The battle lines have been drawn for control of rugby’s European Cup. On one side stand the English and French with the ERC, Italy and the Celtic nations glaring back. At stake: the Heineken Cup, the future of European rugby and a very large pot of money.

A quartermaster is a vital cog in any war machine. In World War Two the supply of oil played a key role in determining the victor. Countless tanks, fleets and squadrons can be assembled and deployed but without fuel at the front line they will be no more than so much rusting scrap metal while opponents invade, occupy and plunder.

Goodwill, an understanding barman and access to a sturdy washing machine can keep the local amateur XV ticking along but money is the oil of the professional game. In that less romantic realm without the fuel of filthy lucre one’s local club or province will grind to a halt like Rommel at El Alamein in October 1942, outflanked and outfoxed.

Like anything worth loving the Heineken Cup has its imperfections. The view from abroad is of an an extended phoney war surrounding various short bursts of Heineken Cup assaults on the battle-weary English and French. Those Celts who will allow themselves a moment of searching introspection might consider that increasing the dependence on league placing as a qualification factor might not be a bad thing for the Pro 12’s own status as a credible competition in its own right.

Were a non-Irish rugby fan to take a casual glance at the list of players who have made the most appearances in the eighteen seasons of the Heineken Cup it would not be surprising to see their eyes grow wide. Nine of the ten players who have made the most appearances in the competition’s history are Irish. The exception? Jean Boulihou, the thirteen-year Toulouse stalwart. In tenth.

Most Heineken Cup Appearances (1995-2013)

• 110 Ronan O’Gara – Munster
• 101 John Hayes – Munster
• 94 Peter Stringer – Munster (incl. Saracens 4, Bath 1)
• 91 Gordon D’Arcy – Leinster
• 88 Donncha O’Callaghan – Munster
• 87 Leo Cullen – Leinster (incl. Leicester 12)
• 87 Shane Horgan – Leinster
• 86 Anthony Foley – Munster
• 86 David Wallace – Munster
• 84 Jean Bouilhou – Toulouse

To put those numbers into perspective, Ronan O’Gara and Gordon D’Arcy alone have between them taken part in over 15% of the 1293 Heineken Cup matches ever played. Nobody could argue that any of the Irishmen listed are anything but top drawer players but, if nothing else, one couldn’t blame anyone for thinking it looked a little off.

Reserving places every season for the bulk of the Pro 12 clubs including the four sides from Scotland and Italy that comprise the complete set of professional outfits in both countries, has long been a sore point. Aironi was a failed club; its replacement, Zebre, was handed a gold card and immediately welcomed behind the ERC’s velvet rope.

Looking past this awful A and Z of Italian professional rugby it is more encouraging to look to Veneto in Italy’s north-east where the men of Treviso are no longer a pushover, something to which teams across Europe are more commonly testifying. While twenty-two matches per season in the Pro 12 have certainly been a major factor in their rise the ability of the Benetton-backed club to attract players to Italy with the carrot of Heineken Cup rugby is a key part of the equation.

Treviso’s star has risen alongside that of the Italian national team. While their slaying of both France and Ireland in the 2013 Six Nations was a rare achievement it was perhaps more impressive to have filled Roma and Lazio’s Stadio Olimpico for a game involving an oval ball. Italy has a population of sixty-one million people and is thus undoubtedly a market of huge if perhaps embryonic potential. It’s worth wondering if it makes long-term financial sense to launch into a heady gold-rush while ignoring the developmental needs of the wider professional game.

Unfortunately any warm, noble glow fired by high talk of nurture and growth must be tempered by the knowledge that at its heart this row is simply about who goes home with the most cash.

The English and French have long grumbled that Pro 12 clubs are granted a larger share of ERC revenue than England and France combined.  BT Sport’s arrival has opened their eyes to more exotic possibilities with the newcomer waving cash in the direction of the Aviva Premiership as might a comely maiden flutter her lashes at an eligible male who has expressed dissatisfaction with his home arrangements. The English have indeed felt the itch.

European rugby stands at an abyss, a great darkening deep. As the sides become more firmly entrenched the true battle will be to stop the memories of a great competition becoming so many poppies waving in the wind.