You could understand it if Cardiff Blues had already taken all at European Rugby Cup off their Christmas and birthday card lists.
 | WELSH WINS IN FRANCE 2000/1:
Colomiers 6-19 Llanelli 1999/2000:
Bourgoin 30 Llanelli 36 |
Maybe even removed them from their email joke distributions.
Not only were the Arms Park side handed a pool with Munster, Leicester and Bourgoin, but the order of the fixtures could not have been worse.
The Welsh will not face notorious slow starters Munster until December.
By that time the fickle French of Bourgoin have usually lost a game and given up on Europe in a fit of pique worthy of de Gaulle.
But the Blues travel to the Stade Pierre Rajon for their opening Heineken Cup match, with the French likely to defend their home as enthusiastically as other nations defend their marital vows.
| The crowd will be right on top of us and there'll be cheap shots Blues prop Gethin Jenkins |
There will be some weight of history bearing on coach Dai Young's side in this crucial encounter, as Llanelli are the only Welsh team to have won on French soil in the Heineken Cup.
"It's mad to think that we're going to France for what will probably be our easiest away game," said Blues prop Gethin Jenkins.
"They are a well-drilled team with big forwards and a physical, ball-carrying centre in Salesi Finau.
"The crowd will be right on top of us and there'll be cheap shots, but we have to block it out and concentrate on our own game."
| CARDIFF IN THE HEINEKEN CUP 1995/6: Runners up 1996/7: Semi-final 1997/8: Quarter-final 1998/9: Rebel year 1999/2000: Quarter-final 2000/1: Quarter-final 2001/2: Group stages 2002/3: Group stages 2003/4: Group stages 2004/5: Group stages 2005/6: Group stages |
Aside from the Blues' record in France, the European history of the self-styled 'Greatest Club in the World' has been one of steady, consistent decline.
Cardiff were runners-up in the inaugural Heineken Cup in 1996, and until 1999 every team to claim the trophy had needed to overcome the Arms Park side in the knockout stages.
They reached the quarter-finals every year they competed until 2001, but since then have failed to get out of their group.
The record books contain some encouragement, though. Cardiff beat Bourgoin the last time they met in the Heineken Cup, 26-6 at the Arms Park in the 1997/8 campaign.
Moreover, the Welsh capital side have a remarkable record of three wins out of three encounters with Munster in Europe.
That includes a 37-32 victory at Cork's Musgrave Park in the 1997/8 competition, the only time the Irish province have ever lost a home European game.
| We are going to see a lot more Welsh winners in France in the years to come |
History is written by the winners, and Young certainly intends going in for some revisionism.
"I know the terrible record in France, whose sides have a totally different psyche at home, but all the Welsh squads have got stronger in recent years," said Young.
"The gap has closed and we are going to see a lot more Welsh winners in the years to come.
"We have no fears in going to Munster or Leicester, but others are going to look at our group and see this as our only realistic chance of getting an away win.
"Just putting in a good performance is no good, we need the result.
"We've always had a strong 15 at the Blues, but now I believe that there is the quality in the 22 to go out and get that result."
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