At the start of the 2010/11 season there was huge focus on Ulster rugby. The arrivals of high profile Springboks Ruan Pienaar, Pedrie Wannenburg and Johann Muller at Ravenhill was expected to make the northern side more competitive. Indeed the addition of that trio to a side which contained fellow South Africans BJ Botha and Robbie Diack certainly gave the province a hard abrasive edge which may have been missing in past seasons. Their success in reaching the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup and the playoffs of the Magners League is no small achievement given where they were 18 months ago. And to say that that success is purely down to the influx of foreign, or non Irish qualified players, would be doing a great disservice to guys such as Chris Henry, Dan Touhy, Rory Best and Tom Court. What has impressed me most though about this Ulster side this season was the young players. In players like Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy, Nevin Spence, Conor Gaston and Paddy McAllister Ulster have the nucleus of a strong team for the future. Gilroy in particular caught the eye with eight tries from fourteen appearances; this guy appears to have the requisite skill levels allied with great strength and pace to become a top international player in the future. Qualification for the knock out stages of the Heineken Cup was a particular highlight, for it was the first time since they won the competition back in 1999 that they got out of their group. In that match against Northampton, the eventual finalists, for 50-60 minutes they gave as good as they got. The signs for next season are also hugely positive, further investment in the team through the signings of top class talent such as All Black prop John Afoa and his fellow New Zealander utility back Jared Payne will further improve this young Ulster squad. The departure of Botha to Munster at the moment appears to be good business for Ulster as he has shown signs of age and in Afoa they are not only replacing Botha, they are possibly strengthening their hand. Payne has been one of the standout performers in a very strong Auckland Blues team which has been scoring tries for fun in this season’s Super 15. For Ulster a backline of Pienaar, Humphreys, Trimble, Spence, Payne, Gilroy and D’Arcy has the potential to be devastating in attack. There are also rumours circulating the province that another major signing in the backline may be announced over the summer, All Black speedster Cory Jane has been mentioned, if this were to come to fruition Ulster would be in possession of a fearsome backline and the targeting of major silverware would be expected.
Over in Connacht the signs have been encouraging too, and that was before they gained a Heineken Cup place for the first time via Leinster’s winning of that trophy. The appointment of Eric Elwood as head coach has been hugely successful. By a stretch they were the most improved side in the Magners this season. Gone were the abysmal performances away to the Welsh and Scottish teams which had become a regular occurrence under Michael Bradley. There was a level of consistency about the Connacht team this season which had not been there before and their final finishing place of ninth does a disservice to the improvement they made over the season. Dig a little deeper into the statistics and the improvements are demonstrated by an achievement of more wins, seven to five, but it is defensively and offensively where the improvement was most pronounced. Concession of 459 points was equal to the previous season’s total, but crucially that was with two extra games played following Aironi and Treviso’s entry into the league. Offensively they scored more too with 394 points scored to a meagre 254 the previous season. Quality players like Fionn Carr, Ian Keatley, Sean Cronin and Jamie Hagan played huge roles in the resurgence in Connacht and it is no surprise that they have attracted the attention of the Leinster and Munster. Their departures will be hard to replace, but Connacht are now a team under Elwood, rather than a collection of young inexperienced individuals they were under Bradley and the foundations are being set for the province to grow. The departures of Carr and Keatley to Leinster and Munster respectively will leave a huge void, Keatley finished the season as the second highest points scorer in the league and Carr was yet again Connachts top try scorer with 7. The arrival of the highly rated Fetu’u Vainikolo from the Highlanders should give them pace in the backline, whilst new contracts for Mike McCarthy, John Muldoon and Brett Wilkinson should mean that the pack remains strong. Increased IRFU funding, coupled with higher profile games via the Heineken Cup and the signing of talented young Irish players like Stewart Maguire, Paul O’Donohue, Eoghan Grace and Niall O’Connor means that the future is an awful lot brighter for Connacht than twelve months ago.
Munster finished the season as Magners League Champions after winning a thrilling Grand Final against their fiercest of rivals Leinster. All things considered Munster deserved to win the title; they were by far the most consistent team in the competition and through pure consistency topped the table for much of the season. However, for the Muntser players, management and fans the ultimate barometer of success is how well the team does in Europe and this is where the shine of winning the Magners is somewhat dulled. Munster were a shadow of themselves in the Heineken Cup, losses away to London Irish, Ospreys and Toulon meant qualification to the knock outs eluded them for the first time since 1999. Their eventual capitulation to Harlequins at home in Thomand Park was the lowest point of the season for them, losing at home for only the second time ever in European competition. Having watched Munster closely this season, there are several areas that can be readily identified where they have declined since the heady days of winning Heineken Cups in Cardiff. Most prominently is the fact that they have consistently lacked dynamic ball carrying ability, only David Wallace, who at 34 years of age is in flying form, has persistently broken the first tackle and guarantee that all important go forward ball. Guys like Denis Leamy, James Coughlan and Donnacha Ryan are good forwards in their own right but ball carrying is not their forte. Contrast them with guys like Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip and Richardt Strauss at Leinster and the difference is stark. For much of the season they have been too lateral and lacking in cutting edge, which is symptomatic of the defecit in ball carriers. Their recruitment policy over the past two seasons has also been disastrous, players like Sam Tuitupou, Peter Borlase, Nick Williams an even Jean De Villiers quite simply haven’t worked out. Munster are still relying on the same core players who served them so well in the past and they haven’t been supplemented by strong NIQ signings. Watching the Magners League Final this past weekend Munster played the best rugby they have played all season. They were incisive, controlled and aggressive at the breakdown but you have to wonder how they were able to bring their “A” game to the park on Saturday against Leinster, but yet all season in the big games they lacked that aggression and directness. If they’d played like that against Harlequins or Toulon they would have blown them off the park, so the question has to be asked are the requisite motivation levels still there in the team? Or was it just the fact they couldn’t stand to have watched Leinster parade the Magners trophy around Thomond if they’d won?
In my opinion the management team at Munster need to take a long hard look at themselves, McGahan’s game plan hasn’t worked, Munster, apart from last weekend, have been a shambles at scrum time and they have had issues at the breakdown all season. The fact that forwards coach Laurie Fisher is leaving is telling, the great Munster sides of the past decade could always be relied upon to be clinical at the set piece. The management need to identify the areas where radical improvement is required and take the steps to improve. The signings of BJ Botha and Ian Keatley auger well, as Munster will be without Ronan O’Gara and probably John Hayes (God love him) during the World Cup. The priority should be the signings of an inside centre and a backrower, both should be top quality players. There have been rumours that Jean DeVilliers could return, which is bizarre considering he wasn’t a runaway success first time out. DeVilliers Springbok partner in crime Jacque Fourie would be a far more attractive proposition, but the fact remains that Munster need to get these signings right. It must also be stated that it is not all doom and gloom down in Munster, young players like Felix Jones, Conor Murray, Danny Barnes, Mike Sherry and Ian Nagle have all impressed and whilst they are still relatively inexperienced the talent is there. Jones in particular is one to watch, a possible dark horse for the Ireland World Cup squad, he reads a game well, is solid defensively and has good pace. Expect to hear a lot about this guy in the next few seasons.
Finally, onto Leinster who started the season with three losses from their first four games and some commentators were calling for Joe Schmidts head. How wrong they would have been. Leinster blazed a trail through Europe playing some scintillating rugby at times but also dogging it out when they had to on their way to lifting the trophy. The win over Saracens in Wembley was typical of the strong defensive unit Schmidt has put in place, Saracens went through 30 phases in the dying minutes of the match chasing the game at 23-25. Leinster dug in, kept their discipline, stuck to the defensive system and took a great win home from London. The Heineken Cup final against Northampton Saints is a game which will go down as one of the great sporting comebacks. 22-6 down at half time, to run out 33-22 winners typified the team spirit and sheer bloody mindedness which this Leinster side has come to epitomise. But all that heart is nothing without the skills.
In players like Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip, Richardt Strauss, Cian Healy and Nathan Hines Leinster had a pack of forward who can not only carry the ball with devastating results but they have the ball handling skills to offload and receive at speed and this is the very hallmark of Leinster play. They played with an energy and a dynamism which is in stark contrast to their counterparts at Munster. Playing a high speed, off loading game is very hard for any opposition to stop. Allied to this the speed and guile of Jonny Sexton, Brian O’Driscoll, Shane Horgan and the brilliant Isa Nacewa and Leinster have a backline which is a match for the best in the world. It’s worth noting that Leinster won the Heineken Cup by following the hardest route possible, they beat the teams which finished in the top three in England and in France on their way to the title, Saracens, Toulouse, Leicester, Clermont, Northampton and Racing Metro. In winning the Heineken cup for the second time Leinster took their place as one of Europe’s premier club sides, right up there with the best. For me the most impressive aspect of Leinsters season though has been that the success has been borne out by the collective team, certain individuals played more prominent roles than other but it was a squad effort. Schmidt can take great credit for the way in which the squad developed, young players like Dominic Ryan, Rhys Ruddock and Ian Madigan all received large amounts of playing time and made telling contributions. It's frightening to think that there are more talented young players coming through the academy, guys like Andrew Conway, Dave Kearney, Brendan Macken and Jack McGrath have talent in abundance, the future is very bright for Leinster rugby. The signings for next season of Fionn Carr, Jamie Hagan, Damien Browne, Steven Sykes and Matthew Berquist will add further depth to a squad which will see significant periods when the Irish internationals are away at the World Cup and 6 Nations. The target for next season will be to further develop the squad and expect to see guys like Ruddock, Ryan and Madigan play significant roles with guys like Conway and Macken looking to make big impressions. A Magners League title will definitely be the target along with retention of their European crown.
Written by Ross McGuinness. MSc. in Business Management student in DCU, B.A in Culinary Arts graduate. 25 year old Irishman, son, grandson, brother and boyfriend. Avid social media adventurer, Leinster Rugby fan, Evertonian and food, glorious food explorer!
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