Two more semi-final defeats for Irish sides takes the tally to five in the last five years of the European Champions Cup since Leinster beat Ulster in the all-Irish final of 2012. Leinster and Munster have remained contenders, but the higher they climb it seems there’s something of a glass ceiling in their way.
Of course, the final step or two has always been the hardest. Munster have played 12 European Cup semi-finals, a record for the competition, but they have lost eight of them as well as two finals. Leinster’s nine appearances in the semi-finals have yielded three trophies.
It took Saracens five semi-finals before they eventually won the tournament last year for the first time, and Clermont have still to win the trophy after two semi-final and two final defeats before now.
Even allowing for the distinct possibility that Saracens are another level again above Clermont, the weekend just past did suggest that Leinster are closer to reaching the mountain top again than any of the other Irish provinces.
When it comes to the elite end of the European game, a team needs plenty of attributes, but it has to have weapons. They have to be able to score tries. From around 2000 to 2005, Munster learned that the hard way.
For sure, Conor Murray’s absence was acutely felt at the Aviva Stadium, as he would have upped the tempo, been more of a threat himself and kicked more accurately. But kicking the ball from hand 37 times while making one line break and one offload generally won’t win European Champions Cup semi-finals against the holders, even if Saracens’ numbers were very similar: 34 kicks, two line breaks and three offloads.
Physical power
Saracens’ successes will live in the record books long after their rugby has faded from the memory, but in the Vunipolas, Maro Itoje and others in their expensively assembled squad, Saracens have the kind of physical power that Munster or any other Irish team does not possess, nor ever will do.
Munster have established solid foundations in defence and up front, even if their lineout crumbled a little on Saturday and their maul was brilliantly defended by Saracens. It was unfortunate too that Tyler Bleyendaal was so untypically off-colour. But Munster hardly varied from their kicking, mauling and restricted running game. They rarely passed the ball twice, the first receiver invariably running hard and straight.
Munster need to evolve. But now, as in any team sport, comes the hard part, developing their attacking game.
With the arrival of Robbie Henshaw, who has risen to every occasion this season, and Stuart Lancaster, along with the advent of Garry Ringrose and Joey Carbery, Leinster’s attacking game has looked significantly more developed.
Had they not lost Seán O’Brien on top of Jamie Heaslip, Cian Healy and Rob Kearney, who knows how they’d have done (albeit Clermont were missing Wesley Fofana and Noa Nakaitaci). Leinster could also have played a good deal better in that costly first quarter, when a combination of overthrows, inaccurate lifting and calling compounded other occasions when they wasted possession.
Even then, in the furnace of the Matmut Stadium de Gerland and trailing 15-0, Leinster had the weapons to hurt Clermont and turn the game on its head. It was their running game and counter-attacking from everywhere that earned the penalties.
The game hinged on the 57th minute try by Dan Leavy, which was disallowed, but it was brilliant rugby by Leinster in many ways. Having stretched Clermont with the accuracy of their passing, depth and width, Johnny Sexton passed inside to Fergus McFadden. And the support play and interplay involving Sexton, Henshaw and Leavy might otherwise have yielded a wonderful try.
X factor
Even then Ringrose concocted possibly the try of the season. Now there was X factor!
It wasn’t to be, and of the aforementioned five semi-final defeats, four have been in France, with Munster and Leinster each losing to Toulon and Clermont in the last four.
That draw in Castres, and the organisers’ convoluted and contrived system condemned Leinster to another semi-final in France, and home advantage manifests itself in many ways, not least how a home team starts (witness Munster and Clermont), and also how it influences the officials.
The penalty count finished 11-9 against Leinster, who will feel they were given little by the officials. For sure, a baying home crowd, backed by selective use of replays on large screens, will encourage officials to resort to the TMO or at any rate then side with the home team.
This played its part in the decision, albeit correct, to overrule Leavy’s touchdown for earlier holding Aurelien Rougerie by the leg. As an aside, Sunday’s assistant referee Ian Davies was the referee in the Sportsground the previous Saturday when, along with his officials, he somehow missed a blatant example of Cian Healy doing the exact same to John Muldoon, despite him waving like a traffic controller on an airport runway.
Davies curiously declined to go to his TMO then, even though he issued a warning to Leinster. Was Davies, a week on, more mindful as a result? By contrast none of the four officials saw fit to penalise Nick Abendanon for landing late on to a prostrate Ringrose after he had touched down.
In any event, that was the competition’s 12th home win out of 16 semi-finals in the last eight years. Were the semi-finals conducted over two legs, whereas Munster’s goose would look well cooked, Leinster would be salivating about trying to overturn a five-point lead at the Aviva Stadium.
Ultimately, this competition is usually won by its best team, and very often they have a period of ascendancy too. So, if the uber-efficient, machine-like Saracens complete back-to-back unbeaten tournaments, they will rightly move alongside Toulouse, Leicester, Munster, Leinster and Toulon as true kings of Europe.
But most neutrals who’ve encountered Clermont and their raucous Yellow Army will fervently hope there’s finally a title there for them.
gthornley@irishtimes.com
