RUGBY/ HEINEKEN CUP:SATURDAY WAS all about stayin' alive, and all three Irish provinces in the Heineken Cup achieved that, albeit some more vibrantly than others.
Each at least have their destiny in their own hands, if only just in Munster’s case. Even by their standards they’re in a tight squeeze, with Leinster especially and Ulster enjoying more elbow room.
By dint of picking up a bonus point in their disappointing 19-15 defeat at the Ospreys on Saturday, Munster at least outscored the home side by two tries to one for the second week in a row and thus have the better head-to-head record if the sides finish level in Pool Three.
However, Toulon are now in the box seat after their bonus-point win over London Irish, with Munster requiring wins in both the Stade Felix Mayol in round five and at home to London Irish in their final game to have any chance of progress. Were they also to beat the Exiles with a bonus point in Thomond Park, though, they would progress as pool winners.
Ulster have their best chance of reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since they won the Cup in 1999 by dint of completing a double over Bath at the Rec on Saturday.
Provided they beat Biarritz at Ravenhill by more than seven points in their penultimate game, and follow that up with a bonus-point win away to Aironi, they are guaranteed top place in Pool Four. Two wins would also keep them well in the hunt.
The biggest Christmas cheer will be in Leinster. Saturday’s superb 24-8 win over Clermont, coupled with Saracens’ helpful win in Racing Metro leaves them five points clear in Pool Two and knowing a home win over Saracens in their penultimate game would virtually ensure progress.
Were it to come with a win away to Racing on the final weekend they would have an excellent chance of securing a coveted home quarter-final.
Saturday’s crowd of 44,873 on a bitterly cold night was the third highest pool attendance in tournament history, and the Leinster Branch gave the IRFU a lesson in marketing, ticketing strategy and pre-match entertainment. The match wasn’t too shabby either.
The many thousands of families and underage supporters ensured Leinster have invested in future generations. Fittingly, young tyros such as the Cian Healy and Seán O’Brien led the way as the team responded to their public.
In every way, this was a very special night in Leinster’s increasingly impressive Euro CV.
Joe Schmidt was palpably buzzing afterwards. Along with his one-time compadré, Vern Cotter, he watched Friday night’s pool game as the pair cheered on Saracens, before then putting one over on Cotter the following night.
About the only blemish was Leinster didn’t press ahead for a bonus point, not that they wouldn’t have taken a 5-4 match-point haul in the head-to-heads with the French champions. Understandably, Schmidt was not of a mind to complain.
“We did go flat in the last 20 but the intensity we brought to the game in the opening 20 and the first 20 of the second half was impressive; maybe it drained us a little.
“Keeping them from getting a bonus point keeps us five points ahead but, looking ahead to January, we’re still going to have to work very hard to get out of this pool. You saw what Saracens did at Racing Metro last night, and we have to go away to Racing Metro, which are not friendly encounters by any means. So, I’m not going to get carried away but I’m pretty relieved and delighted, just with the way the players came through; I felt they were very, very generous with their bodies.”
In light of the way Munster’s scrum was handled by the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium earlier in the day, it’s not stretching credibility to say that if Mike Ross had been playing for his native province they would have won.
“I think Greg Feek has done a great job, he’s laid the platform and the players have decided that we’ll take this on and we’ll make something of it,” said Schmidt.
“Rossy is our scrum leader and he takes a personal bit of pride in every scrum that we have and sort of translates that through the eight. We’re scrumming as an eight and that’s making the difference, maybe not 100 per cent of the time but if we can get it very close to that then it’s a very solid platform for us.”
There was more Christmas cheer in the warm-up with the sight of Jamie Heaslip attempting a drop goal. His ankle had obviously recovered.
“We made the decision as he jogged off on the warm-up,” confirmed a smiling Schmidt afterwards.
“I said to him whether he could play. He said ‘yeah’. I said you gotta make at least 40 and he gave us 80.
“Shane Jennings led our defence, not maybe the block-busting carrier in the form of Jamie but what Jenno does out there gives us massive confidence and massive organisation to the players around him. I thought he really led by example,” said Schmidt, adding that Leinster’s backrow had been “immense”.
“A lot of what we worked on was to get our backrow into the game, put pressure on them defensively and grab ball off them and play from there.”
Restoring the hyperactive Healy and Eoin Reddan had worked a treat too.
“We wanted to ramp the pace up a bit this week and that suits Cian down to the ground with his dynamic ball carry that he gets into the game. We felt last week that Cian wasn’t 100 per cent, he’d had a corked thigh during the autumn internationals, he was coming back but wasn’t right on top so we felt we’ll keep his motivation pretty high and fire him through to this game and maybe we had a bit of luck because it worked out quite well for us.”
As for whether his scrummaging had improved, Schmidt smiled and admitted: “I couldn’t really comment on the scrum because I don’t understand it. I can see he’s certainly improved in his ability to prepare, his ability to stay in the game, his ability to concentrate and those are elements he’s really improved on. And when he’s in the game he’s a very powerful character.”
And he’s still only 23.
