RUGBY: TREVOR BRENNAN says Leinster are a better team now than two years ago when they won the cup but . . . there's always a 'but' when you face renowned Toulouse
TOULOUSE – DEMI Measure. That was the headline in Midi Olympique on Monday morning. A week before the Heineken Cup semi-final, Toulouse also assured themselves of a Top 14 semi-final spot by beating bottom-of-the-table Bourgoin 33-0 last Saturday. A walk in the park really.
Toulouse have qualified for their 18th French Championship semi-final in a row since Guy Noves became head coach back in 1993, and this is his tenth semi-final in the Heineken Cup. Now, if that’s not impressive I don’t know what is. The man’s a legend, and that’s why he was voted European Coach of the Year last season.
In my view, the reason he gets the best out of his players is his honesty.
If you had a bad game or did something wrong in a match he’d be brutally hard with you. But you’d prefer that than having a coach talking behind your back and then pick somebody else without explaining the reasons to you.
He is also an inspiring motivator. You just know by the smile on his face that he has a plan up his sleeve. If you’re losing at half-time he produces these inspirational words to make you want to lift your game to another level.
I can’t think of another coach in world rugby who has achieved the results he’s achieved with the same club or even a provincial or national squad over such a long period of time.
He’s won seven Boucliers as a coach (and two as a player) as well as four Heineken Cups. The only comparable achievement that I can think of is Alex Ferguson at Man United. The worst thing you can do is write Toulouse off – no matter what injuries they have or what players are out. And that’s largely down to Guy.
The papers are talking about the first double of H Cup and Bouclier de Brennus since 1996. But knowing Noves, he won’t be thinking that way.
I went along to the Toulouse training session on Tuesday and, of course, Guy spotted me and said: “What are you doing here? Who will you be cheering for on Saturday?” Old habits die hard. He’s still playing mind games with me. I gave it the knowing smile.
About 90 per cent of the squad came in to the official opening of our new bar, La Cantina, last Saturday night. They weren’t going mad by any stretch of the imagination. You knew there was a big match coming down the road.
I hired a band for the night called The Deans, who consist of Gavin Dean, Gary Keown (both from the west) and Chris Byrne, a Dubliner. All in their 20s, they drove from Lyon the previous Thursday and they got an incredible reaction. They’re a mixture of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, folk, country, soul, blues, and are possibly the best live band I’ve ever seen. Check them out in Ireland when they return.
No-one could get enough of them.
For Leinster too there’s a chance of a first Magners League/Heineken Cup double. When I first broke into the Leinster squad in 1997, Mike Ruddock was the new coach and most of our training sessions were pretty primitive, on the back pitch in Bective. I remember a skinny, lanky 17-year-old who would always be up at the front putting everyone else to shame when we were doing our 3,000 metre runs. His name was Shane Horgan. Then came along D’Arcy and O’Driscoll – 14 years later, to think these lads are still doing the business for Leinster is incredible.
I played in three Heineken Cup semi-finals with Toulouse in ’03, ’04 and ’05, and I don’t envy the players the build-up. I put myself under voluntary house arrest. You avoid shops or restaurants, because everybody wants to talk about the match. “Will you win it?” “Can you win it?” My head would be frazzled even taking the kids to school. “Who’s injured?” “Who’s playing?”
Toulouse liked to go to a hotel, sometimes a day or two before the match. Video sessions. Meals together. I found all this too intense. I watched TV, played cards, listened to music, read a book, went to bed. The night before the game was the worst.
Before playing Munster in ’03 I’d say I got an hour’s sleep . . . Come the day, we won 13-12 thanks to a moment of magic from Freddie Michalak and would also beat Biarritz in Bordeaux and Leicester at the Walkers Stadium the following two years, but I found the semi-finals harder than the finals.
Leinster lost the 2003 semi-final to Perpignan 21-12 which is the last time they lost to a French side at home and, of course, lost a semi-final to Munster in ’06. And Leinster were favourites in both those years, as they are today.
However, I think they are a better team than when they won the cup two years ago. They’re more mobile now, more capable of changing the pace of a game at any given time. Cian Healy and Mike Ross have come on a ton as players, and Richardt Strauss just seems to run all day. Seán O’Brien has filled the shoes of Rocky Elsom with what he brings to the team.
At 23, he probably has three World Cups and a couple of Lions tours in him if he keeps himself right and stays fit.
My prediction would be a Leinster-Northampton final. I think Leinster will be too strong at home and will have learned their lessons. Watching them over the last 12 months, Joe Schmidt has done an absolutely fantastic job, and no-one would know Toulouse better than him. Only a few hundred Toulouse supporters are going over, so it’ll be a sea of blue. Toulouse missing so many scrum-halves – Byron Kelleher, Michalak and Nicolas Vergallo – is also a massive factor.
In fact, if there is to be a double this season I think it will be Leinster. But this is Toulouse. They have more experience of semi-finals than any club in Europe . . . And with Toulouse, there’s always that ‘But’.
Congratulations to Ireland's U-18 European champions who gave the English under-18s a rugby lesson when they beat them in in Tarbes. ( in an interview with Gerry Thornley)
