Home Comforts

Tomorrow’s Croke Park stand-off is an indicator of Irish rugby’s rude good health. But it didn’t happen by accident – it’s vindication of the IRFU’s policy of keeping their players at home when rugby went pro. MICHAEL MOYNIHAN reports.

LAST YEAR Niall Woods was rooting through some old cuttings when he came across a match report. Munster v Leinster, 1993, Donnybrook. Attendance: 2,000.

Tomorrow there will be 40 times more supporters in Croke Park for Munster v Leinster in the Heineken Cup semi-final. The fact that so many Irish-based professionals can drive the two provinces to the last four of Europe can be seen as a vindication of the Irish Rugby Football Union’s (IRFU) bold decision to keep their top players in Ireland rather than lose them to the Premiership, which happened wholesale in the early days of professionalism.