DONAL LENIHAN: Time the IRB showed leadership
So far this season we have been presented with a revamped European competition, the Rugby Champions Cup, which came and went without any details ever seeing the light of day.
We’ve had a watered down version of the Heineken Cup, one without any English clubs competing. On the table now, a proposed Anglo-Welsh league which would see the Welsh regional sides abandoning the Rabo Direct Pro 12 in favour of playing their domestic rugby in England and over the weekend, yet another option in the form of a British and Irish Cup with the Scottish and Irish invited to join the Welsh and English. How nice of them.
With the landscape changing daily, professional rugby is in a mess. Just how the CEO of any outfit goes about budgeting for the future is anyone’s guess. The game is lacking serious leadership with its governing body, the IRB, offering nothing in terms of direction. IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset is on the missing list.
Yesterday’s Irish Examiner featured a photo of Toulouse captain Emile N’Tamack lifting the inaugural European trophy after they defeated Cardiff in the 1996 final. Making that presentation were two men in Vernon Pugh and Tom Kiernan whose dynamism and clear thinking guided rugby through the uncharted waters that accompanied the early days of professionalism in the northern hemisphere.
Next to Kiernan, the diminutive figure of Tasker Watkins, the first Welsh member of the British army to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II (read his VC citation if you haven’t already).
He was a remarkable man. As president of the WRU from 1993 to 2004, he presided over the switch from an amateur to a professional game in Wales, incorporating the move from club to regional rugby. How the game could now do with the type of leadership offered by Pugh, Kiernan, Watkins and Syd Miller. Quite where we end up next season is anyone’s guess.
At least for the coaching staff of the respective teams scattered around Europe, the show goes on with the final rounds of pool games in the Heineken Cup to be played out over the next two weekends.
The drama associated with this stage of the tournament with the various permutations in relation to bonus points, tries scored and points differential being worked out in advance not only by coaches and pundits but by rugby fans right across Europe, is what has made the Heineken Cup so special.
Munster must quickly put aside the disappointment of their defeat to Ulster last Friday and can take pride in the manner with which they fought their way back into that game. From a position of potential humiliation, trailing by 20 points a minute before the break and with key players falling like flies, they managed to turn the contest on its head. A losing bonus point was the least their efforts deserved.
No point looking back at this stage, however, and despite a very worrying injury list, Munster’s path to another Heineken Cup quarter-final remains very much in their own hands. It helps that neither of their next two opponents, Gloucester and Edinburgh, harbour any aspirations in Europe this season.
Domestic league tables rarely lie. Gloucester are ninth in the Aviva Premiership with just four wins from their 12 games and while they have a lot of individual talent, especially across a decent back line, they have failed to impress as a collective.
Edinburgh, despite a very good run of form of late, are eighth in the Rabo with five wins from 11 outings.
Saracens went to Kingsholm last Saturday and silenced the famed Shed within 20 minutes, racing into a 16-0 lead. Granted they are the form team in England but the manner with which their pack dismantled Gloucester offers Rob Penney the perfect blueprint for Munster.
The only thing separating Munster from finishing their pool campaign with two wins is themselves and the lessons of that opening day defeat to Edinburgh must be taken on board. The fresh injuries to Damien Varley and Cathal Sheridan could not be worse timed given they are in two positions where Munster are particularly hard hit, yet in adversity, someone always steps forward.
That was certainly the case in Ravenhill when young Duncan Casey was thrown in at the deep end just as Ulster had raced into that 20 point lead. His line-out throwing was immaculate, enabling Munster to work their way back into the game through their maul, while his workrate around the field and at the breakdown was equally impressive.
However Munster can’t continue to shoot themselves in the foot and have to address the place-kicking issues that has made life so difficult for them in recent weeks. Ian Keatley is curtailed by a groin injury and that is hampering his place-kicking style. It was very noticeable, both in Perpignan and more so in Belfast, how his kicks were falling away at the end as he appears unable to power through the ball on contact. Those missed opportunities are weighing heavily on his shoulders and impacting on his overall confidence and effectiveness.
All players need early triggers to get themselves into a game. For a hooker it’s nailing his first few throws. A second row wants to win a few early line-outs while all back rowers crave the early hit or an explosive carry. For the out half, rewarding his forwards with an early raking kick is satisfying but of more importance is converting the pressure generated by his team into points by slotting his kicks at goal.
Keatley hasn’t enjoyed that luxury and Munster can only play their get-out-of-jail card so often. It caught up with them against Ulster.
Penney needs to make a call and JJ Hanrahan has to start against Gloucester if, for no other reason, to address the place-kicking issues. He either starts Hanrahan at out half or accommodates both him and Keatley in the same back line with options available in the centre and at full back.
Hanrahan is far from the finished article in terms of game management but Ronan O’Gara also had to learn his trade in the intense heat of European battle.
He too suffered from a crisis of confidence as evidenced in Dave Berry’s excellent documentary on RTÉ last week and one suspects Hanrahan is still at the stage of his career that O’Gara described when initially all he wanted was to win the respect of the senior players such as Peter Clohessy and Mick Galway.
For Hanrahan, getting the thumbs up from the likes of Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell and BJ Botha is sufficient to keep him in the zone at present. That will change as he becomes more authoritative.
The news that Conor Murray and Simon Zebo might be available could not be better timed given the latest setbacks to Sheridan, Varley, O Callaghan and Donnacha Ryan.
With Zebo, Ryan and possibly Gerhart van den Heever to come into the side by the time the knockout stage comes around, Saturday’s game is all about getting over the line. Win and they are all but guaranteed knockout rugby, even before Edinburgh arrive in Thomond Park. This is one game and venue where the frills are very much an optional extra.
