Why are we running out of steam?
A week after what Warren Gatland described as the best and most physical international he has seen in his time in northern hemisphere rugby — as Wales and England went toe to toe at the Millennium Stadium — it was instructive to peruse the respective team sheets of Harlequins, Saracens, Leicester Tigers and the Ospreys on the weekend following that epic international contest.
Saracens were pitted against Harlequins in a top of the table Premiership clash and Mark McCall had no hesitation in playing Andy Goode, Chris Ashton, Brad Barritt and Owen Farrell, all four of whom started for England the previous week. Some of you might suggest, with justification, that as all of that quartet are backs, they were not prone to the greater physical demands of the set piece and therefore in a better position to play.
Well, Leicester Tigers and Ospreys accounted for nine of the 16 starting forwards at the Millennium Stadium. Yet only six days later Richard Hibbard, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Ian Jones and Justin Tipuric all started in the Ospreys pack against the Dragons in the Rabo, along with Dan Bigger at out-half.
The following day, Leicester forwards Dan Cole, Tom Youngs, Geoff Parling and Tom Croft started against Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership along with Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi, who also featured from the outset in Cardiff. For good measure England’s three starting Harlequins, Joe Marler, Chris Robshaw and Mike Brown, were also in Conor O’Shea’s line-up against Saracens. In fact every starting member of that England side returned to action for their clubs the following weekend, 13 from the kick off with the remaining two introduced off the bench within five minutes of the commencement of the second half.
Of the Irish side that played in Rome only one, Paddy Jackson, started the following week for their provinces in the Rabo with another six starting last weekend, all featuring in the Leinster v Ulster clash at the RDS.
Munster’s case is even more bizarre, with none of their four starters at the Stadio Olimpico playing since. Accepting that Keith Earls is out injured, Munster now go into their season-defining game against Harlequins next Sunday with Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Donnacha Ryan not having played for three weeks.
There is a fine line between being battle-hardened and over-played, yet this weekend Saracens and Harlequins start as favourites against Ulster and Munster despite the fact that their frontline internationals have played far more rugby this season than ours.
Or could it be they start favourites because of that?
I have yet to see an opinion ventured going into those two contests that the games will be decided because the Irish players are fresher and sharper. If anything, judging on the recent performances of Saracens, Harlequins against Gloucester on Friday night and Leicester against Northampton on Saturday, all their international players are flying at present.
Why then do our players look more drained given the stop-start nature of their season or are they that way as a consequence of their season? It doesn’t help the internationals that their Six Nations campaign was a very fractured and draining one from a physical and mental perspective but if anything that should help to focus the mind when they are back on provincial duty. Gatland may well be the one to pay the ultimate price when the full impact of the game time accumulated by those players from Leicester, Saracens, Harlequins and Ospreys catches up with them in June, as there could be at least 14 players from those four clubs alone on Lions duty in Australia.
Yet, with so much time spent with their feet up, how do you account for the fall-off in performance of the Irish provincial and national sides in the final quarter of so many recent outings? Ireland’s shortcomings in the final 20 minutes of all of their 6N matches this season has been well documented, but what of Leinster’s?
In their final two pool games against Scarlets and Exeter Chiefs, Leinster failed to capitalise on two excellent first half performances when stuttering through the final 30 minutes in both contests. The manner with which the Chiefs fought back and not only stifled Leinster’s efforts in denying them the tries that could have put Munster under more pressure going into their final game the following day against Racing Metro, but forced Jonny Sexton to kick a penalty with six minutes left to make sure they won that match. At home to Scarlets the previous week in round five, having scored their bonus-point fourth try in the 43rd minute, Leinster had to wait until the final minute of the game before registering another.
Just like Ireland, for some reason Leinster too have struggled recently to sustain their efforts over 80 minutes and that has impacted in their quest to qualify for a Heineken Cup quarter final. Quite why that is the case remains every bit as difficult to rationalise as is Ireland’s failure to do so throughout the Six Nations.
Their fitness and conditioning programmes have been lauded for some time now but with so many injuries across the board and an ever-increasing tendency to hand the initiative to the opposition in the final quarter of games, something has gone awry. Is it psychological or physical? Why have so many players suffered a variety of injuries — Leinster’s Brendan Mackin the latest — when their counterparts in England and Wales are putting their bodies under even more pressure without suffering anything like the same casualty list? Someone within the strength and conditioning unit of the IRFU has to get to the bottom of this issue.
Munster’s defeat by Glasgow on Friday night and the manner of their collapse in the last 25 minutes could not have been worse timed. After addressing some of the issues that blighted their performances all season with a promising display against Connacht and with Paul O’Connell back to add steel in the pack, Sunday’s visit to the Stoop began to look more promising after that win in Musgrave Park.
The annoying thing about last Friday’s game was that Munster actually played well for long periods but kept shooting themselves in the foot with some appalling defensive lapses, not to mention handing their hosts breathing space with two intercept tries. When John Barclay picked up a third intercept try in the very last play of the game you just wondered what was going on.
Munster were in disarray.
With their chances of making the play-offs of the Rabo gone, Munster have no choice but to hit Harlequins with everything they have this weekend. After three weeks on the sidelines, one hopes that the likes of O’Mahony, Ryan and Murray will be up to the intensity of this quarter-final from the off. At least that is something Conor O’Shea’s battle-hardened charges won’t have to worry about. It will be very interested to see just how competitive Munster, Leinster and Ulster are in the final 20 minutes of their respective outings this weekend. At least, freshness shouldn’t be a problem.
