Monday 23 May 2016 14:47, UK
Stuart Barnes casts his eye over England's squad for Australia and reflects on the fortunes of Connacht and Exeter with both on the verge of fairy tale endings in the PRO12 and Premiership.
1. Food, drink, culture and horse racing, Galway has a lot going for it. Now it has a finalist in the PRO12 and a rugby team that seems to be here to stay. It wasn't much more than three years ago that the Irish Rugby Football Union thought its future was to be as a developmental side, a mere footnote to the growth of professionalism in Ireland. Now Connacht are 80 minutes from being a champion team.
Whatever happens in Edinburgh, this has been a superb season for Connacht. Most observers thought Pat Lam's team took advantage of a relatively spare contingent of internationals during the World Cup to boost hopes of a Champions Cup qualification place. But they have kept going. They have got better and better and, significantly, with the wins came the belief until a semi-final against Glasgow, the defending champions. Glasgow had only lost one of their previous nine games - but they were beaten in consecutive fixtures by Connacht. Back-to-back wins against in-form champions is quite some way to qualify for the final.
The resulting pitch invasion was benign and the pubs overflowed with bonhomie (try Hughes if you like a near perfect pint of the dark stuff). It was the sort of day a commentator feels extremely fortunate to be in such a position; the sun set gloriously over Galway Bay as rugby romance carried the day.
2. England had its fair share of rugby romance on Saturday as Exeter Chiefs produced one of their more pragmatic performances to see off Wasps and advance to the final of the Premiership. It has been billed as a bit of a fairy tale story but the manner in which Tony Rowe and Rob Baxter have improved this club year-by-year is frankly a triumph for hard work, clear thinking and an old-fashioned decency.
On the field, the improvement in players picked up by Baxter has been startling; the academy is producing a crop of internationals and the side can play it either tight up front, loose behind or a bit of both. They will be underdogs at Twickenham but this is an underdog with bite. Saracens beware.
3. As for the Saracens, they are on the verge of something pretty special. The English and European champions are one game away from a magnificent third consecutive trophy. Having been criticised in some quarters for the style of victory in Lyon, it was wholly predictable that they would run in points in their next outing. Leicester are a side in transition and have done well to reach semi-finals in Europe and England but they are not ready for the likes of Saracens, especially away from home. Exeter have a superior chance but it would surprise me if they stopped Saracens at Twickenham. The bookmakers make Sarries nine-point favourites but Exeter will tell you the bookmakers made Leicester City 5,000-1 outsiders at the start of the Premier League season.
4. I haven't seen the odds for the PRO12 final but I would be amazed if Leinster were not to be favourites. They have the big-match players and the knowledge of what it takes to win finals. They produced arguably their best performance of the season to see off a disappointing Ulster in the semi-finals. Jonny Sexton played with a ruthless control bordering on the venomous. I saw it from behind the posts, mingling with home and away supporters. As a busman's holiday goes it was pretty enjoyable.
5. Sunday, bloody Sunday as far as Chris Ashton and Danny Cipriani were concerned as both were overlooked for England's tour party of Australia. Frankly, few outside the press thought Cipriani had a chance of being selected but Ashton's omission will hurt the winger who has tidied up his game while finishing with the same brutal accuracy as ever.
Right now he is the best winger in England but this tour is as much about the long term as it is the short term, whatever Eddie Jones says. How else can you explain the choice of Ellis Genge - the bloke who came off the bench against Saracens and gave Owen Farrell the sort of whack Farrell normally reserves for his opponents. He and Kyle Sinckler are indicators of Jones' visionary take on the art of selection.
6. Ben Te'o will be a Worcester Warrior by the time he joins the tour party so that sorts the availability issue out. The Leinster centre is an ideal replacement/alternative to the increasingly injury-plagued Manu Tuilagi. Dynamism is central to the Jones rugby philosophy. He is not the first and won't be the last quasi-Englishmen to be picked up en route to Tokyo. Next stop is for Nathan Hughes.
7. England play Wales on Sunday and while it is not a World Cup or Six Nations game, it is important for three reasons. Firstly, it is a far more competitive warm-up for the tough tours awaiting both these countries than recent Barbarian fixtures have been. Two, there are caps available and points to be won and lost in that world ratings table. The higher the better and, finally, it is England versus Wales.
8. Did anyone see the Crusaders and their first try after less than three minutes on Friday morning? It was pouring down but that didn't stop Kieran Read's team from playing ambitious, exquisite rugby. At the moment it is not so much the gulf between the two hemispheres (although there remains a clear gap) as New Zealand and the rest. They are playing a different game to the rest of the world.
9. Israel Folau is looking an interesting 13/15. Played in attack at 13, he caused plenty of problems for the Crusaders as a traditional outside centre. On Crusader-ball he frequently dropped back to full-back where his counter-attacking skills could be maximised. He had a disappointing World Cup but he seems back on song.
10. Third time lucky for Bristol. Having botched the last two play-off finals they are not going to blow this one. A 13-point lead from the first leg and a noisy West Country crowd to cheer them on. Do not expect Clive Griffiths and Andy Robinson to say the game is up but anything other than Bristol promoted will be the biggest sporting shock since...Leicester City. Don't give up Donny fans but don't expect too much, either. This is Bristol's to lose and they won't. Not this time.
