SEASON'S CELEBRATIONS

As the festive season approaches, there is little goodwill on the island of Ireland.

Ulster’s brilliant double over Toulouse aside, last weekend’s round of Champions’ Cup fixtures just furthered the belief across Ireland that there is a widening gulf between the provinces and their counterparts from England and France with both Leinster and Munster losing at the hands of superior opponents in Toulon and Leicester.

Leinster find themselves in European wilderness – bottom of their pool after four rounds without a single win to their name. And it’s not for a lack of effort either, they put up brilliant efforts in both Bath and Toulon and they looked in relative control of Saturday’s reverse fixture against Toulon in the Aviva Stadium, however on all three occasions they fell just short of what was required of them.

Toulon are almost unplayable, even when out of form, as they are simply able to replace like for like when it comes to matches. What other side can replace Juan Smith with Mamuka Gorgodze? However Wasps proved that a disappointing Bath are easily beatable at the Rec if played correctly (they struggle to counter-act the power game) and that makes Leinster’s loss there all the harder to take.

In fact there is a genuine possibility that Leinster could end up whitewashed in this pool stage if they aren’t careful. Not to the detriment of their Pro12 hopes one should think, but if they cannot front up against Bath and Wasps, especially away in Coventry, then they will be on the receiving end of one of their worst ever pool performances in the modern era. Not exactly a positive reinforcement for Leo Cullen as a head coach.

Axel Foley isn’t faring much better either.

Armed with a fly-half who can’t hit a barn door or control a back line, Foley has to be sympathised with. Munster haven’t looked vastly inferior to Leicester in their two games against them and yet somehow they find themselves back in Limerick licking their wounds and without a point to show for their two skirmishes against the Tigers.

Munster are suffering from a lack of leadership more than anything else: while CJ Stander has stepped into the role admirably in Peter O’Mahony’s absence, they miss the Ireland flanker’s influence in the back row and what he brings to the team. On a bigger scale they miss Paul O’Connell’s legendary status in the second row, although of course there is little they can do about that. That is no slight on Mark Chisholm who has done well since his arrival from Bayonne, but the loss of O’Connell is now proving massive.

Unlike Leinster they do still stand a mathematical chance of making the quarter-finals – a bonus point win away to Treviso is more or a less a given these days and should they get their act together for the trip to Stade Francais in three weeks then they will be in with a shot of a best runner-up spot if they can then replicate that a week later at Thomond Park. But Munster now walk a very thin line regarding their Champions’ Cup hopes.

Unlike Ulster.

For the second week in a row it was a case of using the right tactics against Toulouse by the Ulster coaching staff and it paid off handsomely. Stuart McCloskey and Luke Marshall were once again magnificent as a centre pairing, Ruan Pienaar was a deserving man of the match as he controlled the game from scrum-half and his half-back partner Paddy Jackson showed a return to form again.

That does disservice to the rest of the team because, again, it was a remarkable performance by numbers 1 to 23. Perhaps Ulster’s success will be a shot in the arm for the rest of Irish rugby, especially when you look at Ulster’s injury list and how they’ve been able to overcome it and pull out those two results the last two weeks. Results that suddenly propel them from European oblivion back into European reckoning.

It doesn’t necessarily make them favourites to win the tournament, but in the knock-out stages anything is possible.

We’re back to Pro12 duty this weekend with a festive foray down to Galway on Boxing/St. Stephen’s Day, and it’s looking increasingly like it won’t be two full teams taking the pitch at 6pm – theirs due to injury, ours due to choice. There’ll be a danger to overlook the Pro12 in favour of the Champions’ Cup, and that is a danger that was Leinster’s downfall last season. While I am confident Ulster won’t fall foul of the same danger, there does need to be a focused mindset this weekend.

Merry Christmas one and all – and a happy St. Stephen’s Day!