The people’s game? In the wake of the Grand Slam (and Wexford beating Galway) I asked my nephew what was his favourite sport. While kicking a football he listed off basketball, rugby and Gaelic. He saw a hurley in the corner and picked it up.
We are a sports mad country.
The children of Wexford love Tadhg Furlong and Lee Chin in equal measure. All they see are these athletic giants performing heroic feats.
We better deal with looming Champions Cup threats to our “national sport” because come Sunday evening rugby could be done and dusted - in the eyes of the general populace - until November.
The people follow winners. Always have, always will.
The stakes are high as the dominant England and French clubs of this era invade Dublin and Limerick.
Home advantage has never seemed so important.
As we saw throughout the Six Nations, when the IRFU player welfare system works it deserves a heap of plaudits. The injuries to Irish centres were either bad luck or from contact (neither can be avoided). We were lucky in other positions - we deserved some good fortune to be fair - but the highly praised system gets its sternest examination this weekend.
The sort of teams Leinster and Munster field against Saracens and Toulon, and the shape these players are in (everyone has some sort of injury entering April), will define the provincial seasons.
The system is not infallible. Luck never lasts. Look what happened to Leinster in Swansea on Saturday. Three outside backs stripped from the side before half-time. Look at the state of Munster’s injury ravaged squad.
We’ve established that rugby is a contact sport. The priority of the player welfare system is to serve Ireland and the national team have just played five Test matches in seven weeks.
It’s doing a fine job
I’d be worried if Munster lost Peter O’Mahony or Conor Murray and Leinster showed up on Sunday without Johnny Sexton or Luke McGrath.
Too valuable
These four players are simply too valuable to do without in these matches. The McGrath scenario is unusual - if he goes down either Scott Fardy or James Lowe are also taken from Leinster’s matchday squad as Jamison Gibson-Park will start at scrumhalf.
O’Mahony is more important than Murray and Sexton simply because the emotional tone needs setting above all else this weekend.
Leinster were visibly flat in defeat to the Ospreys. Seven of their starters were on the podium in Twickenham seven days earlier. None of them started, against England so the likes of Jordi Murphy, Jack McGrath, Sean Cronin and Andrew Porter were understandably keen to make a statement.
All of them struggled. I cannot tell you how difficult it is to play in that game. The variation in tempo from being an impact sub in a Grand Slam game to Pro14 starter over in Wales is stark. There is value in this defeat in that the entire Leinster squad can hit the reset button.
‘We play like that again and the season is cooked.’
A little fear of failure to focus the mind.
In contrast, Saracens brought Maro Itoje, Jamie George and Richard Wigglesworth straight into their team for the derby victory over Harlequins at the London stadium. That worked a treat. But they had to play everyone, the tickets had been sold, the business model demanded their inclusion for a high profile fixture (Sarries will rest Itoje etc . . . at other points in the season).
So, which is the right move?
Do Leinster, by holding off the celebrating Irish starters, ensure better preparation? We can only wait and see. It’s a balancing act, a gamble that is out of the provincial coaches’ control.
Anyone wondering if Sexton, Garry Ringrose, Dev Toner, Dan Leavy, James Ryan, Cian Healy and Tadhg will hit their straps on Sunday? I’m not.
This is the next high voltage challenge of their season.
And don’t forget Rob Kearney defending like his life depends upon it, or seeking to leap above Alex Goode when Sexton’s first bomb gets launched.
I see small but important benefits from the Six Nations. Leavy and Ryan returned to training this week as Grand Slammers while in January they had yet to nail down their places in the Leinster XV. That’s basically two world class signings.
Leaders
Leinster do have injury problems. So do Saracens (they built their European success upon Owen Farrell and Billy Vunipola). Everyone is losing players now.
Johnny, Isa Nacewa and Ringrose in midfield with the best pack they can field makes up a team of leaders. And leadership is so important this week. Not necessarily from the internationals, but the likes of Rhys Ruddock, Luke is a captain, Nacewa and Fardy who have been planning for this game for weeks now.
The coaches must back certain players to show up after the Six Nations. You tend to gamble on those who have delivered in the past.
I don’t need to tell you how important it is to have the game in Dublin. Even more so for Munster to be running out in Thomond Park. Toulon looked impressive while thrashing Clermont.
Considering the loss of their entire backline to injury, Munster have to bring up a performance from the very bottom of that old well Paulie O’Connell always spoke about.
That makes Peter O’Mahony the centrepiece of their entire week. This is what the IRFU paid for. This is when we get a glimpse of his unquantifiable value. CJ Stander and Murray will deliver performances, but without Keith Earls and with doubts over Simon Zebo there is huge emphasis on Pete to stoke the emotional flames.
Munster’s foreign signings, Chris Cloete and Jaco Taute are unavailable, in contrast to Leinster being able to lean on Nacewa and Fardy. The player welfare system isn’t designed to mind these players, they benefit from the absence of Test match collisions.
O’Mahony, Stander and Murray just had a valuable down week. Now they must re-enter the performance zone, dragging the team and Munster’s quest for a successful season on their shoulders. Sounds dramatic, but the great Thomond Park days almost always begin with the captain.
It’s about setting the tempo. I only ever played against Stander, but I did play alongside Pete O’Mahony and as a leader he is special - he shows the way by words and deeds.
Obsessions
Johann van Graan has already spoken about his “warriors.” The war references make O’Mahony his general. Beating Toulon is always going to be a grind.
The Munster and Leinster players will wake up on Saturday and Sunday morning in their own beds believing they will win.
In many pubs and living rooms, rugby will feel like the people’s game. Events at the Aviva stadium will probably overshadow the National Football League final at Croke Park between Dublin and Galway (I don’t want to enter the labyrinth of GAA fixtures but what a strange time clash that is) but something will need to fill the European vacuum in April and May should the Irish provinces both lose.
Rugby is the only professional sport in Dublin but leave the city, head down to Wexford or Kilkenny and hurling still rules.
We are a sports mad country. Different pockets have ingrained obsessions. The bandwagon supporters are not hard to notice by their absence once the results take a turn for the worse. It has been evident in recent seasons in certain stadiums.
People from traditional GAA and other backgrounds have been drawn to rugby in the past 15 years for one obvious reason: success. Some will stay, many will leave. Some kids will grow into diehard, lifelong supporters. The values of rugby in Ireland are attractive - it shows young children how to win and lose with equal humility, officials are treated with respect (more than less). Some parents see that over the collisions and let their children play the sport but, really, they are drawn to success.
That’s what makes this weekend, even after the momentous events of Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day, so important. The people expect a very high standard from this international sport. If they don’t get it they will move on to the next event, sport, whatever.
Winning should not be everything but winning is what keeps the whole show on the road.
I chatted to Liam Griffin a while back, having worked in his hotel back in 1996 when Liam MacCarthy came for a visit. Wexford hurling is making a tentative recovery having failed to capitalise on that ‘96 All-Ireland. Rugby and other sports have learned that lesson.
Professionalism mixed with a sense of playing for your community is a potent tonic but it comes at a high cost when failure follows. Now, all the provinces have to do is figure out a way to beat the European champions since Leinster went back-to-back in 2012. It’s an enormous task but it’s the standard we have set for ourselves.
Rugby is the people’s game this month but the people are fickle. Keep them on the road to Bilbao and the IRFU might hold onto them for a few years. Really though, winning is what keeps them coming back.
