Peter Jackson: Munster eye Ospreys for New Year gains
The perennial Welsh failure to keep the red flag flying over the European club scene must have socialist superstars like Aneurin Bevan and James Larkin spinning in their graves.
Far from ‘raising the scarlet standard high’ in the words of the anthem’s Irish author, Jim Connell, Welsh teams have been unable to plant it on the smallest molehill. No Welsh team has ever won Europe’s premier tournament, none has ever reached the final and only one have gone as far as the semis in 11 seasons.
Had they been standing for parliamentary election instead of falling all over Europe every year for far too many years, Welsh regional teams would have lost more deposits than the Monster Raving Looney party of Lord Buckethead and Count Binface fame.
The result of the Count’s decision to stand against Boris Johnson in the constituency of Uxbridge & South Ruislip dumped him in much the same League of Lost Causes as the Ospreys.
The night after Binface polled 69 votes, the sole Welsh contender at least managed to avoid shipping as many points in losing another match.
This does not augur well for Munster’s chance of finding an unlikely route into the last eight or, to be more accurate, stumbling across someone, somewhere to provide it for them.
A team torpedoed by more tries than any other (22) and handicapped by a grim record of one point from a maximum 25 hardly sound capable of helping themselves, let alone anyone else.
In spite of that, Ospreys are not so much Munster’s best hope but the only one.
Saracens go to Swansea in the next pool round on January 12 and the possibility of the sinking hosts dragging the holders down with them is not as hopeless as it might appear. Come the New Year, traditionally the time when the Welsh rouse themselves for the Six Nations, Ospreys will be reinforced by the return en masse of their big shots.
George North, Justin Tipuric, and the biggest shot of all, Alun-Wyn Jones, are all scheduled to be back.
The collective flexing of muscles in preparation for their defence of the Grand Slam will also apply to the rest of their hefty Test battalion bar Gareth Anscombe, out for the season.
Now that they sorely need someone to do them a favour, Munster can draw further comfort from recent reminders that Sarries’ enjoyment of New Year in South Wales is about on a par with Rory McIlroy’s at Royal Portrush last summer.
The champions’ last two Welsh trips, each on the penultimate weekend of the pool competition, left them mightily relieved to have got away with fortuitous draws.
For the first, 22-22 at Scarlets in January 2017, they escaped with a stoppage-time time from Chris Ashton, engineered and converted by Owen Farrell.
Twelve months later, on the same weekend barely ten miles away in Swansea, they only just avoided any serious damage thanks to Farrell matching Dan Biggar penalty for penalty without a try to be seen.
Another draw would be manna from heaven for Munster, completion of the first part of an implausible weekend double. The second, in Paris 24 hours later, requires them to shunt Racing’s express into a siding.
Leinster reach hitherto untouched peaks
Never in the course of Anglo-Irish conflict can one team have been so outclassed so often on the rugby field as Northampton Saints over four mis-matches against Leinster.
The PRO14 champions have outpointed them by an aggregate margin of 190-60, which sounds like a basketball score except that nobody in NBA history has ever won by as wide a margin.
Leinster achieved their first double three seasons ago: 97-23 in total, 14 tries against two. They have now delivered a replica — 93-37, 14 tries against four. And that against opponents justifiably proud of their domestic status astride the English Premiership.
It’s almost as if there is no limit to the levels of creativity which make the Dubliners the team to beat. By daring to take the tournament to hitherto untouched peaks, Leinster lead the way in showing what can be achieved when imaginative thinking is underpinned by technical excellence.
The first team assured of a quarter-final place with two pool rounds still to go, they will surely keep sweeping all before them, with Lyon next up at the RDS, followed by Treviso in Italy. The landslide wins will keep coming and those looking at the bigger picture will be concerned that there have already been too many.
Roughly a quarter of the 40 pool matches have been won by margins of 20 points and more, the majority at the expense of English clubs.
Four more joined the list over the weekend: Ulster beating Harlequins 34-10 at The Stoop, Exeter swamping Sale 35-10 in the Devon hailstones, Bath engulfed 52-26 at Clermont, and Northampton’s 50-21 defeat at The Aviva.
Eight quarter-finalists as they stand with two rounds to go (figures in brackets indicate points difference):
1 Leinster 19 points (+77), 2 Exeter Chiefs 19 pts (+62), 3 Toulouse 18 pts (+42), 4 Racing 17 pts (+54), 5 Ulster 17 pts (+31), 6 Clermont 16 pts (+44 plus), 7 Munster 11 pts (+17), 8 Gloucester 9 pts (-2)
Still in contention: Saracens 10 pts (+23), Glasgow Warriors 9 pts (-12), Northampton 9 pts (-42), Connacht 8 pts (-18).
Reds may pay double for error of judgement
In the cold, unforgiving light of Monday morning, Munster will acknowledge an error of judgement in opting not to kick the late penalty at Saracens and settle for a losing bonus point.
That has been well documented but there was another powerful reason why they ought to have gone for the posts instead of the corner.
A goal then would have done more than ensure Munster didn’t leave empty-handed.
It would, in all probability, have made all the difference in the two-leg score, transforming 18-16 for Saracens into 19-18 for Munster.
Should both teams finish the pool series with the same match points, a distinct possibility given that only one point separates them, the aggregate score over their two contests will determine second place.
Who knows, that could be enough to edge Saracens through and inch Munster out.
During his England reign, Clive Woodward came up with the acronym TCUP — thinking clearly under pressure.
Nobody off the field appeared to come up with that extra reason for taking the shot at goal. If they did, nobody listened.
Magical flick and costly sin-bin
Louis Rees-Zammit’s magical behind-the-back flick for Gloucester’s third try in Galway. If the Welsh wing is this good at 18, imagine what he will be like when he has time to learn a few more tricks.
Connacht, down and almost out with three minutes left at home to Gloucester, turned a 24-13 deficit into a sensational 27-24 home win, clinched by substitute back row forward Robin Copeland. Rarely can a sin-binning have had a greater impact than that of Gloucester skipper Lewis Ludlow.
Ronan O’Gara doing as head coach for La Rochelle what he used to do for Munster, presiding over a last-minute win on the Clyde.
Defying the odds to beat Glasgow at Scotstoun required a little unwitting assistance from Matt Fagerson. Instead of setting up a last-minute try which would have given the Warriors a winning conversion, the Warriors flanker ended up being sent off for smashing a forearm into Dany Priso’s face. And that leaves the Scots in serious danger of missing the boat to the last eight.
Clermont v Ulster(January 11)
Ospreys v Saracens(January 11)
Racing v Munster(January 12)
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