Bonus points soften the blow of Warriors’ loss in France

And you're not suggesting an equal share. 5/20 isn't a third.

I've suggested a solution in the comments on this article for how to allocate places. The solution is 1/4 of places for the Prem, 1/4 of places for the top 14, 1/4 of places for the URC, 1/4 of places for the best performing teams in the champions and challenge cup last year to not have already qualified via their league.

another solution would be to do what they do with the champions league in football, where places are allocated per league on the basis of UEFA association club coefficients.

and yes I was talking about English teams generally but the teams 6-8 in particular. Last year they significantly outperformed the teams who finished 6-8 in the URC and top 14.

They should be a little better this year so perhaps he'll get a chance to shine.

Forgettable? Seriously? Does noone edit this stuff?

Exeter also seem to have had player recruitment issues. Their squad is very young with very few established stars.

I tend to agree with this article, the CC can still be a prestigious tournament, like World Cups are, by stipulating each country (or continent as in WCs) has involvement. Do you need to start with so many for URC though? I don't know, but it's four pool winners probably should have spots, then the next 3 or 4 based on seeding?

So that's at least like a second Irish, South African, and maybe one of the other Scot or Italian teams that didn't finish top is still better than other sides 2nd (like Benneton). Shared among 4 English and so many French etc.

It will be interesting where England and France want to take the comp with SA's involvement, they might see it's value increased? In which case I would probably be best if it was more of a tool to balance out the seasons (get French less depending on having a huge amount of league games).