Charlie Mulqueen
IT may be tempting fate to suggest that Irish rugby is on an ever upward curve on the eve of two vital European Cup matches but the superb victory for the U18s in the FIRA European Championship in France was a hugely important development.
It would be reasonable to assume that the future is in safe hands.
As for the present, we will have a more reliable guide as to how things stand after the Leinster-Toulouse Heineken Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and the Munster-Harlequins Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final at Thomond Park earlier that afternoon.
An Irish double won’t be easily achieved but the betting favours Leinster and Munster going on to make it a great couple of days in Cardiff at the end of May.
How these games pan out and how individuals perform will have a major say in the final composition of the Irish squad for the world cup in New Zealand in September and October. The vast majority of the 30 places are cast in stone but several people have been putting their hands up of late and are intent on crashing the party.
Dubliner Felix Jones is a classic case in point. He has fed superbly into the Munster way of things in spite of suffering two dreadful injuries since arriving in the south while his performances on the field in recent matches have been quite spectacular
Pace combined with footballing skill and unlimited courage are the hallmarks of special players and Jones has these characteristics in abundance.
And then you have the scrum-half and hooker positions where coach Declan Kidney is likely to bring three players for each berth. For much of the season, it looked like there were four candidates at number nine, Eoin Reddan, Tomás O’Leary, Peter Stringer and Isaac Boss, and not necessarily in that order.
In more recent times, however, the desperately unlucky O’Leary has been laid low by a series of injuries and Stringer has been relegated to the Munster bench by the remarkable surge in form displayed by young Conor Murray.
He had another fine game against the Ospreys and in the final analysis his magnificent cover tackle that prevented a James Hook try by a matter of inches probably won the match for Munster. It helps in the modern game when your scrum-half stands well over six feet and weigh more than 14 stone.
The 22-year-old from Patrickswell man combines an impressive physique with a slick pass, a fine box kick and a strong tackle. He may still lack the required experience for an assignment as formidable as a world cup but if he maintains his current rate of progress, you never know.
At the very least, Murray is handing Kidney the kind of dilemma the coach actually relishes.
If Conor Murray’s try-saving tackle in Swansea was a major talking point, so, too, was Sean Cronin’s superb try for Connacht in their defeat by Ulster. The manner in which he took Ian Keatley’s pass and chose a superb line of running before outpacing the opposition from thirty metres showed what he is capable of.
Over exuberance may have cost Cronin a match-winning try in the game against France during the Six Nations but he will have learned from that and I expect to see him emerge as a key man for Ireland in the world cup and an invaluable signing for Leinster come next season.
Jerry Flannery will also be on the plane for New Zealand provided he can shake off the injuries that have blighted his career and destroyed his 2010/11 season.
As of now, though, he has to be a serious doubt. Rory Best continues to enjoy Kidney’s favour but given his consistently outstanding form throughout the year, Damien Varley now comes seriously into the equation. He is certainly one of many with a great deal to play for over the coming month or so.
Leinster’s consistent level of quality performances throughout the season and the fact that they are playing at home indicates that they may prove too good for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup semi-final, especially if the French aren’t quite as aristocratic as they like to think they are and as they certainly have been in the past.
However, they have now nailed down their place in the semi-finals of the domestic championship with a 33-0 hammering of Bourgoin on Sunday and so are free to devote their full attention to also proving themselves on foreign soil. It should be a real cracker of a game.
Harlequins director of rugby Conor O’Shea is a very close reader of form and respecter of all things Munster, not least because of his close connections to the province. He has been speaking of how delighted his players were when they knew were coming to Thomond Park for the Challenge Cup semi-final. Conor believes these are the kind of games from which his players can gauge just where they stand in the pecking order and that they can learn from.
He has promised that Quins will give it a lash on Saturday. Their youthful and attack-conscious side with a fine pair of halves in New Zealander Nick Evans and Danny Care and Lions wing Ugo Monye will take watching. Their five-try demolition of Leeds on Sunday should also have put them in the best possible frame of mind.
Ironically, though, it’s in the area where Munster are weakest that Quins may be unable to take advantage. The Munster scrum was in disarray for much of the Ospreys game with John Hayes being taken off at half time only for Tony Buckley to make little improvement on his arrival. Quins have also been chopping and changing in this crucial area although their recent hat-trick of wins over Leeds, Bath and Wasps suggests that they are currently in a rich vein of form.
Bearing in mind Munster’s addiction to the open running game in their wins over Brive, Scarlets and Ospreys and Harlequins commitment to spreading the ball wide whenever possible, this is another encounter to set the pulses racing early on what promises to be a mouth watering afternoon for rugby in this country.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/4xZKSojPqxw/post.aspx
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