I didn’t blog last week as there can be some surprising results the week after the 6 Nations as each team employs different strategies in terms of how they re introduce their Internationals back to the fold. With the Heineken Cup back this weekend every fit player will be considered for duty.The Clash of last weekend’s rugby matches in Ireland, Britain and France was undoubtedly the Irish Provincial Derby between Munster and Leinster in Thomond Park on Saturday night. Thomand Park is an amazing place to play and with Leinster having returned 4000 of their 6000 allocation the atmosphere was pretty partisan. Leinster went into the match on a run of 5 straight wins over Munster and the way they started the match it looked like it was set to be 6 from 6. The need seemed to be greater for Munster with their players and management stressing all week how defeat was unacceptable for them or their supporters. There was no quarter asked for or given and anyone who thought that Leinster would have one eye on their Heineken Cup quarter final against Leicester at the Aviva this Saturday doesn’t understand how important the bragging rights for Irish provincial rugby means to these squads. Only two weeks ago 17 of the players on show were joined together to beat England and now they are knocking Lumps out of each other for fun.
Leinster led 20-9 at the break through a brilliant try for Shane Horgan who was winning his 200th cap for Leinster. Shane Horgan is a huge influence in the Leinster dressing room on and off the pitch and his mantra that “you don’t have to be talented to work hard” is something that I preach to any team I am involved with. His try his 66th for Leinster was from a back row move that would have been designed to attack a weakness in the Munster defensive system spotted by one of the coaches or players studying footage of Munster’s recent matches. Its one thing spotting the weakness but having the skill and accuracy to exploit it is a much harder thing to do and the players involved. It started with having a steady scrum that got a right angle, and then Heaslip, Boss and D’arcy who passed the ball and Sean O Brien who blocked James Coughlan created the gap for Isa Nacewa to burst through. When Isa reached the next line of defence he put a delicate grubber kick through that Shane Horgan picked up at full speed and dived over the line. It amazing how good Leinster were in the first 40 minutes considering how they hadn’t played together for months. They were ruthlessly efficient in all aspects of the first half and with Jonny Sexton kicking any penalties in range they looked home and hosed at the break.
The Coaches role at half time can often be overrated but Tony McGahan needed to make sure his message was heard and most importantly acted upon. There must have been a chance that despite being top of the League and into the quarter final of the Challenge Cup another embarrassing defeat to their Arch rivals could have cost him his job in the off season. The method Munster used to turn the match was by focusing on the breakdown in the 2nd 40 minutes. Whenever I played against Munster that was the area of the game that was the hardest to win. They hit you hard and low and if you didn’t get the right numbers to every ruck you risk getting turned over. They were also so efficient at the breakdown that they were able to keep the ball for long periods often by picking and going around the fringes through their pack. In an effort to play a more open brand of rugby they seem to have neglected this part of their game slightly and what you saw in the 2nd half was Munster returning to their traditional strengths and they strangled Leinster in this area. Leinster made a few handling errors in the 2nd half on attack too, which added to Munsters momentum. Despite Munster owning the ball Leinster’s defence refused to be breached and it is now over 500 minutes since Munster have scored a try against the men in Blue. That stat won’t bother Munster too much as when you have a kicker like Ronan O Gara you don’t need to score tries every match.
O Gara kicked 8 from 9 penalties at goal and the match winner was a penalty from the touchline in the last minute of the match. The American World War 2 General Omar Bradley said “Bravery is the Capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death” and that is the level that top class goal kickers like O’Gara and Sexton have to operate. Every time they lace their boots to play they understand that it’s likely they will be responsible for whether their team wins or loses. O’Gara stuck to his process and nailed the kick which left no time for Leinster to try and recover.
Munster will now finish top seeds in the Magners and Leinster will probably finish 4th which would mean they meet again in the semi final which would be a thrilling prospect for both sets of supporters and the Neutrals. This week Leinster need to react positively to the defeat and prepare for what will be a huge examination of their worth at the Aviva stadium against Leicester who are the form team in England at the moment. Leicester will have noticed how Munster beat Leinster and are sure to copy some of the tactics used. However Forewarned is forearmed and I expect Leinster to win but it might be only by 1 score. Munster have the talent and hunger to win in Brive in their Quarter Final and should be good enough to win the Challenge Cup outright.
The two best teams in Europe collide in the Heineken Cup Quarter finals this Saturday when the Leicester Tigers come to Dublin to play Leinster and we can be sure that this will be the battle of all battles. The winner of this match has a home semi final which is a huge advantage and with the final in Cardiff it will be hard for a French team to win it this year given their weakness playing outside France.
Leicester have a great record of winning trophies with 3 of the last 4 Premiership trophies finding their way back to Welford Road and more importantly they have a very proud record in Europe winning the Heineken Cup twice. This season they currently lead the Premiership and have scored 13 more tries than their nearest rivals. For a team that is built on brute force, power and physical intimidation they are playing an attacking brand of rugby with an offloading game that is similar to Leinster. They will try and win the scrum battle with the Italian Castrogiovanni and English test prop Dan Cole two world class operators but Leinster have been brilliant in this area this season and I don’t expect them to get any advantage here. They usually bring on Argentinian Loosehead Marcus Ayerza but he is suspended for fighting against Harlequins at the weekend which is a big blow to them. Their Half Backs Toby Flood and Ben Youngs are dangerous and will have learned from their horror show in the Grand Slam and the Tuilagi Brothers will be the latest brusiers to try and run over the D’arcy and O’Driscoll partnership.
The quarter final stage is often the hardest for the Irish Teams because they come two weeks after the conclusion of the Six Nations which doesn’t allow much elbow room in terns of rebuilding cohesion and team work.. The Leinster players will have taken stock of how they allowed the Munster forwards get over the gain line around the fringes in the 2nd half against Munster and will be prepared and ready for this tactic when the Tigers employ it. We can look forward to seeing skin and hair flying with Leinster to just edge a tight game.
The only Handicap bet I fancy this weekend is the plus 9 point start that Ulster receive away to Northampton. Neither team has much Heineken Cup experience of the Knock out stages of late and I think that Ulster will be competitive as they are one of the form teams in the Magners league at the moment. I am going to go for a Perpignan (4/7), Leinster (4/9) and Toulouse (4/5) which works out at just over 3/1 and might pay for a few drinks this weekend.
