Ronan O'Gara: Am I living in some parallel universe where consistency is a thing?
TEAMS TO BEAT: Anthony Jelonch and Toulouse came up short against Bordeaux at the Stade Chaban Delmas last weekend. They are two of the form teams in Europe at present. Picture: Lionel Hahnm Getty Images
So, it’s been quite the week. We were still sat in our Stade Francais dressing room at midnight last Sunday, seething – in fact, all but frothing – at a 25-20 Top 14 defeat in a game we led 20-6 at one stage.
An 8am Monday train journey back from Paris to La Rochelle made for a bad night’s sleep and no-one’s mood improved appreciably as we pored over the clips from the night before.
Then it got bad.
We had planned some video work on Glasgow, Sunday’s Champions Cup opponents, on Tuesday with a few walk-throughs. Then a few fellas weren’t feeling so well so it’s a case of go home and we will pick it up whenever we can. Wednesday, we didn’t train. Covid was back. On Thursday we were back into a horrible regime we all hoped was in the rear-view mirror. PCR testing.
In the Top 14, doubly-vaccinated players without symptoms are good to play. But the pan-European nature of the Champions Cup means a rigorous and repetitive regime of testing in the week of a game.
We have another series of PCR tests on Friday morning. Those with negative results from Thursday can come into the building. It’s like looking out the door of the dressing room to see who’s going to show up for the Junior Cs. Right now, I only have a very vague idea of what our squad for Sunday will be. To date, we’ve lost three frontliners for certain. We might select and announce a side on Friday and it could have changed again by the Captain’s Run. It’s carnage.
I think most coaches were hoping that the revised four-game format of the Champions Cup was a one-season thing. I was hoping there would be no more 28-0’s. It feels a little demoralising.
You plan and periodise preparations to get the team, and individual players, to peak for particular games. That’s not an easy thing to do, to get players fit and firing for specific windows in what is a long season. Now, all of a sudden, it’s a lottery and we are back in the lap of the Covid gods.
After 12 games in the Top 14, diverting attention to Europe was supposed to be a good thing. This competition was very special for La Rochelle last year, even though it came to a disappointing end. Now the opening two weekends are back in the realm of asterisks because we are not sure what is happening from day-to-day. There’s quite a bit more to this head coaching lark than the day of the game!
On Wednesday, I took myself off to a theme park with the kids, sat down with a coffee and punched several team scenarios into the phone. I stopped at four because each was undermined by the uncertainty over who was and wasn’t available. Certain bits of the playbook worked better with Player X involved instead of Player Y. We have had to draft up some forwards from the Espoirs (Academy) but working through scenarios on the pitch is difficult when you are without key parts of the jigsaw. Or worse again, if you don’t know on a given morning whether you have Player A or not. It seems easy to say let’s go four deep in all positions at training to be sure and safe, but did you ever try doing reps with 60 players? Not a pretty sight.
Not that Glasgow Warriors are one bit bothered by all this. Like their Welsh and Irish brethren, Europe is what they gear the season around and they have won three of their last four away Champions Cup games against Top 14 opposition. Our players need to shift gear rapid in terms of accuracy and execution from last Sunday night in Paris. If a Top 14 side build a lead at home, it’s rare that the visitors will rise up in defiance. What’s different about Glasgow and the like is that when you get on top of them, you have to keep the foot on their throat. Because they don’t roll over. They just keep coming back for more.
The psychology of the game in France still grinds my gears like you wouldn’t believe. For 33 minutes last Sunday at Stade Francais, I was sitting back, delighted with myself, thinking ‘this is why you coach. This is what transfer from paddock to pitch looks like’. We scored a fantastic try off a first-phase attack. There’s nothing worse than being teased, is there? The hope drains you. So this is what we look like when we are accurate – and the remainder of the game is what we look like when we are not. Can we have one or the other? Am I living in some parallel universe where consistency is a thing?
We are 20-6 in front and we miss a conversion. Why stop then? Why do the minimum? The conversion puts more than two scores between the sides and really it kills their ambition. When teams are vulnerable, put the foot down. Kill belief and sow doubt.
We had a man sent off against Toulouse in the Champions Cup final last year. They’re a bloody hard side to beat with 15 men but Levani Botia’s red card was not the key takeaway from that game. We never made Toulouse doubt themselves. We never took the lead. Rugby is a game of psychological suffocation at times. That’s why scrum dominance is so fundamental. We are bringing you down into a dark world and we are keeping you there. And you won’t like it.
Bordeaux Begles are the best team in France right now. They played Toulouse last Saturday and went 6-0 up - that’s the first thing. Right after the break, Toulouse struck for a try. 6-7, but their noses weren’t out front for long. Bordeaux bounced straight back up and took control, with eleven unanswered points to win 17-7. Toulouse had us in a grip last May and didn’t relinquish it, even if it went to a very contentious decision at the end. But Bordeaux brought them to places in their head that we couldn’t.
There are notes for Andy Friend and Connacht in all this. Stade Francais go to Galway on Sunday in the Champions Cup. They are dangerous on the counter-attack and have a strong scrum. It would be facile of me to say they showed their fighting spirit in beating us but this is a different world and a different competition. Besides, Stade’s goals are all about securing as high a position as possible in the Top 14.
Two of the most interesting games in the opening round are Angle-French affairs. Bordeaux-Begles at home to Leicester is arguably the game of the weekend. Bordeaux, with 33,000 at their games, are really feeling good about themselves and are the form team in France.
There’s a bit of a kick in England’s Premiership though it's early to suggest that. It might just be a new twist on an old melody. Leicester appear to have bounced back really well under Steve Borthwick with nine wins on the spin domestically and if they bring that form and confidence to Bordeaux, it might be one of those old school classic European games. It would be some away victory for the Tigers.
Exeter entertain Montpellier at Sandy Park. The French side are on a run of five wins in the Top 14 and should go England with plenty of ambition but Exeter warmed up with an important psychological win over Saracens and will be too strong.
Ulster at Clermont should be interesting. There’s a bit of internal movement going on in Clermont. Morgan Parra has announced he is going to Stade, with Anthony Belleau coming in. Not sure where than leaves JJ Hanrahan. Ulster won at the RDS. It raised eyebrows. And then they lost to the Ospreys. More eyebrows.
This is the time of the year Leinster come into their own. The internationals are folded back into the system. They crank up the gears. Bath are bottom of the Premiership. How they fare and what they bring into Week 2 is interesting for us – La Rochelle travel to The Rec next weekend, Covid-permitting.
Munster at Wasps? Much like ourselves, it is in the lap of the gods. But whatever disruption we’ve had to deal with, it’s small potatoes compared to Munster’s chaos, trying to pull together a framework for Sunday via three or four different bases around the country. The backline looks fine but I would have to see a team to get a real sense of what they are capable of.
In all honesty though, they are not going to Saracens, Exeter or even Leicester’s Welford Road. Wasps are hardly pulling up any trees themselves.
