Feel-good factor should benefit the Irish camp

PERHAPS WE have become a little greedy and by rights Irish rugby should once again be mightily grateful, because the feel-good factor from knowing Munster and Leinster have sustained their interest in Europe for another 10 weeks is immeasurable. And that will be felt within the Irish camp and among Irish supporters.

We should be grateful too as the Heineken Cup quarter-final draw has not been unfavourable. First and foremost, Declan Kidney and his think-tank would have heaved a collective sigh of relief that Munster and Leinster didn’t end up playing each other in Thomond Park. As that would have come a week after a Magners League collision at the same venue, Kidney and co would probably have had to book two hotels over the course of the Six Nations.

For the most part too, the core of the squad will have gone into camp yesterday in relatively good form and spirits. With Paul O’Connell back in Superman mode, so the rest of the pack have followed. For example, not alone is David Wallace playing the rugby of his life, but Jerry Flannery has looked back to his very best in the last couple of games, and Tomás O’Leary now looks the odds-on favourite for the number nine jersey.

Leinster’s players may be more relieved than buoyant, but at least they’re there. The tolls of the Six Nations’ campaign will go some way toward deciding their Euro fate, but at least this year they’ve a two-game Magners League run-in to the quarter-finals and that little set-to at Thomond the week before should be the perfect prelude.

Ulster’s resurgence under Matt Williams has done Ireland a favour on a number of fronts. First off, that stunning 37-11 win over Munster at Thomond Park gave the European champions the kind of wake-up call that ultimately could sustain them for the rest of the season.

Munster’s navel contemplation and resurgence in form since – both collectively and individually – can only be a help to Ireland. Furthermore, Ulster’s win over Harlequins ultimately prevented them from being second seeds and so averted a Munster-Leinster quarter-final, while the form of Stephen Ferris especially, Rory Best, Paddy Wallace and Tom Court is liable to play all of them into the Irish 22 against France in the Six Nations’ opener on Saturday week.

The poor overall performance of the French clubs has particular interest hereabouts because Les Bleus are first up at Croke Park in Ireland’s pivotal opening game of the Six Nations.

Win that one and it’s not inconceivable that Ireland could remain unbeaten all the way to their final encounter in Cardiff. While there would still be plenty of work, beating the French would not make overcoming Italy or Scotland away, or England at Croke Park, that fanciful a notion. Lose, however, and not alone would it deny Ireland momentum from the outset and possible force a tactically and selectorial rethink or two, but it would leave a residual disappointment that a golden opportunity had been passed up.

That remained the abiding feeling after the ensuing wins over England, Scotland and Italy from the same biennial itinerary in 2007 left Ireland tantalisingly short of a first title since 1985 courtesy of Elvis Vermeulen’s late try, not to mention a first Grand Slam since 1948.

Nor should it be forgotten that of Ireland’s 15 Tests against fellow top 10 countries in the intervening two years, four have been won (at home to Italy, twice, Scotland and Argentina) while the other 11 have been lost.

Just because the Irish provinces outnumber the French clubs in the quarter-finals doesn’t mean that Kidney’s men should even start favourites a fortnight hence.

Toulouse saved the French from total embarrassment this season, but even so it’s the first year that only one of their sides has made the quarter-finals and that none of them earned a home tie.

Excluding the Clermont-Montauban games, the French had a cumulative win-loss ratio of 48.5 per cent in this season’s pool stages – easily their lowest ever – compared to 61 per cent last season. Ireland’s meanwhile, has gone up from 44 per cent last season to 65 per cent this season, while the Welsh have also seen an increase (52 per cent this season compared to 43.4 per cent), with both the English (64 per cent to 66 per cent) and the Scots (42 per cent to 33 per cent) performing similarly to last season.

To a degree, perhaps, it’s a one-off, and despite their own media’s hand-wringing this past couple of weeks, maybe we should resist the temptation to jump to wild conclusions about the state of French club rugby on the basis of one Heineken Cup pool campaign. In part their relative failure this season has been down to the coincidental failings of their Heineken Cup qualifiers. Castres and Biarritz, especially, began their domestic season badly and came into Europe at a low ebb, while Perpignan have usually under-achieved in Europe and Stade Francais are suffering for not having resolved the Juan Martin Hernandez and Lionel Beauxis issue. As for Clermont, well, if it wasn’t for Munster they would probably have been a semi-final side in each of the last two years.

That said, as Stuart Barnes observed on Sky’s The Rugby Club last week, it shows money can’t buy you everything. Despite the vastly bigger budgets of the big four especially – Toulouse, Stade Francais, Clermont and Perpignan – as results in the Challenge Cup have shown over recent years, the strength in depth and competitiveness of the Top 14 pales in comparison to the Guinness Premiership and the Magners League.

Nonetheless, the French team that comes to Croke Park is liable to be a lot more unified and far less experimental than the various outfits Marc Lievrement and co put onto the pitch last season. The French coaches have disbanded their white coats apparently. The experiments are over. And that’s the thing about the French. Their sides could come back next year and provide three or four of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, and in the meantime the team that plays Ireland on Saturday week could be anything. Save for the possible exception of Wales, there is probably no more dangerous side for Ireland to face first up.

The words ground, hit and running spring to mind.