Toulon© Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Monday Maul looks back at the Champions Cup, assessing whether it is better than its predecessor, and also takes in the Championship play-offs

When it had finally dawned on Mourad Boudjellal that his beloved Toulon had become the first team to win three European Cups on the bounce, the tears flowed. It brought to mind the unattributed quote concerning Alexander the Great: "When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."

It was a familiar sight but with a different shaped piece of silverware. As the final whistle blew at Twickenham those in red and black fell to their knees or opted for the opposite mode of celebration and used their aching limbs to propel them gleefully into the air. Though the tickertape was oddly blue and yellow to salute their triumph, it was a case of same, same but different when the Toulon captain - Carl Hayman this time around - hoisted the trophy in the air for the third year running.

In their ever-growing trophy cabinet at Stade Felix-Mayol, two Heineken Cups sit alongside the new-look Champions Cup; a tournament for whom the honeymoon is over.

With the first year of the competition down comes the evaluation. When the Champions Cup was unveiled it was anointed an "invigorated tournament" with the focus on a more competitive pool stage. While the pattern of results were similar to the Heineken Cup - 37 percent of the group matches in the Champions Cup were decided by seven points or less compared to 38 percent in the final year of the Heineken Cup - the last weekend of the pool stages was far more open than the year prior. The 2013-14 European campaign saw six of the eight teams already through to the quarter-finals before a ball was kicked in anger in the final round of pool matches. A year on in the new-look competition and just one - Toulon - was through.

The meritocratic system for qualification from the PRO12 has aided this increased competitiveness while there seems to be a general acceptance the money from the various new television deals and the refined method of spreading those funds is fairer than under the old European Rugby Cup Ltd rule. The performance of the Italian club in the Champions Cup remains a concern with Treviso shipping 105 points to Northampton in their two group matches hardly a sign of progress.

But it is still an evolving competition and governance. European Professional Club Rugby, the body in charge of both the Challenge and Champions Cups, took its time to get sorted and only appointed its new director general, Vincent Gaillard, last Wednesday. He will be joined by ex-England centre Simon Halliday as the organisation's independent chairman. Both are astute appointments with one of their first projects likely to be adding more sponsors to their stable with only Heineken on board. They also need to address the Challenge Cup.

Unlike the old guise of the Challenge Cup, the winners - Gloucester - are no longer granted free passage into the Champions Cup and instead will head into the play-offs. That will be different next season due to the Rugby World Cup but will return in time for the 2016-17 campaign. Central to the credibility of the tournament are the French teams. They put up a feeble fight in the pool stages - the lack of the Champions Cup carrot was a deterrent - and to address this they will be offered financial incentives from Ligue Nationale de Rugby to perform next year.

The final of the Challenge Cup was a success with 14,316 filing into the 14,816-capacity Stoop but the attendance of 56,622 - though above the original estimate - fell well short of Twickenham's capacity for the Clermont-Toulon final. The scenes in Clermont's Place de Jaude put the Cabbage Patch to shame. The stadium previously mooted to hold this year's final was the San Siro. Twickenham's financial benefits eventually saw the pendulum swing that way but in a self-proclaimed brave new era for European rugby they should have taken the final away from England. This should be addressed next term but giving it to Marseille or the Stade de France is perhaps a more geographically-sound choice given the ominous signs of French dominance.

Four of the final eight teams in the competition were French and given the world-class players who are expected to land in the Top 14 next term, it is likely to be the same next year. When Boudjellal's tears have dried, the focus will shift to retaining their title for the fourth season running. Carl Hayman will not be there, nor will Bakkies Botha or Ali Williams but the desire and unquenchable thirst for success will remain. It's a different tournament but the lure is just the same. As are the winners.

"It will be up to the guys who are staying to move things forward and continue on what the guys have started here over the last four or five years," Hayman said. "I think being the third victory it's an even greater feeling. It's such a difficult competition, especially now with the pools being reduced, it's a lot harder. So it's a third time, and that will be extremely rare.

"Teams now have bigger budgets; teams are getting more competitive and more balanced throughout the competition. So it's going to continue to get harder and harder as the years go on. But I know Toulon can keep doing it."

Predictable play-off outcomes after the scare

In the end, the two Greene King IPA Championship play-offs showed wins for the favourites - Worcester Warriors and Bristol. It was the natural order with Bristol and Worcester both miles ahead of the chasing pack in the regular season.

While the two-legged play-offs are a daft concept - London Welsh's struggles this season in the Premiership prove as much - they do offer a nice dab of drama. At one stage, Rotherham - who if they secure promotion to the Premiership will play at Barnsley's Oakwell - led Bristol 17-8 at Ashton Gate after 65 minutes. But then Bristol's wealth shone through with Gavin Henson, Nicky Robinson and Jack Lam all showing why they are top flight players. When Bristol signed Lam last term eyebrows were raised as he was one of the standout opensides in Super Rugby and his ability was showcased in West Country splendour in their eventual 32-20 win over Rotherham. They have the money behind them - Steve Lansdowne's wealth dwarfs even Bruce Craig's at Bath - but Worcester Warriors will want to gate-crash the Bristolian party.

Dean Ryan is one of the shrewdest English coaches in the game and he will have been pleased to have come away from London Scottish with a 27-22 triumph thanks to a late penalty try. Like Bristol they were made to work with three Warriors sin-binned but Cooper Vuna's double helped them to the five-point advantage. It's all pointing towards a Bristol-Worcester play-off final.