It’s only the first week of the Magners League this weekend, the annual rugby union competition involving professional sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales, and it’s off to a cracking start. A glance at the table even after the first round has a few surprise names at the top.
1 Connacht Rugby 1 5
2 Munster 1 5
3 Cardiff Blues 1 5
4 Benetton Treviso 1 4
5 Glasgow Warriors 1 4
With Ireland’s development team province sitting top of the pile after a four-try thrashing of the Welsh Dragons, new coach Eric Elwood couldn’t be happier. But he’ll keep his enthusiasm in check even with a 40-17 scoreline in his back pocket. Sterner tests await with Scarlets and Glasgow Warriors away from their home patch at the Sportsground.
The province which only has enough money to keep players on one-year contracts surprised their own fans as well as the Welsh visitors by coming out of the traps and enjoying their rugby under the new law interpretations for the first time. Irish fly-half Ian Keatley masterminded the play running in a try from the half-way line as well as kicking all the points for the men from the West.
Both sides were missing some senior players, but for the Dragons their dismal record on Irish soil continues – one win in 24 visits and counting.
The other new name sitting in fourth spot is Benetton Treviso, one of the two new Italian clubs who have joined the Celtic League from this season. They hosted the Scarlets at their home stadium – Stadio Comunale di Monigo, in Treviso. Unsurprisingly, a large contingent of Welsh fans travelled for the match – one assumes a sun-drenched weekend in Italy has other obvious attractions beyond the oval ball. In fact, the Scarlets may have had their minds on other attractions too as they took their eyes and hands off the ball in the second half of the match.
For the first 40, they had comprehensively outplayed the former Super 10 side, who have beefed up their squad with nine new players in preparation for playing in the stronger league. It seemed it wouldn’t be enough as the Scarlets ran in three tries in the first half to lead 22-9 at the break.
Traditionally, Italian teams have fallen away as the game goes on and they tire, and the Scarlets must have thought a bonus point was there for the taking. They got one, but as losers as the Italians hit back with three unanswered tries and a couple of penalties to win the match 34-28 in the final few minutes, with scrum half Tony Botes, the star of the show in leading the fightback with 21 points.
The other truly new team, Aironi Rugby, formed in the last few months from Viadana and other smaller Italian teams, has assembled a host of Italian internationals in their squad, including Quartarolie, Ongaro, Perugini, and del Fava. They’ve also recruited former Munster No 8, New Zealander, Nick Williams and South African lock, Quintin Geldenhuys to captain the side.
They had the most difficult of tasks as newcomers playing Munster in their Cork home ground at Musgrave Park. But they didn’t disappoint and traded penalties and enough early scuffles to cause the Munstermen to sit up and take notice. However, as Munster got on the try scoreboard, and started to build a lead, things began to look ominous.
But the Italians didn’t miss a heartbeat.
From a lineout throw the ball went went quickly wide, a beautiful chip kick and gather, and a swift outside pass, sent new French full-back, Julien Laharrague racing to the corner leaving former All-Black, Dougie Howlett, clutching at grass as he touched down to make it 11-11 as the first half ended.
Munster went into the dressing room suitably chastened. They came out with more vigour and vim for the second 40, and gradually their experience and nous began to tell with their forward pack rumbling over for a try by Niall Ronan. Another one followed from Buckley, before Ronan went over again for the fourth and the bonus point.
Aironi never let up, and their two penalties to leave the final score at 33-17 gave them some deserved respectability. The return match in Italy next March should have an element of grudge as both sides exchanged handbags and a few bloody noses before the ref blew full-time.
The pace of the games weren’t a patch on what we’ve seen in the Tri Nations, but the season always starts slowly up here. And players are going to have get used to playing at a faster and faster pace as experience and learning kicks in. Pace and fitness are at least 25 per cent off their SH counterparts and they will be sunk if they don’t improve drastically over the coming season.
However, for now, as the Magners’ newcomers celebrate their first week in a new league that promises to reap dividends for the Italian test team in the next 12 months, there’s only two final words to sum up an exciting and welcome development for European rugby.
Viva Italia!
Derm
Roar Guru
Thanks Marco - insightful comments. Should I assume you're from Italy? If so, from what region?
marco
Guest
well....I am sorry...but i dont agree again..... :) You dont have to look how much inhabitants are living in a land, but how much members a Rugby Union have, and where the Rugby can have an impact inside a land. And in that case you will discover that Italy is the smallest Union between the four. As I told before, the Rugby sport in Italy is 90 procent played in the north east area.... the popolation of this area is about 10 million inhabitants.... so if we want, its almost in the row as the other countries partecipating to the Magners League....
marco
Guest
Yes Herons and Benetton are from the same area.....But everyone who knows the italian rugby knows also that the tarditional rugby area in Italy is the north east area. So the choice is absolutely right..... The other side of Italy and Rome in particular have already the six Nations tournement in Rome ( althought the choice of Rome as Six Nations traditional centre was from the beginning just a political choice, made cause of major turistic actractions). in Rome the half of the Flaminio stadium (about 30.000 places) is always took from the opponents supporters.....on the contrary a six nations game played in an hipotetic stadium situated in north east Italy (instead in Rome), would bring no less as 60.000 people at the stadium..... simply look at the game played in San Siro (Milan) last year between the Azzurri and the AB´s..... 80.000 people in Stadium...... Rugby is a north Italian sport.... just give a look to the italian super 10, and you will see easily, where the teams are coming from!!!
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Pothale that's absolutely crazy: they can't be making any real money from it and are losing the opportunity of 22 weeks exposure on free tv. I remember reading an article saying the Italian unions were the problem for rugby expansion and that's clearly the case.
Derm
Roar Guru
It's on Dahlia TV on its two sport channels - both pay-per-view.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Intotouch I lived in Italy for three years recently and rubgy's popularity was growing slowly, not soaring. The crowds at club level are still low, and the Italian union seem fairly useless. They took International rugby off free national tv where it was being made available to a very large audience in order to put it on pay tv. The benefits the money gives them are surely far less than broadcasting 3 matches on international weekends to the whole population. Then, matches are played in the stadio flaminio in Rome when they could sell out the stadio olimpico which has a far higher capacity. I don't know whether the ML is going to be on pay or free tv: let's hope the latter.
Intotouch
Roar Rookie
Italian friends of mine have told me that rugby's popularity is soaring there now, mainly because of the shocking corruption scandals in the soccer league. The Italians are sick of the attitude as well of the filthy rich soccer stars. So rugby is reaping the reward. More play it there now than in Scotland. The entry to the ML should really help the profile of the sport. I don't know about this idea that the ML should function as a league for anyone who fancies it. I think that practically it would have made far more sense for the Italians to enter the Top 14. With low crowd turn outs it becomes very expensive very quickly to fund teams flying to different countries every weekend.
jimmy_01
Guest
Expansion in the magners league is definitely limited, although teams like wales, scotland and down the track Italy will look to increase teams. I'm not exactly sure about this, but I don't think a salary cap has been introduced and thats a problem, especially teams in Ireland like Leinster dominating, whereas Connacht fail to provide a competitive team year in year out. This might be due to different amounts of pay for different countries, but a solution needs to found. The magners league to me has seemed to become the third proffessional league behind the traditional competitions in England and France. This is why there was talk South Africa would join the competition. Accepting Italy could mean countries like Georgia and possibly Russia could ask to join, because its no longer a purely celtic league. Crowds are also lower in the magners league compared to the other 3 major competitions. This would decrease expansion opportunities due to funds and is why the border reivers died out a few years ago. These problems need to be adressed soon so that the competition can continue to grow
kovana
Guest
Great article.. Good to see the italians starting off well.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Working class in fact both the current and the former scenario are flawed. If there were one more ML team they would have to allow each team one third imports, and spread the talent around to maintain overall quality, as they're doing with the Melbourne Rebels. Rugby does seem to be having a tough time taking off in Italy.
Derm
Roar Guru
Eh - the short answer is no. You cannot expect the type of play that was delivered during the Super 14 (fortunately) or the Tri-Nations (unfortunately). :) It'll be much slower and more pedantic. But that's what you need in rugby - a bit of variety. When the southern cousins come to play during their summer holidays, we'll try and keep up with play but it won't happen. And we'll have a few beers and a laugh. Then the holidays will be over, and we'll go back to the way we play it best - slow and methodical, and able to see the ball in play, compared to that futuristic whizz-bang stuff from the South. Old traditions die hard.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
KPM They should only look to move back to the Super 10 if it really begins to improves significantly. It's been Italy downfall for its entire history in the 6N's. Simply not good enough. As long as the current and any future Italian franchises work to promote and develop the overall standard of the Super 10 then yes a return to it should occur. However, if it remains as is it would better serve the game in Italy as purely a development League and a place for each franchises academy squads. It's no use having say 3/4 ML teams revert back only to notch up embarassing scorelines against significantly inferior opposition.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Matt because Italy was only unified relatively recently and is spread out anyway, each major city is very separate from the rest. So huge areas of population have no access to top flight rugby with the current scheme. The metropolitan area of Naples is 5.4 million for example. I would say 5-10 years would be preferable to 10-20 and 2023 is too far away as a goal. The current Magner's league involvement will increase playing standards and exposure as it is a high level international competition. But once the game has grown more, it should be straight back to a national championship.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Overtime the ML should look to have an equal representation from all four nations. It's a good start for the Italians. And the Scots have certainly become more competitive. I do not doubt that due to their admission to the League the Italian national team will begin to perform at a higher level more regularly. Questions still remain over the Super 10 and its future. Well, they should be looking to not only maintain it but build upon it. Grow it to a 12-16 team league to provide hopefully the future 4 Italian ML squads with a development league and a ready source of talent. Likewise, at the moment both Aironi and Treviso should actively promote the S10 within Italy.
Matt
Guest
I think this definitely should only be a temporary (10-20 year) plan for Italy. Wales will inevitably want a 5th team in the North, and Scotland will NEED a 3rd team. Ireland will then need to start putting more emphasis on Connachts funding. So the Celtic nations will expand back to 12 teams anyway. I'd imagine that Italy will look to expand initially too, with a team being formed in Rome. But once Italy get the green light for hosting a World Cup (which will likely come in 2023) then they should DEFINITELY look towards a rebirth of the Super 10 competition with teams like Aironi, Treviso, Roma coming back in as super clubs. With the ground swell of support for Rugby after a World Cup the Italians could well entrench the game into the lifestyles of the Italian public and the large population there. I think the last 15 years of Pro rugby have seen a strong emphasis on concentrating playing talent to make financially viable teams that offer better preparation for Test rugby. The Super 12 franchises, the Welsh/Scottish Regions and now Italian franchises have all been created artificially to concentrate playing talent to make teams more competitive and financially viable. But many of these nations have now realised that having more strong teams means more presence for the game and more money/players to drive national development. So in the next 15 years I can see many of the smaller footprints expanding again (in RSA, Aus, NZ, WAL, SCO, ITA). Great start for the Magners League though I must say!
The all new King of the Gorganites
Guest
We'll done to the italians. Hopefully that form continues and builds into the national team. So on the whole, how did the new break-dwon interpretation work? can we expect the type of play that was delivered during the super 14 and tri-nations? I for one hope so.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
The expansion point is an interesting one. 22 games is a lot (in France it is 36 though), but the Welsh clubs play even more than that: they waste time with the Anglo-Welsh Cup, so there is some room for change. I think actually each country should be able to bring as many teams as it wants to long as they are competitive. If this means there are too many games, then all the clubs need not play each other every season. I think it is essential for Italian rugby to have more teams though, especially as with the current situation Rome, the Abruzzi and Milan are left out. I think for the immediate future Rome should be added and apparently the Italians wanted four or five teams, though it is hard to see how they could be competitive without many foreign imports. I think Italy should plan to stay in the Magners league for five or ten years until the game has grown further there, and then return to their national competition. A team everywhere has a big impact: remember Italy has a population of 60 million, Wales 3, Scotland and Ireland 5, so there are many more areas to be covered and much more room for potential growth. On the other hand, maybe the absence of two teams won't make much difference ot their national competition.
Derm
Roar Guru
KPM - I've no doubt the entry into the Magners required a lot of Italian soul-searching, but the decision is a pragmatic one. After ten years, there had to be a further systemic step-change to bring about development. The Super 10 wasn't doing enough to develop the game to a sufficient standard or certainly not quickly enough, and players like Parisse, Perugio, del Fava, Zanni, Castro, Bortolami ended up plying their trades elsewhere. Good luck to them. No doubt, the failure of the Roma consortium to land the second franchise was a big blow to that region, but I think we both observed before that politics had a part to play - rugby politics. The North-West region where Viadana and Treviso are situated is the traditional heartland of the game. However, if the Magners entry creates a momentum for a third Italian team, all to the good. Scotland are also making noises about getting a third team off the ground and it might bring the league up to 14 again. But there has to be a limit at that point. Indeed 22 games this season, particularly in a WC year with the Player Management Programme is going to work heavily on some of the clubs, particularly Leinster and Munster who supply 80% of the Irish squad. it'll be an interesting season as a result, and with talent thinned across squads who'll have to play league games during the November tests and 6 Nations, the Italians may get a chance to get a few victories that they mightn't have otherwise expected in another year. Aironi are an interesting outfit, and I think will do better than predicted. Treviso have pulled off a few suprising victories in the last couple of seasons in the European Cup. And at the very least, Connacht, the perennial bottom-dwellers, might find themselves in with a chance to get off the bottom rung at last. My early pick for the title is for one of the Scottish sides to take advantage this season and get a home draw for the semi-final play off. And for Treviso to finish above one each of the Irish and Welsh sides.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Pothale the criticism of the entry of the Italian teams into the league from their point of view was that it would destroy their national competition. I wonder what effect it will have. If not a negative one, then the development would be entirely positive. Everntually they will need more teams. Two is not enough to cover Italy, and most immediately Rome and the Abruzzi have no side at that level. Benetton and Viadana are in the same area.
PastHisBest
Roar Guru
Thanks for the update Pothale. Hopefully this does have a knock on effect with the Italian national side. I have an Italian wife and she mutters "stupid Italians..." everytime the Italians play and lose. She pretends not to care but deep down it would give her a big thrill to see them win more consistently. Great for the Magners as well having them on board.