So there you go. Completely out of the blue,
Ireland announced that their new coach is Leinster coach Joe Schmidt, who will
take over for the 2013 Guinness Series in the autumn. Safe to say he was
probably the most popular choice considering his success with the Dublin-based
province. Two Heineken Cup trophies in the last three years speak for
themselves.
However, I would not agree with those people.
While I agree that Joe Schmidt is a brilliant coach, I feel he has his
fundamental flaws too, and much like outgoing coach Declan Kidney, I feel he
will be biased towards his most familiar province and in the big 50/50 calls he
will go for the Leinster player instead.
By far he’s the best coach that IRFU have
hired in a long time and he will drill the Ireland players into shape. Schmidt
is a coach that focuses on very firmly on the basics and sometimes that’s
exactly what teams need to get right to be successful. His style of play has
undoubtedly been successful with Leinster, and now Southern hemisphere styles
are being adopted at Ulster and Munster too and are showing early signs of
success too. Even Connacht are introducing a new Southern hemisphere coach in
Pat Lam next season.
Schmidt shouldn’t have to change this style
of play for his new job – as I’ve said, the players of the provinces will be
used to it by now. That was probably one of the problems that Ireland have had
over the last few years. Players would join the national side and have to
change their game plans entirely to suit Declan Kidney’s style. Not ideal for
an international side looking to be successful on a regular basis.
I’ll give Schmidt a chance, but I can’t help
feeling this is very similar to the Kidney scenario. For now it may seem like a
good appointment but a few games in and we can fully judge just how well Joe is
doing. I just can’t shake the feeling that the New Zealander will favour the
players he’s been working with since 2010 though.
Nevertheless, good luck to the Kiwi. He’s got
my backing for now…
All-French
affair – almost
But for Leinster’s simplistic win over
Biarritz, both the Amlin Challenge Cup final and the Heineken Cup final would
have featured four French teams. After Stade Francais booked their place in the
RDS on the Friday night, Leinster spoiled the Basque party by romping home to a
44-16 win over the defending champions on Saturday afternoon.
I watched the games in envy, wishing Ulster
were playing instead. As it was we were beaten soundly at Twickenham at the
start of the month and Saracens rightfully took their place in the semi-finals
against Toulon, again at English rugby’s HQ. And there they were outclassed by
the big-spending French side.
Jonny Wilkinson was perfect with the boot,
landing two drop goals and six penalties to hand Toulon a rather simple 24-12
win, with Owen Farrell managing four penalties in reply. For all their
potential, Saracens limped out rather weakly, not mustering any real chances to
cross the opposition try line, and any that did drop their way were spurned.
The right team most certainly won.
A day before in Montpellier it was a much
closer affair with Clermont squeezing past Munster by a scoreline of 16-10.
With the side from the Auvergne striking early and taking a quick lead through
a try from Napolioni Nalaga, it seemed like the home side were going to stroll
to their first Heineken Cup final. However, a spirited Munster side fought back
bravely and Ronan O’Gara masterminded a clever try for Denis Hurley which set
up a nervy finish. But Clermont held on and are now clear favourites to win the
tournament outright. They will have to improve dramatically on that performance
if they wish to do so though.
It all kicked off on Friday and you have to
commend Stade Francais full-back Jerome Porical who held his nerve to kick a 60
metre penalty to level the scores late on in their game against Perpignan, and
then hammer the final nail into the home side’s coffin with a 79th
minute penalty and send the Parisian team to Dublin. If he was feeling nervous, Porical certainly didn't show it and now will get to do it all again against Leinster in three weeks' time.
It’s delicately poised and all eyes will be
on Ireland in May, as Europe’s two pinnacle competitions come to a close with
what will be two very evenly contested finals…
ERC FINALS
Friday 17th May, 20:00
Amlin Challenge Cup Final
Stade Francais v Leinster Rugby
RDS Arena
Saturday 18th May, 17:00
Heineken Cup Final
ASM Clermont Auvergne v RC Toulon
Aviva Stadium
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