Malcolm reflects on the weekend’s Heineken Cup action, which saw another impressive win for Leinster, a battling victory for Ulster and an end to Munster’s magnificent run of consecutive quarter-final appearances.
Leinster were mightily impressive against Saracens again on Saturday. The first half was an interesting one, I think Leinster were playing quite well, they scored a couple of good tries and were well on top. Then you had the loose pass by Luke Fitzgerald which led to James Short’s try and Kelly Brown got one not long after which allowed Saracens to come back into it again off the back of Leinster errors. Considering the conditions they would have been optimistic; the scoreline was saying one thing but it certainly wasn’t a reflection of the game as Leinster were pretty dominant, they kept the intensity up and created some sublime play and finished off some exquisite tries.
I think Munster are guilty of standing still while others improve.
I thought, once again that Sean O’Brien was the stand out player for Leinster; he was unbelievable in terms of his ball carrying ability. He was everywhere and he had his hand in everything that was good about Leinster. I also thought that Brian O’Driscoll was at his best and on occasions he showed his brilliance with some really nice touches, but also in defence, most notably a textbook scramble tackle saving Leinster’s blushes from what could have been a second try against the run of play. Isa Nacewa didn’t put a foot wrong either, but there are so many players playing in harmony at the moment and it’s great to see. It’s the sort of standard and the sort of intensity that they’ll need to keep up if they really are to go far in the tournament.
Peaking too soon?
The Heineken Cup is an ongoing challenge intertwined around the Magners League and Six Nations and there is a threat to the team that their form can dip, where they have played remarkably well in the qualifying stages and failed to find that form post-Six Nations for whatever reason. However, that’s not a concern to them now. What will be is next week’s game against Racing Metro in Paris. Racing are a physical and aggressive side that try to dominate the set piece and grind out victories and Leinster will need to win there to ensure a home quarter-final, which is no mean feat. For now, all Leinster can do is put themselves in the best position possible, see where they’re at in early April and see how best they can put themselves together at that stage to be as good as they can be.
Leinster do seem to go up a gear in the Heineken Cup, but at the moment they’re in a situation where unfortunately they are playing one team in the Magners League and another in the Heineken Cup. It’s not necessarily what they would want, but because of the player welfare scheme, which the IRFU are quite strict on, they are restricted in what players are available to them for certain matches.
In that respect, though, the likes of Dominic Ryan, Fergus McFadden and Eoin O’Malley have benefitted hugely from the player welfare scheme and got a lot more game time than they would have got in years gone by. Dominic Ryan’s rise to prominence has been pretty steep. In the last couple of seasons he stood out in terms of his physical condition, he just needed to learn to play the game and now he’s getting experience at the highest level which will stand to him hugely in the future.
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Up the jumper
Ulster’s game with Biarritz mightn’t have been the prettiest, but I’ve played in those types of games myself up there against Ulster when the conditions completely dominate, the wind is swirling and the rain is bucketing down it’s like something out of Lord of the Rings, like Mordor at times. It’s practically impossible to play an expansive style of game in those sorts of conditions, it’s all about keeping it up the jumper and I can sympathise with both teams.
Saying that, I thought Ulster played some really good rugby at times, especially in the opening half, they really did try and open it up and went close to scoring tries on a few occasions. They were really unfortunate to be six points down at half-time. You could assume with such a wind on your back that victory would be a formality but how wrong you would be. Biarritz played the conditions brilliantly – up the jumper pick and go, pick and go. Ulster lost their way a bit, having played with the ball for the whole first half they tried to use the wind, kicking and territory, preying on Biarritz mistakes and ill discipline. In the end it seemed that Biarritz were destined for a victory, but somehow Damian Traille missed a drop goal under the sticks and two minutes later Ian Humphreys landed the winning penalty kick to earn them a well earned four points .
Match-winner Ian Humphreys salutes the Ulster fans after the victory over Biarritz
I think Ulster are in a strong position now in their pool; I think that Ulster will get a bonus point against Aironi in Aironi. Biarritz are incredibly strong at home and have dished out some serious beatings there over the years, however, Bath are a proud, rugged side and if they can do Ulster a favour and deny Biarritz a bonus point, Ulster could top the pool guaranteeing qualification. Mind you, I would suspect the highest second place side will come from this pool and if that’s the case, the white knights will have qualified to the knock out stages for the first time since 1999.
When you get to the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup, it’s so tough and it’s all about whether you can put together an 80 minute performance, the formbook goes out the window. If Ulster make it through, they could end up with anyone from Toulouse to Toulon, maybe even Leinster. Ulster have beaten all of these sides at home over the years, but they’ve also had a couple of big wins away from home this season, like against Bath earlier in the pool. Ulster have a great side, their front five is very competent and in Stephen Ferris they’ve got a very decent ball carrier. Whether or not that’s enough to take them all the way I don’t know, I think they’d need to be pretty fortunate. I think there are better teams than them left in the competition, but if they get themselves into the quarter-finals, they’re only one game from the semi-final and once you get there it’s completely up for grabs.
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It was always going to be difficult for Munster against Toulon, because Toulon have an array of experienced internationals with a Heineken cup pedigree. In the early days of the Heineken Cup, a lot of French sides relied on intimidation, both of teams and referees. Games would descend into brawls; away teams would lose their focus and get beaten out the gate. Munster were one of the first teams to deal with the intimidation factor, silencing crowds and stamping their own authority on these games and out playing the home sides. Toulon, though, showed their ability to play football, against Munster they kept working the scoreboard, Johnny Wilkinson kept kicking his goals, they were inventive in attack and they didn’t give Munster a sniff.
What Munster have done in the Heineken Cup has been absolutely incredible…
Munster seemed unable to break the shackles of their conservative, one-dimensional style and play with a desperation that matched their predicament and it wasn’t until the game was over that we caught a glimpse of their ability. I thought Ronan O’Gara’s sin bin was ridiculous, it mightn’t have affected the result but it was a poor decision nonetheless. Toulon were worthy winners and there was to be no miracle match this time.
Credit where it’s due
Even though they’ve gone out, Munster have to be given credit for their amazing run in the competition. What Munster have done in the Heineken Cup has been absolutely incredible and when you think that they’ve made the quarter-finals every year since 1998 and Ulster haven’t been beyond the pool stage since they won it in 1999 just shows you what they’ve achieved. I suppose like every statistic, it’s going to be broken eventually, but there should be no shame in defeat for Munster. Obviously they’ll be disappointed, but in fairness, the group they are in is a real group of death.
The Munster lads will be disappointed. They will have to look at where things have gone wrong for them and where they can look to improve. I think Munster are guilty of standing still while others improve. This will be a time where tough questions should be asked on how they can catch up with Europe’s elite again, on how they sharpen up their game to play with intensity again and what if any new faces need to be added. The Heineken Cup is such a tough competition, an incredible challenge and no team has the right to qualify for the knockout stages every year. It is a major challenge, yet it looks like Ireland will still be well represented again this season.
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