Compiled by JOHNNY WATTERSON
Back in action: Cooper restored
OUTHALF QUADE Cooper has been named by coach Robbie Deans in Australia’s 39-man squad for the Tests against Scotland and Wales next month despite only playing twice for the Queensland Reds since seriously injuring his knee at last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Mean streak: Glasgow the stingiest
LEINSTER MAY have finished at the top of the table in the league to secure their home final yesterday but Glasgow Warriors actually had the best defence over the course of the season.
The Scottish side conceded 321 points over the course of their 22 matches with second best Leinster shipping 326 points. But it was the Ospreys who had the best record for keeping out tries. The Welsh winners let in an average of one try a match, or, 22 tries in 22 matches with Leinster conceding 28 tries over their 22-game season.
Michael Bradley’s Edinburgh had by far the worst defensive record in terms of leaking tries. The Scottish side, which ended up second from bottom and just above Aironi, had 65 tries scored against them in 22 matches. Bradley knows where the work has to be done.
TALK ABOUT a lingering death. Aironi had been suffering from crippling financial debts for some time and were finally disbanded at the end of this campaign, only two seasons after the franchise was formed by a group of clubs with a base in Viadana. Aironi had struggled to stay afloat ever since their introduction to the Magners League and the Heineken Cup in 2010 and were believed to be saddled with debts of up to €4 million.
Final curtain: Bell tolls for Leinster
IT ALL seemed a little bit creepy yesterday in the RDS at exactly six o’clock. The local church bells beside the ground in Ballsbridge started to toll the Angelus as the Leinster players fell to the ground having lost the Pro12 final to a late Shane Williams try and a Dan Biggar conversion. Then when Isa Nacewa, the man of the match, was asked on television how he felt minutes after the final whistle he replied “pretty s**t.”
All in all Nacewa captured the mood with tighthead prop Nathan White ending his term in Leinster in the sin bin and the mercurial Shane Williams galloping off into retirement with a couple of tries and a league winner’s medal in his back pocket. Contrasting fortunes indeed.
Dan the man: None Biggar than this
DAN BIGGAR, who kicked yesterday’s winning conversion, is the only player to have scored in all of Osprey’s matches against Leinster stretching back to April 2010.
The outhalf kicked all of the points in their 20-16 defeat more than two years ago and also contributed when Ospreys won 12-17 in May 2010.
He kicked four penalties when Ospreys won 19-15 in Liberty Stadium in November 2010 and was again on target the following year when Leinster won 15-10 in the RDS. Ospreys beat Leinster 27-3 in September of last year and Biggar again kicked three conversions, a drop goal and a penalty while his 15 points in March of this year in the RDS helped Ospreys to a narrow 22-23 win in Ballsbridge.
