It is a matter of record that several Irish newspaper columnists have taken this line. They have done so to infer that the action taken by the French and English clubs in seceding from the old European Rugby Cup was unnecessary, especially as the new body looks very much like the old one, with the new name being European Professional Club Rugby. Look at all the trouble you caused, they say, and for so little. The response to which is to ask: ‘If the changes are cosmetic, why then were they not conceded timeously, without the need for the threatened schism?’