League final highlights the importance of club game

With a 4.15pm kick-off on a Sunday afternoon for Racing Metro’s crucial Top 14 derby clash with Stade Francais, I was afforded the opportunity to watch bucket loads of rugby last weekend.

It started with my old coach Tony McGahan’s team the Melbourne Rebels doing a number on the Auckland Blues, and Dan Carter’s Crusaders crushing the Queensland Reds in Christchurch, both in very impressive fashion. Fast forward to that evening, and after seeing Leinster under-perform in the drizzle as they laboured to a 10-0 home victory over Treviso, one would think I wasn’t watching the same sport.

It was interesting to note that the quality provided by Lansdowne and Clontarf in the Ulster Bank League final on Saturday afternoon was at least on a par, if not above, what we witnessed in the RDS the previous evening.