How quickly do the disappointments of Rugby World Cup failure fade?
This year’s Heineken Cup final features a team from each of Europe’s biggest World Cup disappointments: France, who did just enough to get to the semi final before throwing it all away against England, and Ireland, who failed to progress beyond the pool stage.
Now, seven months on, Toulouse and Munster take up the batons of national pride and try to restore the pre-world cup dominance of these two countries in European rugby.
This year’s Heineken Cup has weaved an interesting story. The form of the Ospreys, a team that provided 13 players to the Welsh starting to line up, loomed ominously early in the season.
The remarkable treble of a 6 Nations Grand Slam coupled with Anglo-Welsh and Heineken Cup success seemed a distinct possibility for James Hook and co. Unfortunately for the Ospreys, they came up against Richard Hill and his Saracens team at the first step of the knock-out stage.
Saracens this year have been much like the little girl who had the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. Their determination, on that snowy Watford day was indeed very, very good.
Their capitulation to Bath last weekend was horrid. Sarries did however make it through to the do-or-die stage of the competition, something that two of England’s supposedly stronger clubs, Leicester and Wasps, failed to achieve. Even the high flying Gloucester couldn’t make it passed the Quarter Finals.
England’s other surprise package came in the form of the London Irish. Whilst southern hemisphere rugby fans have no doubt heard the hype surrounding the emergence of Wasps’ Danny Cipriani, the rise of Shane Geraghty as a genuine playmaker has been relatively overlooked.
Geraghty has played the role of Quade Cooper to Cipriani’s Kurtley Beale, quietly building an impressive backlog of exciting performances away from the spotlight.
The Exiles, much like Saracens, came very close to making it to the final of the competition with a strong performance in the penultimate round.
It was at this stage of the competition that the consistency, depth of experience and sheer class of both Toulouse and Munster put an end to the aspirations of the English challengers. Both semi finals were close run contests and both finalists will have felt they well and truly earned their shot at the title.
Unlike Saracens and London Irish, Toulouse are certainly not a team that relies heavily on imported players from the southern hemisphere. The Basque team’s list reads like a who’s who of French rugby with names like Heymans, Jauzion, Elissalde, Pelous, Nyanga, Dusatoir and the injured Clerc.
The robust play of Byron Kelleher compliments that of a team who enjoy his aspirations of becoming a ninth forward. The Argentinean contingent of Omar Hasan and Patricio Albacete probably don’t need Kelleher’s help in the rough stuff but the New Zealander seems to be enjoying his work.
Munster are a bit different. From numbers one to ten this team is virtually all Ireland however out wide this side benefits from a distinct Polynesian influence. In the tight the squad is lead by the likes of Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan, John Hayes and Denis Leamy. Outside fly-half Ronan O’Gara an ex-pat backline consisting of Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi and Doug Howlett regularly find themselves with very good ball to work their magic with.
Toulouse are capable of playing a beautifully simplistic style of rugby and the old adage about the butcher working next to the artist certainly applies to this very French team.
Munster, who will face the All Blacks in their end of season tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Irish province’s famous victory over the Kiwis, are perhaps not quite as well rounded a side as their opponents and the on-the-day performance of O’Gara is crucial to the side’s success.
For the Irish side to taste its second Heineken Cup victory, the second row pairing of O’Connell and O’Callaghan will really need to play at their best. Last month, in the French domestic competition, Clermont showed that if Toulouse can be matched up front, their fly half Elissalde can sometimes lose the plot and start taking risky options.
A win for either side would be a tremendous boost to the rugby pride of both nations but for mine Toulouse look well placed to win their fourth European cup.
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