Ronan O'Gara: There's Europe's top four. And the rest.
Exeter Chiefs celebrate with the trophy after the European Champions Cup Final at Ashton Gate, Bristol.
WHILE we were down in Christchurch with the Crusaders, Jerry Flannery came calling.
He was shadowing us for the purpose of his personal coaching development, but from what I’ve seen he’s fairly well set in that regard. Flannery’s a good one and he will have his Harlequins forwards nice and stoked for the Champions Cup opener on Sunday at Thomond Park.
When Jerry talks, you tend to listen. He has a great sense of humour but he has that full-on way about him when he’s talking to you that brooks no distraction. Scott Robertson at the Crusaders found him a fascinating and intriguing character when he visited.
I think Fla might have been a bit intense for Scott, who’s pretty chilled!
All things being equal, Flannery’s Harlequins should come up shy against Munster, but that’s not going to prove a portent of how things will shake out at the business end of this strange Heineken Cup campaign. There are four real contenders – and the rest. Champions Exeter, Leinster, Racing 92 and Toulouse will take all the beating, and not even the blitz-type feel of the competition format should change that.
There’s no point in being politically correct and including Munster as a potential Cup winner at the moment. It’s twelve years now since the province won the competition and the absence of Joey Carbery and RG Snyman is a serious handicap, as it would be for any side in the competition. That type of player makes the difference, especially in Europe.
The French will be difficult to deny this time around, and I am not referring to the La Rochelle challenge per se. We are in the midst of a rugby revolution in this country. The national team is humming, people want to play for France, players want to get to French camp, even if there are 70 others vieing for a spot. The upsides are obvious. We experienced it with Munster when the national team were flying and the bounce when we returned to the province palpable.
For the fact that it was not a Six Nations or a World Cup game, I have never seen such an excited reaction to the French game against England last weekend. La Rochelle had three people on the pitch, and that has fed the appetite of the other lads in the club to say ‘that could be me’. Before that was never the case. Of course, the downside is, come February, I’ll be seeing less of Brice Dulin, Uini Antonio, Pierre Bougarit and Gregory Alldritt, who may well be the next French captain.
The French are bizarre. The national psyche has a problem dealing with compliments. So, if you praise a player, even an experienced one, he goes bright red. It may feed into the whole idea that their teams are full of mercurial talents. I think it’s down to personality. In school, it might be tough being the worst in the class, but don’t dare be the best and stick your head above the parapet. Then you are seen as a lick ass. It’s the same in rugby. Whether it be La Rochelle leading the Top 14, French teams being fancied for the Heineken Cup or the national team sailing serenely towards 2023, it doesn’t sit well.
The first of that favoured quartet go into action tonight when Toulouse visit Ulster. Normally we would reference a ‘packed Ravenhill’ but there are no such these days. In September, Toulouse spanked Ulster 38-8 in last season’s quarter-final. Men against boys. With Dupont at nine, Kolbe et al out the back, Ugo Mola has a serious proposition in his hands.
La Rochelle visit Edinburgh and Murrayfield tomorrow. I was only thinking about that this week - who’d have seen that one coming a few years ago when playing my last Heineken Cup game?
The Scots seems to have a special affection for me. They will relish hosting us tomorrow, and Richard Cockerill will have plenty of war stories from his Leicester days for them about this lippy Cork so and so. There is a psychological challenge for the players and myself this week. There is a marvellous opportunity to build on the progress we are making domestically by travelling to Scotland and performing there. That’s what it amounts to. That is why we create language about performance and not about wins or being first in the standings.
We’ve been looking at why we didn’t beat Lyon in the Top 14 last Saturday. Our individual kicking skills let us down badly. So that’s fixable but it’s also repeatable. Hence the focus on individual performance is absolute. Let’s not be weak-minded like so many French teams before about starting a European campaign on the road. The La Rochelle players know and recognise this. If somebody thinks I can stir some Heineken Cup magic into the potion for La Rochelle, they need only look at last year. I didn’t then, did I?
We have got a big bounce off recruitment. I have mentioned Will Skelton who came in from Saracens and has hit the ground running. The same can be said of Dillyn Leyds, who came to us from the Stormers but didn’t seem to fit what the Springboks required, which is odd. I knew he had game, but to watch the seamless transition from training to match has been really impressive. The French international Vincent Rattez left La Rochelle for Montpellier, but Leyds has minimised any loss.
Montpellier entertain Leinster tomorrow too. They lie 11th in the league and were in the doldrums up to last weekend but a 21-15 away win at Clermont has revitalised them, not least for the fact that a young lad, 18-year-old out half Louis Foursans-Bourdette, inspired them kicking seven kicks out of seven. The problems, just like the momentum, starts up front though.
The Montpellier pack is powerful, but in terms of its discipline, are light years behind Leo Cullen’s Leinster.
Some habits die slowly and painfully.
