Usual suspects lining up for business end of the season

As they did over the course of the season, Connacht and Benetton fought the good fight in taking both Ulster and Munster respectively to the wire in the Kingspan Stadium and Thomond Park, but ultimately the 2018-19 Guinness Pro14 semi-finals will have a familiar heavyweight look to them.

Glasgow will host Ulster next Friday week in a repeat of the 2015 semi-final at Scotstoun, when Finn Russell’s late cut-out pass to DTH van der Merwe and ensuing touchline conversion sealed a 16-14 win. It denied Ulster a final in Belfast, where Glasgow blew Munster away by 31-12.

The five-times champions and holders Leinster will host Munster at the RDS on Saturday week, May 18th, in a reprise of last season’s semi-final – and so many more battles besides – which Leinster won 16-15.

As fate would have it therefore, in Dan McFarland’s first season as Ulster head coach, having overcome the province he spent 15 seasons with as player and assistant coach ie Connacht, his more recent employers for two seasons as an assistant now stand between them and the final.

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Connacht happy with their progress and excited about the future

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“Will from Premier TV said it’s like visiting old girlfriends, it’s not quite like that, but it’ll be interesting,” said McFarland.

“Just like the Connacht guys, I get on really well with the coaches over there, the last time we played there we were well beaten, so it’ll be tough, there’ll be a bit of an edge to it, but I love that. I love that, that’s just added spice.”

McFarland said his insider knowledge of Glasgow could be “pretty useful, as it was for Connacht as well”, but he admitted that Glasgow have progressed this season.

“They’re very big, they’ve got a big forward pack, a big front row. Playing under Dave [Rennie] they’re an aggressive team, so if you let them get on the front foot, it’s very difficult to deal with, that scrum and maul.”

The Warriors also have the additional motivation of the final being played in Celtic Park on Saturday May 25th.

“I’d say that’s pretty huge, yeah,” agreed McFarland.

“That’s pretty big. Definitely. For them, playing at Celtic Park would be massive. I know they were desperately disappointed last year with their performance in the semis,” he added in reference to Glasgow’s 28-13 defeat by the Scarlets in last season’s semi-finals, one of only two defeats as against 20 wins in the last two seasons at Scotstoun.

Humble pie

“So, for them, there’s an added incentive of demonstrating that they’re better than that. This year, compared to last year, they are playing better rugby now . . . or towards the end of the season, they are playing better rugby. I know, or I’m sure, that Dave (Rennie) and the coaching team are very aware that that was an issue for them last year, but it hasn’t been this year.”

Furthermore, one of those 20 wins was a commanding 30-7 win over Ulster four weeks ago, which McFarland admitted left him with “humble pie, lots of it. When you’re beaten like that, you just have to take it on the chin, don’t you? There was no way around it, no ifs or buts. We weren’t good enough on the day. If we give up the ball as much as we did on that day, we’ll be beaten again, and beaten well, no doubt.”.

Saturday’s all-Irish quarter-final derby was the product of all four sides reaching the knock-out stages, and thus qualifying automatically for next season’s Heineken Champions Cup, with three now progressing to the semi-finals following on from Munster’s admittedly unconvincing and fortuitous 15-13 win over Benetton at Thomond Park in Saturdays other quarter-final.

It all underlines the current rude health of Irish rugby.

“It does, and I think out of the 46 players on the pitch today, 43 of them are Irish qualified,” noted McFarland. “It does say something about the strength of Irish rugby but that’s been pretty apparent from the positions they hold in competitions other than the Pro14. It’s brilliant.”

The two-week break to the semi-final should see Keith Earls and Joey Carbery regain full fitness, according to Johann van Graan.

“Joey and Earlsy were both 95 per cent and we decided not to take a chance. The positive news is that we have two more weeks now, so, hopefully, they’ll be 100 per cent once we get to the semi-final.”

JJ Hanrahan’s latest impact as a replacement for a subdued Tyler Bleyendaal, and his match-winning penalty from halfway, will give the Munster think tank a selection headache from the start or on the bench.

Amid another post-Euro exit hangover, there were only 10,042 at Thomond Park, Munster look ill-equipped to take down Leinster on the evidence of Saturday. But that was their seventh game in a row whereas Leinster will be playing Saracens in the Heineken Champions Cup final in Newcastle next Saturday.

“It’s been pretty much all guns blazing every week,” said van Graan.

“We’ll use this week smartly from our side, regroup, take our time, look at our game and then start looking against the best team in Europe currently. Then, it’s very exciting to go to Dublin.”