Should the weather not play havoc with the schedule, there is a whole lot to look forward to in the final weekend of pool games in this season’s Heineken Cup.
Similarly ruthless approach required from Leinster
Should Leinster fail to qualify for the knockout stages after this weekend, most will point to the back to back losses to Clermont as the reason for their premature exit.
Rather than focussing on losing twice to a team who have probably been the best in the competition so far, however, the Blues will look back with regret on their first two games in the pool if they end up going out, particularly the first encounter with Exeter at the RDS.
As is probably understandable from a team who have won three of the last four tournaments, there was a bit of a complacent attitude about the hosts on the day, a feeling that the victory would come to them rather than Leinster having to go and earn it.
Exeter played their part, of course, but had Leinster come in with the attitude they had against the Scarlets last weekend, they probably would have secured the bonus point and would have been slightly more comfortable than they are at the moment.
From the off last weekend, Leinster went for the kill and with big, experienced players like Brian O’Driscoll and Sean O’Brien returning on Saturday, complacency won’t or at least shouldn’t be an issue. If they play to their potential, a bonus point will be well within their grasp, but unfortunately for them, it might be too little, too late.
Would the real Munster please stand up?
Ordinarily, the task of securing qualification on the very last day is something that would whet the appetite of Munster fans, but the same level of expectation doesn’t seem to be there this weekend.
For starters, scheduling the kick-off at a time when people would normally be coming out of mass on a Sunday morning isn’t exactly a conduit for creating a cauldron of noise in Thomond Park while, quite frankly, Munster haven’t given their supporters an awful lot to get excited about recently.
It’s been a very mixed bag from the Munster men so far this season
Rob Penney is obviously trying to implement his own style of rugby, but something just isn’t clicking at the moment and the men in red have a tendency to play very laterally with little or no penetration, an approach that has proved easy to predict for plenty of opposition teams already this season.
Munster will probably be helped by a Racing team who have nothing to play for and have often lived up to the French stereotype of not quite fancying it on the road, but there is an argument to be made that Penney should compromise and try and least mix in some of the more traditional aspects of Munster’s play with the new expansive approach if they are to qualify and potentially make an impact in the competition further down the road.
The Red Hand will be formidable when Ulster are playing with a full deck
One of the most remarkable aspects of Ulster’s success so far this season is their ability to cope without some of their strongest assets, players who would no doubt be on the team if Mark Anscombe was to put his best 15 on the field.
At various points this season, the Red Handers have had to cope without Stephen Ferris, Tommy Bowe, Johann Muller and Dan Tuohy, with Jared Payne and Nick Williams becoming the latest to join the injury list ahead of the trip to Castres this weekend.
Despite those losses, Ulster can still afford to leave players of the calibre of Paddy Jackson and Iain Henderson on the bench and while plenty has been written about the quality of their imports, their increasing influence on the Irish squad was evident in the large Ulster contingent included in the provisional Six Nations panel announced earlier this week.
If all goes to plan, all of the names listed above should be back in time for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and if the rest of the squad can come through the Six Nations and Rabo12 matches in the intervening period relatively unscathed, then Ulster will be in remarkably good nick come April, particularly if they can secure a home draw.
Can they go one better than last year? You certainly couldn’t rule it out.
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