Interprovincial rugby is alive and kicking once again
While the honour and glory attaching to being crowned top of the pile proved sufficient for the best provincial players in the country for decades, arguably, the stakes at play for the four Irish provinces over the next few weeks outweigh anything on offer in the amateur days.
Last Saturday’s captivating derby between Connacht and Leinster in Galway launched a sequence of five such encounters with the potential to change the face of provincial rugby in this country.
With Connacht chasing Champions Cup rugby for the first time on their own steam (having qualified for their only Heineken Cup appearances on the coattails of Leinster winning the trophy in 2011 and 2012), there is a strong probability now that they will make target of joining Europe’s elite.
The fact that Ulster and Munster appear to be in a dogfight to join them adds further intrigue to the remaining four contests, with Anthony Foley’s men facing searching examinations against Leinster on Saturday before travelling to Galway two weeks later. The fact that they have already lost to both sides in Thomond Park this season places further pressure on Munster to deliver this time out.
It’s not overstating the case to suggest that Munster’s medium-term future is on the line in those upcoming contests at the Aviva Stadium and the Sportsground.
After much internal soul-searching, the Munster professional board have decreed that the appointment of a Director of Rugby for the first time in the professional era is crucial in boosting the fortunes of the province both domestically and in Europe.
How attractive will that position be if Munster are relegated to Challenge Cup rugby next season?
Leinster learned a painful lesson when failing to attract any top quality international applicants for the role of head coach after relieving Matt O’Connor of the position with a year to go on his contract at the end of last season. There are no guarantees that Munster will fare any better.
This ranks as the most crucial appointment Munster will make in the professional era but their status and history in the game at least guarantees that candidates of stature will, at the very least, be attracted to scrutinise the job description and make a few phone calls enquiring as to the state of play is in the province.
Chief amongst those is whether or not Munster will be competing in the top echelons of European rugby next season — all of which serves to make their remaining Guinness Pro12 fixtures against Leinster, Connacht, Edinburgh, and Scarlets the most important quartet of games the province has played for some time.
Last Friday night in Limerick, Munster launched the closing phase of Pro12 games in the best possible manner with an emphatic, bonus point, 47-0 victory over an admittedly hapless Zebre side. Irrelevant. Italian rugby may have their own challenges at the moment — and good luck to Conor O’Shea and Stephen Aboud in their efforts to address those — but right now, Munster needed that morale-boosting blow-out before heading to Dublin on Saturday night.
It helps their cause that Donnacha Ryan, CJ Stander, Conor Murray, Keith Earls, and Simon Zebo (hopefully Munster will leave him at full back for the remainder of the season) are all back in their native colours, having being amongst Ireland’s most consistent performers in the Six Nations Championship. All five are playing their best rugby in some time and need to carry that from into the remainder of the season.
Tommy O’Donnell also has reason to be happy with his current wellbeing after his career-threatening hip injury before the World Cup. And he too will feel the pressure to perform in order to make the cut for the upcoming South African test series, given that Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, and Chris Henry all hope to be back in action in time for consideration.
For others in Munster colours, more specifically Dave Kilcoyne and James Cronin, the fact that Connacht’s Finlay Bealham leapfrogged both of them to make his international debut at loosehead prop off the bench against Italy must have stirred their competitive juices even further.
That said, you have to wonder how Denis Buckley greeted the elevation of his fellow Connacht man, given that he is Connacht’s first choice loosehead, regularly starting ahead of Bealham who usually features from the bench, as he did on Saturday against Leinster. Buckley was outstanding once again last weekend.
If anything, Bealham’s entrance to the fray after only six minutes for the injured Nathan White and subsequent dominance of Cian Healy gave further credence to the theory that he is more comfortable and effective as a tight head prop.
That is even better news for Joe Schmidt as he continues to search for a replacement for Mike Ross. After Saturday, Bealham has jumped up the pecking order on that front.
That win over Leinster will not only have gone a long way towards securing that coveted Champions Cup slot next season but should help convince all within the Connacht set-up that a first Guinness Pro12 semi-final is also within their grasp.
Should they manage to cope with the demands of a six-day turnaround for a first ever win in the professional era against Ulster in Belfast — Connacht haven’t won there since 1960 — then the prospect of hosting a home semi-final comes firmly into view.
The fact that Pat Lam’s charges have already secured a first win over Munster in the pro era at Thomond Park this season should add to the belief that they create even further history in a season of firsts next Friday night.
The quality of their second-half performance in Galway, despite playing against the elements, against a Leinster side fortified during that period by a bench containing six players who featured for Ireland in the Six Nations Championship plus a multi-capped Springbok, says everything about their resilience and team ethic.
Munster will be hoping Connacht can repeat the dose on Friday as another defeat for Ulster would aid Munster’s cause immeasurably in terms of top tier European qualification.
While they will be pleased with many aspects of their performance against Zebre, Foley is acutely aware that next Saturday’s outing offers a far more realistic test of where Munster sit at present.
Having lost their last two Pro12 games on the bounce, Leo Cullen will be desperate to seize this opportunity to kick-start the remainder of Leinster’s season when, practically for the first time since taking charge over the summer, he will have unfettered access to all his international players.
Leinster still look certain to make the semi-final play-offs, so the stakes for Foley could not be higher. A repeat of last season’s win in Dublin would do wonders for Munster on a number of fronts and help spark a resurgence in support and public interest for the challenging Pro12 fixtures that remain.
Interprovincial rugby is alive and kicking once again.
