John Mulvihill has pleaded relative poverty after the Cardiff Blues succumbed to Saracens, so ending their hopes of any progress from the pool stages of the Heineken Champions Cup.
The Blues coach – who is in his first season at the Arms Park after taking over from Danny Wilson – has claimed the Blues are the poorest of the 20 teams in European rugby’s premier tournament.
Two teams from Wales are in the tournament this season – the Blues and the Scarlets – along with seven from England, six from France, three from Ireland and two from Scotland.
Of them all, the Blues have the lowest budget, according to Mulvihill who claimed: “We are in a competition with the 20 best teams in Europe and out of the budgets we are ranked 20th.
“There is no point worrying about it because if we did we would not turn up. We are growing our depth but it is going to take a bit of time.”
The Blues and the Scarlets spend around £5m a year on their playing budget, with the Scottish Rugby Union claiming they spend around the same on Glasgow and Edinburgh.
It has been suggested in Ireland that Leinster, Munster and Ulster operate on playing budgets of around £7m.
The big leap comes when the Welsh regions are compared to the leading clubs in England, who are said to spend £8m on wages (a £7m salary cap plus add-ons), and in France where the figures are understood to reach up to £30m for some clubs.
Mulvihill added: “There is a massive gulf so all I can ask is they [the players] leave things out on the field each day and they did that today.
“We get to the stage where we can only get so much juice out of that lemon.
“We are growing our depth but it is going to take a bit of time but we have some confidence and momentum going into the Welsh derbies.
“If we take that intensity of this level of rugby into the Pro14 we should win every week if we play like that.”
Unbeaten Saracens continued their relentless push for a quarter-final place by the Blues 26-14 at the Arms Park.
But it was an often close-run contest as Saracens’ 21-game run without defeat came under serious threat for large parts of the game.
England fly-half Owen Farrell’s second-half penalty double and a Jamie George try edged them home as they strengthened their grip on Pool Three.
Wing Sean Maitland scored a first-half try, with Farrell kicking 16 points, while the Blues claimed touchdowns from centre Rey Lee-Lo and full-back Dan Fish.
Fly-half Gareth Anscombe kicked both conversions, yet the Blues are facing a pool-stage exit despite pushing Saracens hard just six days after suffering a 51-25 defeat against the same opponents at Allianz Park.
Saracens will secure their place in the last-eight if they beat struggling Lyon in France next month, with that game being followed by a home encounter against Glasgow.
The English champions now head to Gallagher Premiership title rivals Exeter next Saturday, taking with them an undefeated record that stretches back to April 1, when they lost a Champions Cup quarter-final to Leinster.
