Time to End Italian Clubs' Champions Cup Misery

It's not easy watching Italian sides struggle in the European Champions Cup - so, please, let's end their ritual humiliation, begs James Harrington.

Zebre - the token Italian side in this season's European Champions Cup - have so far earned zero points from five pool matches and leaked an average of 58 points per game.

The chances of either of those stats for the Parma-based side improving on the final weekend of the pool phase are marginally worse than those of a whelk surviving a supernova.

They are the side that stand between not-quite-yet-qualified Wasps and a home quarter-final. While it is unfair and inaccurate to dismiss the game as little more than an extended training run for the Premiership side - Zebre are supplying 15 of the 32 players called up to Italy's training squad for the rapidly approaching Six Nations - it's safe to expect the English club will book their place in the last eight at a canter.

In fact, things have are so bad at the still-proud Italian club that they have just parted company with head coach Gianluca Guidi. Last weekend's hammering at Connacht was one dire result too many.

Current qualification rules for the European Champions Cup state that one of the seven Champions Cup places assigned to the Pro 12 must go to the highest placed Italian side.

Although it is too early to call next season's Italian representatives, as of January 17, 2017, Treviso are best placed to qualify for next season's competition. They are 11th and have racked up 11 points from 13 games - although Zebre, who are propping up the table, could yet overtake them. They are a mere two points behind with two games in hand.

To give a little context, Treviso are seven points behind 10th-placed side Edinburgh, and have played one game more. They are 16 points off Cardiff in seventh, and 38 points behind leaders Ospreys.

If Pro12 sides could be relegated, the dogfight would be between these two Italian sides. And yet one of them will be involved in the draw for next season's flagship European competition.

It must be time to end this Italian experiment. Neither side in the Pro 12 is capable of competing. Better that they enter the Challenge Cup, where Treviso at least have won twice this season. Better that the Pro 12's seven Champions Cup slots are taken by the top seven sides, without this token gesture.

When an Italian side finishes in the top seven - which Treviso did in 2012/13 - they will at least qualify for the Champions Cup by right.

Long gone are the days that anyone in the English or French leagues could patronise the Pro 12. The top seven at this stage are Ospreys, Munster, Leinster, Glasgow, Scarlets, Ulster and Cardiff.

Of those sides, Munster and Leinster have booked their places in the Champions Cup quarter finals. Glasgow need a draw or better at already out-of-it Leicester to be certain of a last-eight berth; Scarlets came closer than anyone to ending defending champions Saracens' 14-match unbeaten Champions Cup run in dramatic style at the weekend; Ulster's qualification hopes ended in an epic blood-and-thunder defeat at Exeter last weekend; Ospreys are in the knockout phase of the Challenge Cup, and they could well be joined by Cardiff, who are currently second in their pool, and at home to Bristol this week.

That is a contingent worthy of the Champions Cup. And, Connacht, who are outside the top seven, are one big performance at Toulouse away from the quarter-finals. Half the teams in the last eight could yet come from the league, along with four of the eight quarter-finalists in the second-tier Challenge Cup.

Meanwhile, Zebre have shipped 290 points and 43 tries and scored just 69 points, including eight tries. It's painful to watch. It must be humiliating to be involved in.

The Pro 12's top seven at the end of last season were Leinster, Connacht, Glasgow, Ulster, Scarlets, Munster, and Cardiff.

Zebre - this season's Champions Cup qualifiers - finished 11th out of 12. Above Treviso. The two sides have finished bottom of the pile every year since Treviso's high-flying adventures in the 2012/13 season, and yet one is guaranteed a place at European club rugby's top table.

So, to be Italy's representatives in the Champions Cup, one side simply has to finish above the other. That's barely a challenge. And it's doing down a league brimming with quality.