Having written extensively about the prospects for the provinces and Irish rugby over the summer, I wasn’t planning to write about rugby again before the season got properly into its stride. The provinces had decidedly mixed fortunes over the first three rounds of the URC, and prospects for the first round of the European Cup didn’t seem to be overly rosy.
All four Irish provinces are currently in the bottom half of the URC table although, admittedly, Leinster played two difficult fixtures away in South Africa with virtually their entire Irish summer test squad players missing and came away with 3 points rather than the zero points they got in the equivalent fixtures last season.
It is in this context that the clean sweep for the Irish provinces over the last week-end seems like a significant turnaround in our fortunes. It’s not often we can record three Champions Cup and one Challenge Cup victory in the same week-end. By way of comparison, only two f the 10 English Premiership clubs achieved a win over the weekend – Northampton at home to Cardiff and Harlequins at home to Vannes in the Challenge Cup.
Pride of place has to go to Connacht’s hard earned 45-36 victory over a fully loaded Saracens team containing Maro Itoje, Ben Earl, Jamie George, Elliot Daly, Noah Caluori, Nick Tomkins, Tomas Williams and Owen Farrell – watched by his father, Andy, in the stand.
It wasn’t even a fully loaded Connacht team – missing Irish internationals Mac Hansen, Shayne Bolton, Will Connors, Finlay Bealham, Dave Heffernan, Ben Murphy and Hugh Gavin. The truth is Connacht now have a squad depth capable of winning while rotating and surviving the injury toll of a long season.
It was a magnificent match – the best I have seen Connacht play – and they recovered from a 0-12 deficit to record a well earned victory despite a last minute Saracens consolation try. Ciarán Frawley completely outshone his Saracen’s counterpart, Owen Farrell, and must have cemented his place in the Ireland squad as a 10 and vindicated his decision to leave Leinster. This is exactly the sort of match Connacht would have fought gallantly and lost in the past. Saracens weren’t able to bully them up front as much as they used to, and the Connacht backs were fantastic.
Munster had an emotional day commemorating 10 years after the passing of their head Coach Axel Foley ahead of playing the same opponents, Racing 92, this time in a Páirc Uí Chaoimh, in front of 25,000 supporters. Munster won 33 -25 with Charlie O’Shea, the current Irish u.20 out half making his Champion’s cup debut and once again delivering an exciting performance.
He has pace to burn and makes the aging JJ Hanrahan look pedestrian by comparison. He might not even have gotten his chance were it not for injuries to Jack Crowley and Will Harrison. Perhaps under new management, now that Munster chief executive Ian Flanagan has resigned, Munster will start to focus on developing indigenous talent again.
Racing 92 have not been going well in the Top 14 (currently placed 12th.) and did not bring a full strength team to Cork. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to see Munster finally addressing their scrum and maul issues, with new recruits, Marnus van der Merve, Kieran Brookes and Jack Aungier contributing massively.
Under the current interpretation of the rules, (and pernickety English referees), it is impossible to prosper in rugby without a decent scrum and maul and maul defence. Illegally leaving the line-out early before it is completed to form a maul seems to be the latest ruse to make legal maul defence almost impossible and is rarely penalised by the officials. Under current law implementations, rugby is in danger of being reduced to a mauling game.
Leinster made hard work of beating an average Clermont Auvergne side (11th. in the top 14) 23-48 in Clermont-Ferrand, not helped by more inconsistent and pedantic refereeing. Extraordinarily, Mathew Carley even managed to ping Leinster scrum half, Fintan Gunne, for crooked in at a scrum. A normal occurrence, which I have not seen penalised in years.
They actually trailed 16-15 after the first half despite being dominant in most phases of play. With many of their test players only playing their first game of the season, they will not be too concerned at the many mistakes which littered their play. Sam Prendergast gave another player of the match display, and their all test player pack controlled the line-outs, scrums, and mauls.
Jimmy O’Brien lacks the abrasive penetration of James Lowe but has been an able replacement so far. Jack Conan was injured scoring his try, but Andy Farrell will be relieved that the majority of his test front liners had a good work-out and some much needed match practice ahead of the November internationals. With Caelan Foris also injured, we could be short at No.8. Enter Sean Jansen and Bryn Ward?
Ulster achieved their first win of the season away to Zebra, 21-40, in the Challenge Cup with hooker Henry Walker scoring two tries in his first Challenge Cup start. An away bonus point victory against any opposition is not to be sniffed at, but Zebra are not the most daunting of opponents. Having led 0-19 at half time, Ulster could only draw the second half.
Jamie Bensen and Mathew Devine have strengthened their half back resources considerably, and, although not playing in this match, Eduardo Bello, Eli Snyman, and Ben O’Donnell should provide much needed steel to their pack over a long season. It remains to be seen, however, whether Ulster can deliver a full 80 minute performance against a stronger side.
It’s a long season, and we are as yet only in the foothills. But the new Nations Championship will reach a climax as soon as November with matches against the likes of South Africa. Last season, thanks largely to injuries, we were demolished in scrum and maul. This year will tell us a lot about whether our aspirations to compete for a World Cup next year are realistic.
Frank Schnittger is the author of Sovereignty 2040, a future history of how Irish re-unification might work out. He has worked in business in Dublin and London and, on a voluntary basis, for charities in community development, education, restorative justice and addiction services.
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