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14th September 2016
12:06pm BST

"The budgets, the size of the squads... the goalposts have changed dramatically. The English and the French teams have gotten bigger and wealthier and the Celtic sides have largely stood still. "It is now 25 to 30% more difficult to qualify from your own group."Looking at the Champions Cup pools, one would tend to agree with D'Arcy when it comes to Munster and Ulster. Connacht have a chance of reaching the knock-out stages but only because they are in with Zebre. They could target home wins and hope to claim bonus points away, although they did topple Toulouse at Stade Ernest Wallon in 2013. Munster are swimming with sharks and doing so with an already injury-ravaged squad. They will hope Kleyn, Jaco Taute, Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Peter O'Mahony can hit the ground running, and safely, when they are fed into regular rugby.
Ulster have started the season brightly and have a backline that is the envy of most European sides but they have to deal with Clermont Auvergne, Bordeaux Beglés and England's surprise package of 2015/16, Exeter Chiefs.
Leinster have to French sides to contend with too and a couple of reunions with Northampton Saints. They have no reason to believe they cannot top their group, which is a brave statement considering they lost five from six last season.
After highlighting the problems Irish provinces face, D'Arcy's main solution was a decent foreign signing or two.
That is not going to happen.
The IRFU are more concerned with funding 45 to 50 bodies per senior squad than coaxing a Southern Hemisphere star to our shores for €600,000+ a season.
It's a numbers game and Ireland are currently losing. Time to revert to the underdog role we love so much...
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