article_snippet.sent: It is eight long, barren years since an English club claimed the top prize in European rugby and the bookmakers
article_snippet.sent: When Wasps claimed the Heineken Cup in 2007 with victory over Leicester, it seemed unthinkable that the Premiership would not produce another continental champion for so long.
article_snippet.sent: Yet since then Irish teams have seized four titles
article_snippet.sent: This season is not seen as any real exception, despite the presence of four English sides in the last eight of the new the Heineken Cup.
article_snippet.sent: In the new Champions Cup year it would provide a clear boost to national morale if one of their elite clubs could shatter the status quo by lifting the trophy on May 2 but there are significant reasons why an English triumph shouldn't happen.
article_snippet.sent: English sides have lost the eight other quarter-finals English sides have played across the Channel.
article_snippet.sent: The current Premiership champions were losing Heineken Cup finalists in 2011.
highlights_snippet.sent: It has been eight years since an English club triumphed in the European Champions Cup .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Despite four English teams in this year's quarter-finals, that hoodoo looks set to persist .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: English clubs are nowhere near as well-resourced as French clubs .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: In a World Cup year, it would be a huge boost to national morale if English clubs could progress further into the competition .