The European Cup got the opening salvo it needed, and deserves, as the greatest tournament club rugby has produced, when Gloucester gave double-winning reigning champions Bordeaux Begles the fright of their lives on Friday night under the Kingsholm floodlights.
A riveting 36-36 draw, with a resurgent Gloucester unlucky not to win a famous victory, banished the defeatist talk we have heard in recent years from far too many Prem directors of rugby, owners, and some players.
Their droning-on about not being able to compete with star studded French clubs underwritten by whopping budgets has oft...

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