The last round of Magners League regular season matches left the table as it has been all season, dominated by the Irish Provinces. Munster, Leinster and Ulster fill the top three spots in that order and it is now left to the current Champions the Ospreys to fly the Welsh flag in the play offs. While it is great that the Irish teams are now so strong I fell that there are serious issues in Welsh and Scottish Rugby that if not solved will hurt Irish Rugby in the long run given how much we really on our Celtic cousins for our opposition. Attendances are up year on year in the Magners but this wont continue if the results are a foregone conclusion 90% of the time. The Scottish districts are really struggling to generate the level of income required to run a successful professional team and the Welsh while not as hard pressed financially as the Scots are seeing their top players being poached by the Flush French clubs.
It may be time for the Scottish and Welsh rugby unions to try and come up with some kind of incentive that keeps their Top players playing domestically. The tax break for pro sports people in Ireland has proved very successful in ensuring that Irish Rugby is successful on the pitch. The Welsh regions need to have a look at their coaching systems and whether they are operating under a High Performance Culture or still amateurish in their approach. The game is changing all the time and if you stand still you are being left behind. It’s a sad indicatment on Welsh rugby that they haven’t had a Heineken cup finalist since Cardiff lost to Toulouse in the first year of the competition in 1996.
I was working on RTE Television for Munster versus Connacht match on Friday night from Thomand Park . It was a hard match to analyse as it was a pretty tepid affair which Munster won 22-6 in the end in front of only 11,000 fans. I expected a real backlash from Munster given how poor they had been when they lost to Harlequins at the same venue just 7 days earlier. However they didn’t seemed focused and this was shown by some of their indiscipline. The best example of this indiscipline was when Referee David Wilkinson was admonishing a bemused Denis Leamy for some rucking of a blatantly offside Connacht forward at a ruck. Paul O’Connell and Leamy argued that the same thing had just happened to Alan Quinlan yet no Munster penalty followed.
“Do you want another five or 10 metres?” Wilkinson asked O’Connell, but, before the Munster captain could reply, Leamy accepted the kind offer, saying, “yeah”, leaving the referee with little option but to march the penalty on five or 10 metres. The glance O’Connell gave Leamy was priceless but this incident shouldn’t happen and Munster need to re focus quickly or else they will fall short in a competition that they have dominated all season. They finished 13 points clear of the pack and now face the Ospreys in Thomond Park this weekend in the semi final. This the fifth time that these two teams will meet this season having shared a Heineken Cup group. The more you play a team the closer the matches usually are and the Ospreys will be lacking no little motivation as they will seek to retain their trophy and also honour their departing players and finish the season on a high. They have dominated Munster at the scrum in all their matches this year and Munster will need to shore up this weakness to prevail. At this time of the year with Injuries and fatigue its not about getting better each week as much as what team can decline slowest that wins silverware. Its very easy to take your eye of the ball with talk of holidays and end of season piss ups etc. But when these players reported for pre season 11 months ago their focus was on doing everything right to ensure that they were in the hunt for a trophy or in Leinster case trophies this week. Its important to maintain that focus.
Leinster will face Ulster at home on Friday night having dispatched Glasgow for a bonus point win and Ulster went to the Dragons and got the win. Ulster will be missing Andrew Trimble, Stephen Ferris and Paddy Wallace due to injury and its hard to see them upsetting the home team. They have made real progress this season and having quailified for the Heineken Cup quarters and Magners semi finals they will look forward to building on that next year. Connacht are the province is the toughest position as usual but for different reasons than usual. They have had their best season since the game went pro and finished ahead of Treviso, Aironi and Glasgow yet they are losing their 4 best players to Munster (1) and Leinster (3). Having played for Connacht over 2 different periods I understand why these players are leaving. The Heineken Cup is a great draw and also when you retire you want to be able to have something tangible in the form of Medals to show for your efforts. Realistically Connacht are still a long way from winning silverware but if those players main motivation for leaving was to play in the Heineken they may have made an error. If Leinster go on to beat Northampton in the Heineken Cup final Saturday week then Connacht will be promoted to the Heineken next season.
Of the 4 players leaving none are guaranteed their spots at Munster at Leinster and they could find themselves warming the bench while Connacht are playing in the Top tier with inferior players. If Connacht get in to the main Competition they have very little time to recruit the type of quality required to compete at that level. Still I believe that getting into the Heineken would be a positive step for Connacht and would generate huge interest in the province which will help the game grow there.
In terms of tips this week I am looking for another winner and going for a treble of Saracens (2/5) Leicester (4/9) and Leinster (1/5). The treble works out at 5/4 and I think it will add to our profits. I am working for RTE again at the Munster V Ospreys match down in Thomond Park and I think that it’s a very hard match to call as I don’t know which Ospreys team will turn up. They are talented but if they play like they did against Aironi last weekend they will be beaten out the gate.
