A hat-trick of losses and an unavoidable forfeit wouldn’t have prompted too much popping of champagne corks on the Welsh professional rugby circuit at the weekend.
It leaves the regions with major challenges if they are to make serious headway in the European competitions.
But all concerned will want to ensure their supporters at least take something from their journeys.
Ultimately, that's always what it's been about.
Only one side can win the top-tier event.
The challenge for the others is to give their followers a run for their money.
Pity the Scarlets, though, who couldn’t play their European tie because of Covid quarantine issues, with competition organisers handing Bristol Bears a 28-0 victory. When Dwayne Peel's side do start their European campaign, they will be determined to show their best.
Mark Orders picks out the weekend’s winners and losers:
Winners
Cardiff’s 'misfits'
There might have been fears a cobbled-together Cardiff team could have gone for 60 points or more against Heineken Champions Cup holders Toulouse.
Missing 42 players because of quarantine issues, injuries and suspensions, coach Gruff Rees had spoken beforehand of a "slightly misfit" group assembling to face the visiting European rugby aristocrats.
But they let no-one down.
The final scoreline may have read 39-7 in Toulouse’s favour, but the Welsh team, which included Academy players and semi-professionals, fronted up and made a game of it, with the likes of Jacob Beetham, Will Davies-King, Rowan Jenkins, Dan Fish and Ioan Evans having a real go.
They were never going to win, but no-one expected them to. Toulouse simply had too much class, with Antoine Dupont to the fore, and too much power as they unloaded 20st forwards off the bench.
But Cardiff were never less than spirited.
Under the circumstances, then, a hugely commendable effort.
Morgan Morris
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth is on record as saying Morgan Morris reminds him of Steffon Armitage.
That would be the same Steffon Armitage who, at his peak, dominated breakdowns, piled up tackles and carried ball through and around heavy traffic en route to becoming European player of the year in 2013-14.
There are worse players to be likened to.
Anyway, Ospreys back-rower Morris won’t get carried away, because that isn’t what he’s about.
His style off the pitch is quiet and unassuming rather than loud and boastful.
But he is making quite a noise on the field.
His effort against Sale Sharks on Sunday was the latest in a series of Stakhanovite performances from the 23-year-old, with Morris making 17 carries for 51 metres. There were also three defenders beaten, two offloads, a turnover and five tackles. As shifts go, that’s a busy one.
He isn’t the biggest but he is dynamic and he never gives up.
Wayne Pivac watched him produce a man-of-the-match display against Ulster recently and so will know there can’t be many more Welsh back rowers who are as dependable as the son of former Dunvant stalwart Paul Morris, nor who possess as wide a range of skills.
After Morris junior's effort against Ulster, someone confessed on social media to being "baffled" by his lack of recognition.
But if he keeps playing as he has been performing, who knows what the new year might bring?
A word, too, for Mat Protheroe.
Outstanding.
That just about covers it.
Tom Curry
OK, he’s not Welsh but he played against a Welsh side and his effort for Sale Sharks against the Ospreys was off the scale in terms of excellence.
The England international was physically dominant, played in Welsh faces and proved an immense force at the breakdown.
His was one of the individual displays of the European weekend.
Oh, and Antoine Dupont. He wasn't bad, either.
Gruff Rees
Interviewed before the game against Toulouse, Cardiff coach Rees didn’t come up with any grand predictions about how his makeshift side would spring a surprise.
Deep down, he would have known there was more chance of Boris Johnson saying there had been a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street last year where everyone got smashed and the revelry only ended when the chap next door complained about the noise at 3am.
But Rees did well for the Arms Park club, giving them a game-plan which played to the strengths of players like Tomos Williams, Willis Halaholo and Josh Adams. It involved trying to operate at tempo, with Williams evidently encouraged to tap and go. For a while it might have given super optimists in the capital a spec of hope.
The coach also came across well in his TV interviews.
When he was at the Ospreys with Steve Tandy, the pair were renowned for their work ethic. Rees was big on details and boasted encyclopaedic knowledge of players within and beyond the region.
He was also willing to field media queries both during and out of business hours.
Last week Cardiff's academy boss enjoyed some time in the rugby spotlight.
It was well-deserved.
Cardiff back row
They were up against a formidable unit in Cros, Jelonch and Tolofua, but Cardiff’s trio of Ellis Jenkins, Olly Robinson and James Botham emerged in credit from their club’s joust with Toulouse.
If Jenkins has lost a yard of pace after the knee injury which sidelined him for more than 800 days, he still has top-of-the-range breakdown skills, makes himself available to carry and defends resolutely.
He is also a leader who clearly commands much respect among those around him.
Robinson was returning to the side after injury and had no real right to perform as he did, with three turnovers, 11 tackles and 20 metres made with ball in hand.
And Botham, also back in the side after a bump, was excellent at No. 8, showing his versatility as he tidied up poor ball and tried to take the fight to Toulouse. He is a combative sort who plays with an edge and there was nothing passive about his effort against the French.
Wayne Pivac would have been impressed.
Ospreys’ tribute to Ifan Phillips
The Swansea.com region paid tribute to Ifan Phillips before Sunday’s Heineken Champions Cup match with Sale, warming up with ‘Phillips 2’ on the backs of their jerseys.
Phillips suffered life-changing injuries in a motorbike crash in Swansea the previous weekend.
As well as the considerate touch during the preparations, there was a heartfelt pledge from head coach Toby Booth afterwards.
"It's about trying to support [Ifan Phillips] in the immediacy but that support is going to need to continue post-hospital, into the next phase of his life and long term," Booth said.
"We'll make a commitment, as the Ospreys, to do that."
Nice one.
Losers
Welsh hopes in Europe
The early evening train pulled out of Gloucester railway station carrying a cargo of subdued Welsh rugby supporters and several media sorts sitting alongside others who may or may not have known their Arscotts from their Ellises.
Cardiff had just lost 21-15 to the Cherry and Whites in the 2001 Heineken Cup last eight when the expectation had been that the Welsh side might return home with a victory. The following day Swansea were crushed 41-10 by Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
The next season’s Rugby Annual for Wales reported: "The quarter-finals brought humiliation for Wales."
How Welsh rugby would accept two of its professional sides making the last eight this season.
It isn’t a typical campaign, of course, with Covid quarantine issues blighting Cardiff and the Scarlets before they even started. Both those teams now face a struggle to make headway in the top-tier European tournament through no fault of their own.
But the Ospreys lost at home to a Sale team who are lying 11th out of 13 in the Gallagher Premiership. They had a fair bit to be encouraged by in the second half in Swansea, but their defence in the opening 40 minutes was uncharacteristically poor and they failed to convert the pressure they put on the visitors into points. Ultimately for them it was a day of frustration.
The crowd of 4,664 was disappointing, even given the unfavourable kick-off slot.
And the Dragons couldn’t put away a Perpignan side who offered little for much of the game at Stade Aime Giral.
What is to be said?
The four Welsh regions contain many good people who are trying hard.
But even the most myopic should be able to discern that they are not operating on a level playing field in Europe (or the United Rugby Championship, for that matter) invariably playing as they are against better-funded opponents.
All the Welsh sides have significant holes in their squads and all of them could benefit from extra resources being directed their way.
Quite how such a scenario comes about is for those at the top of Welsh rugby to decide.
But the Welsh Rugby Union can’t just hope the problem will miraculously fix itself.
It won’t.
If they are content with the current situation, with Welsh professional teams finding it difficult to make a serious impact in whatever competition they play in, then they are failing that part of rugby that should be a showcase for the game this side of the River Severn.
And that isn’t good enough.
Not by a long chalk.
Sale Sharks on social media
It may seem a good idea to those charged with running club social media operations to be shouty and controversial while attempting to promote their employers.
But it really isn’t a good look to accuse a professional player of diving.
Travelling at high speed, the Ospreys’ Mat Protheroe collided with the Sharks’ Luke James in the European game in Swansea on Sunday before copping an accidental glancing knee to the head from Tiaan Thomas-Wheeler.
The official Sale Sharks twitter account trilled: "Ospreys make a show after Mat Protheroe dives after contact to try and win a penalty."
The tweet was later deleted but should never have been put up in the first place.
- Want the latest Welsh rugby news sent straight to you? Look no further.
