Only West Indies and Pakistan sit below England) and have not won a Test series (of more than one match) since 2024. Despite the talk of Bazball saving the format, England have been a shambles recently.

Despite all the evidence that their batting methods don't work, most recently throughout the Winter Ashes and now against New Zealand, specifically most recently in the fourth innings at Nottingham with the away side two bowlers down, they continued with their ultra-attacking approach added to by the self-indulgent and emotional decision for Stokes to open the batting and slog in the fourth innings of the third Test at Trent Bridge, to Harry Brook’s ridiculous 9-ball 21 at the end of which the New Zealand’s players were heard on the stump mics exclaiming “What IS he doing?” it is obvious to everyone by now that this approach doesn't work against solid professional sides.

A change of management has to be made. Key is not an administrator and McCullum hasn’t installed any discipline either in approach or off-the-field. During the series just finished New Zealand lost Kane Williamson to (an under-stated) retirement but scored five hundreds to England’s one, had greater depth in bowling combined with a top-class keeper and outplayed England in all departments.

Simply replacing Stokes as captain is a difficult job with each candidate coming with baggage. Stokes anointed Harry Brook but the combination of him with Brendon McCullum does not suggest a serious professional outfit. Joe Root would be nothing more than a stop-gap solution. It is an even bigger head-scratcher to think of a Stokes replacement as a bowling all-rounder who can balance a team.

There are ten Tests until next Summer’s Ashes. It could be we see several captains, a big turnover of players, a new director of cricket, a new coaching team and bad results during yet another rebuild. Yet again we face the prospect of being big underdogs for that Ashes with such an uncertain period ahead.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page was updated on 1^st January 2026. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,244.70 All bets have an ROI +2.41%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,244.70 a 1631% increase 

The Road to Riches Weekend of 4th-5th July

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, Over the flat at Beverley, Carlisle, Haydock, Leicester, Nottingham and Sandown.
• Football, the 2026 World Cup last sixteen matches.
• Cricket, the England-India T20 series continues.
• Rugby Union, the new Nations Championship begins including South Africa-England in Johannesburg and New Zealand-France in Christchurch.
• Formula One, the British Grand Prix
• Golf, the Scottish Open and the ISCO Championships.
• Tennis, Wimbledon continues.

Glorious Goodwood

After a great Royal Ascot week next up for us is Goodwood in July. Get all the write ups and bets for the 5 day festival for £150 here 

Free Tip

Nations Championship Rugby South Africa v England 4.40pm Saturday Johannesburg

The first weekend of the new Nations Championship. A reminder, it is a bi-annual international competition featuring the twelve top ranked teams. The teams are divided into two pools of six southern and northern hemisphere teams, and play a full round-robin of matches with the teams in the opposing pool across id-year and end-of-year international windows, with the top teams in each pool advancing to a Nations Championship final in London.

England have the toughest start, South Africa away this weekend in Johannesburg then return for an 'away' fixture against Fiji at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool before travelling to Argentina in Round 3.

England have much to prove after a Six Nations in which they finished fifth with just one win from five games. In a remarkable interview before leaving for South Africa (not sure it was meant to be remarkable, but it revealed much) interim England captain Jamie George admitted that England “hadn’t really focused too much on phase attack” during the lead-up to the Six Nations. The scope for preparation was sparse because of the crowded domestic and European schedule. England’s strategic choices hurt them when Scotland and Ireland built significant leads because, as George put it, “we basically didn’t have a plan B”.

This is important in international rugby in 2026 as rugby has moved far more towards a multi-phase attacking game with off-loads, recycling the ball and  this has seen much higher scoring matches, a trend that is likely to continue until defences catch up with the new meta and a degree of stability is restored to the attack/defence balance.

The average number of tries in matches among the ten Six Nations and Rugby Championship teams has risen from 5.2 in 2016 to 7.4 this year. This year’s Six Nations featured two matches in which sides lost despite scoring 40 points. One of these was England in the final game of the tournament in Paris which came, we now learn, after England’s attack coach Lee Blackett was granted “more time and more licence” to implement multi-phase strategies before the Italy and France games. 

This hopefully is encouraging for the year to come before the 2027 World Cup. There are some issues though. The first three matches of this Championship come at the end of a long Northern Hemisphere season, which itself followed a Lions Tour. That gruelling schedule accounts for the absence of captain Maro Itoje this summer.

England flew across last week and have a week to acclimatise to altitude (5,750 feet above sea level) in limited preparation time as the Prem play-offs have only just concluded.

South Africa is well clear at the top of the World rankings (England a distant sixth) and have huge player depth that understandably makes them strong favourites for this tournament and the upcoming World Cup.

Notwithstanding the absence of outstanding fly half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for the coming weeks, the Springboks have become a more incisive attacking outfit under the attack coach Tony Brown. They scored over 40 points per Test match in 2025. They have selected what looks to be their strongest available team. Admittedly it has many players on the wrong side of 30 years old but the team looks hugely strong. I expect they’ll rotate for subsequent matches but for now the a) respect for England and b) grudge against England has seen them go all-out here and despite a few injury absences its an incredible strong 23..

South Africa may see some early season clunkiness but the way the game is currently being played suggests a shoot-out is far more likely. England continue to talk about “playing big” but the challenges are enormous here, especially with the relative strength of the two benches for the second half. They will try to attack fly-half Libbok who is prone to mistakes. Fail to pressure him and it could be a long day.

Outright odds for the Nations Championship are as follows:

South Africa 2/1

France 3/1

New Zealand 4/1

England 11/2

Ireland 13/2

Australia 14/1

For this opening game South Africa are 14.5-point favourites on the handicap spread.  That’s a big spread to cover assuming England can at least hold their own up front and England are a side who scored 46-points in Paris last time out.

I worry about the last Quarter of the game at altitude for England but getting more than two converted tries as a start I think we can take a view on England’s attack putting up enough points to make covering a probability.

10 points England +14.5-points at 10/11 generally

A level playing field?

It is now six seasons since an English PREM team won the European Champions Cup. Bath made the semi-finals this year but clearly were behind the top three sides in Europe, Bordeaux Begles, Leinster and Toulouse, defeated at Bordeuax in a brilliant Quarter-Final.

Six years ago Exeter supplemented the success of Saracens to make it four Premiership winners in five years; a bygone era. Even allowing for the cyclical nature of sport such English dominance feels a long way away.

The progression of Bordeaux and Leinster to this year’s final meant that a series of six Champions Cup finals has been contested by only five teams: those two, plus Toulouse, La Rochelle and, courtesy of stunning Dublin upset last year, Northampton Saints.

English teams have an essential problem in the modern era that Bath have shown, they are spending up to the PREM salary cap and yet couldn’t reach the final. Might it require the present level of the salary cap to be raised in the league’s franchised future?

Factoring in the wages of their marquee player, Finn Russell, Bath spend  £2m beyond the basic ceiling of £6.4m. Figures released recently by Ligue National de Rugby outlined that seven Top 14 teams ( Toulouse, Bordeaux, Toulon, Montpellier, Stade Français, Clermont Auvergne and La Rochelle) spent more than £8.5m to their playing budget alone in the 2024-25 season. 

French clubs can spend €10.7m. Even accounting for a Top 14 calendar comprising 26 regular-season fixtures rather than 18 in the Prem, that excess can be put to good use. Bath still have to compromise in squad composition.

A salary cap makes it more difficult to keep a squad together and build cohesion from season to season. Any “Super Bowl window” for success is smaller because rosters must be trimmed and reset more regularly. Du Toit and Barbeary left Bath this summer, for instance. Furbank is leaving Northampton for Harlequins. The Prem salary cap has good intentions. It helps to prevent clubs from overreaching, saving themselves from themselves, and increases the competitiveness of the league by redistributing talent. But it is not condusive to landing the Champions Cup.

An English team would have to be diligent with youth production, recruitment and retention, as well as being lucky and extremely accurate on the pitch, to prevail in the Champions Cup. A skinnier salary cap is a significant hindrance. Winning on the road in pool matches to earn a home knockout run seems vital. Which English team is capable of all that when fighting on two fronts?