Now that our beleaguered and rather lacklustre Champions’ Cup effort
has died the terrible death it deserved with a pitiful 22-13 defeat to the
Scarlets in Llanelli, it’s time to focus all of our efforts on the Pro12 – a
competition we still have something of a fighting chance in. In hindsight, you
maybe could look back to when the draw was made and say that that should have
been our goal from the start, but then again, you never know what might happen
in Europe.
In some ways that’s also what happened on Sunday. From looking like a
side devoid of ideas in the Kingspan Stadium, the Scarlets burst into life and
turned a 17-point deficit into a nine-point win this week in wet and windy
Wales. Europe can bring out the best in sides and in the first half of Sunday’s
game the home side showed the passion and desire that is required to make the
knockout stages. We did not.
In actuality, our hosts didn’t even need to play that well – they
simply preyed on our first half mistakes and capitalised through the boot of
Rhys Priestland. In fact, had Priestland landed the two late penalties in the
first half then arguably the game would have been over at the break, and there
wouldn’t have been too many people arguing with that considering how we played
in the first 40 minutes.
Horrendous probably describes the way we exited Europe’s premier
competition, considering this double header was where we expected to pick up at
least eight points, if not the full ten. Instead our awful discipline ended up
presenting the Scarlets with a 12 point lead that we never managed to match. True
it did look like JP Doyle was rather harsh on Declan Fitzpatrick considering
Samson Lee was doing the exact same thing without punishment on the opposite
side, but aside from that our indiscipline cost us dearly.
Even at that, it wasn’t as if we were constantly infringing at the
breakdown either, rather we were giving away stupid, needless penalties. From
Louis Ludik’s ridiculous flop onto Liam Williams when the full-back was still
on the floor to Rory Best trying to wriggle a further ten metres down the field
while on the ground to the multitudinous offsides we conceded in that first
half, it made for frustrating viewing. Had I not been writing a match report of
the game then I daresay I wouldn’t have tuned in for the second half.
And so, without any motivation left in Europe (regardless of what Neil
Doak says), there is now prominence on making the top four in the Pro12.
Arguably it is now a necessity without any knockout rugby to look forward to in
April, and there can be no excuses for us missing out – we have the squad to do
it whether people believe that or not, and we have the fixtures remaining to
rack up a good points total. With both games against Treviso still to come plus
visits to the Dragons and Edinburgh there are plenty of chances to pick up five
points, while we still have to play host to Leinster and Munster – a chance to
knock our play-off rivals back.
Because in reality, there was always an underlying belief that we were
never going to win the Champions’ Cup. The French pairing of Toulon and
Clermont collectively look far too strong for the rest of Europe and one of
them should go all the way – more than likely the former with the vast number
of international stars at Bernard Laporte’s disposal. I would confidently
predict that you will see Toulon back at their sparkling best when we make the
trip to the south of France next month.
So it’s time we forget about the train-wreck that has been the
Champions Cup and ground our dreams once more. The next three weeks will be
very important for our season – if we can win two of the next three then we
will be in a very promising position heading into the Six Nations period, when
everyone is decimated by call-ups, and we can really push on and maybe put a
bit of distance between us and some of the other contenders. With no other
distractions we really should be getting at least a home semi-final, if not top
seeding.
That is where Neil Doak will be judged this season, not in the
Champions’ Cup where we don’t have the resources to compete, but in the Pro12
where we have the squad to compete and the first team to rival any other in the
league. If we can get some luck with our injuries (for the first time in
several years) then there is no reason why there shouldn’t be a meaningful
challenge for the Pro12 title this season.
If there isn’t, there will be a lot of questions asked.
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