Neil Best: 'We are witnessing a momentum shift in European rugby'

After a great weekend of rugby in Bilbao, many fans are reflecting on two hugely contrasting finals – that could easily have gone either way but were both eventually won by teams from the Pro14.

Cardiff edged out Gloucester in a match of tries, running rugby and a violently swinging pendulum of momentum. The Welsh looked more than out of it by the end of the first half, only for them to come roaring back in the first fifteen of the second. It was then back to Gloucester to nose ahead before the Blues got back up from the canvass once again.

Anscombe’s late conversion miss must have had many Blue’s fans believing it wasn’t to be, but his steely 79th-minute penalty put them ahead by a single point -the winning margin. It’s easy to say Gloucester threw it away, but that ignores Cardiff’s stubborn refusal to accept defeat. There have been only three Pro14 triumphs in the history of the European Rugby Challenge Cup, with Cardiff now responsible for two of them.

In contrast, Pro14 teams have performed more than respectably over a number of years in the Champions Cup accumulating seven wins including last weekend – all by Irish sides. Saturday’s attritional contest eventually producing a Leinster win was a different kind of rugby to the night before.

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Racing 92 worked incredibly hard to blunt Leinster but in doing so they left themselves short on cutting edge. Leinster have yet to lose a European final, and remarkably their standout performer at the weekend James Ryan still hasn’t lost a professional match – but for Ryan at least, it’s only a matter of time.

Four points across two finals might not be so obvious a difference, but it’s the first time ever Pro14 sides -or those of its previous incarnations – have won both major European trophies in the same season. This is significant. At the start of the season, many commentators had serious reservations about the direction the former Pro12 was taking in switching to fourteen teams and adopting a conference system. But now close to the end of the season, it all seems to be working out. Results across both Conferences this season reflect a closing of the gap between teams. Many of the historically weaker teams have found greater consistency and in turn better results.

That improved depth of quality within the Pro14 is what is now manifesting itself in Europe. In recent history, the second string of the Celtic League or Pro12/14 would have been a considerable distance behind that of their English or French rivals but not anymore.

This season the Pro14 not only provided three of four semi-finals in the European Champions Cup but once again it gave us three quarter-finalists in the Challenge Cup. For me, we are witnessing a further shift in power away from England and French club rugby.

The next step, of course, will be for a Pro14 team – other than an Irish one – to win the Champions Cup. And whilst teams like Glasgow and Scarlets are getting closer they may have to wait a little longer because it feels like Leinster are at the beginning of something quite special.

The Golden Age is before us, not behind us.