What a weekend! - Barnes
Stuart is in love with rugby again thanks to Leicester, Leinster and Munster.
The Heineken Cup has produced more dramatic matches but possibly never a weekend of such rich attacking rugby. The modern adage that defences win games was made to look stupid as creative rugby dominated. The points flowed from Leicester, Friday to Leinster, Sunday as accurate ambition combined with individual brilliance to ignite the tournament.
Leicester went to Clermont Auvergne on a positive note and earned themselves a quarter final tie with Bath at home. It is a game they should win although the rivalry between clubs could turn logic on its head. Tom Varndell earned the headlines with four tries but Geordan Murphy produced the outstanding performance in attack, wearing 11 but devastating picking lines from full back.
It was to be the start of a superb weekend for Ireland. All three Heineken provinces won (Connacht's defeat in Catania was the one exception and Italy's European highlight of the season) with Munster and Leinster delivering memorable efforts.
Munster crushed Sale with a superb first-half in which the traditional power of the forward play was mixed with some accurate back play. Barry Murphy adds a lovely new flavour to their game. At Bath it was another Irish centre, a more famous one, that spearheaded a back line performance that should have Toulouse thinking about defence as well as attack come the quarter final.
Brian O'Driscoll played an untouchable 80 minutes of rugby with international colleagues, Shane Horgan, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Hickie and Keith Gleason all outstanding. Suddenly things look good for Eddie O'Sullivan. The power of Munster up front, the class of Leinster behind and the youthful enthusiasm of a promising Ulster side to add future strength gives Ireland an exciting look. Let us hope the bravura of Irish rugby's last round of pool rugby forces a more positive approach. There is too much class to hide.
France also reminded us of its attacking force. Toulouse slumbered in defence but were again regal at times going forward. Europe is fortunate to have both O'Driscoll and Yannick Jauzion taking centre stage in the same era. Biarritz too were potent and are simmering away as potential champions this year.
I hope England's club coaches, so often happy to take the easier sterile option on how to play the game, have been taught a lesson by some of the recent action. Sale for one has been slipping into a more conservative mode. Saturday should have rocked them awake.
If you have the talent, use it. Defences do not look so good against attacks that attempt more than just ball retention. Hence the strong Bath defence was made to appear useless by a Celtic League team that refused to bow before cautious power. Under Brian Ashton, Bath will learn their painful lesson, it was one for all of England (and Fabien Galthié, whose approach to the game stymied Stade Francais's flair and helped bundle them out early.)
It has not been an aesthetically attractive season on the club circuit so far. Maybe the glimmer of light provided last weekend could open the door to a world where potential has the possibility of being fulfilled. Fingers crossed, now to your emails...
Blues for Dai Young
Stu, How can Dai Young possibly remain as the coach of the Cardiff Blues? And who would you replace him with? Also used to love watching you play for Bath! Regards, Simon Davies
Simon, I can understand your frustration but its players as well as fans that must take the blame for the Blues efforts in the last fortnight. Coaches can do nothing once the game starts, then players must take responsibility. However, the dismal ending to the group hasn't enhanced Young's reputation. I find it hard to understand how a former prop continued with Martin Jones after his hammering against Perpignan, rather than switch Gethin Jenkins and start with the superior John Yapp. On the subject of stay or go, I think I'll leave that one to the raging internal debate within Wales.
Too many tries?
Stuart, I know you are a keen advocate of open attacking rugby, but do you also agree that just scoring tries isn't everything? This last weekend saw lots of tries and lots of running, but at the end of it I felt strangely flat: I then realised that the problem was that (except when watching my own team where you can never win by too big a margin), the problem with all the games was that by two thirds of the way through all of them there was no nail biting contest. It is a big mistake to confuse high scoring with excitement. Dick Pearson, Newark
Dick, I am an advocate of winning rugby, pragmatic rugby, call it what you will. It just happens that smart attacking rugby is the best way to win. It requires some basic skills among players and some original thinking on the part of coaches. When you combine it, as Toulouse often do in this tournament, and as Leinster did at Bath, you get attacks dominating defences. Surely we all prefer good attacks to prevail against good defence. Most of the weekend was dominated by incisive attack and not 'touch rugby' defence. I was exhilarated after commentating on the Munster v Sale and Bath v Leinster games and watching the rest. It was wonderful to see pace and positivity prevail. High scoring, low quality rugby is not - as you say - exciting, but watching craftsmen like Brian O'Driscoll and Yannick Jauzion shred defences is, and damned good for the rugby soul too.
Ruddock's central issue
Stuart, If you were Mike Ruddock, who would you pick in the centre for Wales against England. Also, without wanting to open up old wounds, I was surprised to see a lack of citings following the Ospreys-Clermount game last Saturday. Breyton Paulse was clearly seen elbowing and aiming a kick at Shaun Connor, and a Clermount forward was caught on camera with his fingers in both of Steve Tandy's eye sockets at a ruck. Apparently, a fly-half defending himself against a cheap shot from a prop forward twice his size is more detrimental to rugby's image than either of these two incidents. This inconsistency seems decidedly amateurish in the professional era. Rich Evans, Bath.
Rich, I am yet to see the Ospreys game (it is Tuesday morning as I write and Monday is a definite day of rest after a Heineken weekend) so I cannot comment on the `incidents'. I will comment on the lack of consistency of which you write. Tabloid headlines and damage done seems sometimes to account for more than the intent of an action. Inconsistency is the bane of rugby's various, nefarious, disciplinary committees. As for Wales, centre is a huge void with injuries and retirements hitting the team hard. Personally I would take a risk and select a creative player like Nicky Robinson to play as a second playmaker outside Jones with Matthew J. Watkins at 13. He looked a good player - again - on Saturday - and he will not be coming up against the wit and invention of the Toulouse midfield in the Six Nations - unless Eddie O'Sullivan gives Ireland its creative head.
The winning edge
Hi Stuart, Incredible weekend's rugby (and very successful from an Irish standpoint). How much do you think the results were due to the fact that Sale and Bath had already qualified and that Munster and Leinster needed to win? A team needing to win tends always to beat a team wanting to win. That said I think the performances of Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll in particular should be of huge benefit to Ireland in the upcoming 6 nations. The injury enforced time off seems to have both playing really well at exactly the right time for country and province. I think both returning will be like Ireland getting 4 new players back in the 6 Nations. Cheers, JJ, Donegal.
JJ, The need to win is undoubtedly an edge but the gap between the English and Irish sides was a chasm at the weekend. I thought Munster showed growing signs of a confident balanced game that has been lacking in previous years. Sale were hammered, although the special atmosphere at Thomond Park plays a part. It was a one-off in that respect but if Sale explains the loss purely in those terms, their season could nosedive. They need to play with the positivity of Munster and Leinster. As for Leinster, they had O'Driscoll but even without his genius their pragmatic approach to the game would have prevailed. Pragmatic in the sense that a team that moves the ball both quickly and accurately always has an advantage over a defence that is a split second behind the team that controls the ball. It was a magnificent weekend for Ireland and the sport in general.
Natural born hitters
Hi Stuart, I wonder if you have any idea why Pacific Islander players so often tackle dangerously high. I can understand it might be the way that they play at home, but with so many earning their living in Europe, I can't understand how they haven't been coached out of the habit. Or do coaches quietly endorse the practice in the hope of intimidating the opposition? Slainthe! Rik
Rik, the macho culture is maybe inculcated at home, I don't pretend to have sociological explanation for their actions. I do know that high and dangerous challenges are too frequent and that referees must act with the aid of the sport's disciplinary panels before somebody gets badly hurt and the sport becomes Mister Outraged, having neglected the problem for years.
As ever thanks for the e mails and keep them coming. Stuart Barnes
