Across The Gain Line . . . with Colm Kinsella

THE men in red aren’t just a rugby team, they are a cause and the burden of history weighs heavily on their shoulders.
“The fear of failure and sense of duty to their community drips through the very pores of Paul O’Connell and John Hayes, Jerry Flannery, Donncha O’Callaghan and Marcus Horan. The Ospreys, for all their stellar talents, haven’t come close to achieving anything like that. They have talked the talk about it, but haven’t come close to walking the walk.”
A quick peak at how newspapers in Wales view their clashes with Irish provincial sides in the run-up to big Heineken Cup and Magners League games is always an enlightening exercise as we reach the business end of the rugby season.
The Western Mail rugby correspondent Simon Roberts provided a fascinating view of how the Welsh see Sunday’s big Heineken Cup quarter-final clash with holders Munster.
The above extract is taken from his piece.
Several parts of his column will raise eyebrows on this side of the Irish sea, including the following extract.
“Pick a combined team (of Munster and Ospreys players) and you would probably pick more Ospreys in the staring line-up. Why? Because they are individually more talented as players. But incorporate Munster’s unbelievable collective team spirit and you have hit upon the X-factor which makes them such a force of nature and so unique as a team.”
Would the likes of Paul O’Connell, Lifeimi Mafi, David Wallace, Doug Howlett, Keith Earls, Denis Leamy, Marcus Horan, John Hayes and Jerry Flannery not be almost automatics to make it into the Ospreys starting line-up week in and week out? If not being as individually talented means a side can win two Heineken Cups in three seasons and remain odds-on to land the Magners League title this season, then Munster fans will take it every time!
Elsewhere Roberts writes: “Throw the ‘dislike’ factor between the Irish and Welsh players into the mix and you have an explosive cocktail on Sunday. Then add the spice of the well-known bad blood between these two sides and this contest has all the ingredients of a genuine ‘grudge’ match.
“That, of course, is before we even start to talk about the prospect of this particular game almost being a final Lions ‘trial’ for the summer tour to South Africa. You would expect the bulk of these two sides to form a large part of the Lions 35-man squad and Ian McGeechan’s Test side to face the Springboks.”
Roll on Sunday!

Tranquil scenes
THE tranquil scenes at the various club venues which will host crucial All-Ireland League games this Saturday will be in stark contract to the din and frenzy which will engulf Thomond Park less than 24 hours later.
Unknown to thousands of supporters who will attend Sunday’s Heineken Cup tie at Thomond Park, the country’s top senior rugby clubs will have played crucial fixtures in this season’s All-ireland League the previous day.
Results will determine whether certain clubs gain promotion to a higher Division, avoid relegation and make the play-offs. Next season, the current AIB League Division 1 will be split into two eight-team divisions.
With two rounds of matches left in the regular season two Limerick sides are sure of competing in the top tier next season, Garryowen and Shannon.
They will be joined by Blackrock College, Cork Constitution, Dolphin, Clontarf and St Mary’s College. The eighth and final spot will almost certainly go to a third Limerick side, UL-Bohemians but Old Belvedere, who are currently nine points behind the Limerick club, still have a mathematical chance of making it.
It would need a complete collapse from UL-Bohs’ in their final two games, beginning with their home tie against city rivals Shannon this weekend, and a brace of bonus point wins for Belvo in order for the Dublin side to sneak through.
Appearing on RTE’s ‘Against The Head’ programme on Monday, IRFU National Domestic Game Manager, Scott Walker explained what the IRFU hoped to achieve with the changes to Division 1.
“To allow us to have a very competitive game, there is a requirement to have an uncertainty,” Scott Walker explained.
“And what we’ve done through basically making modifications to Division One is to have a group A and group B.
“The important thing is that you can still win the league from either group A or group B.”
In relation to the fact that five Munster clubs are likely to make the top tier, Walker said: “I think we have to remember there’s always been dominant Munster clubs. If we go back six years ago there was actually two clubs from each branch in the top eight.
“If we go back three years ago, there were actually three Ulster clubs in the top eight. So we could’ve be having a debate three years ago about an Ulster-Munster orientation. I think it does operate in cycles and in two years’ time we might actually see a completely different orientation of the branches.”
Pressed on whether the new Anglo-Welsh-Irish ‘A’ League will have a detrimental effect on the AIB League, with particular regard to player availability and fixture planning, Walker feels the All-Ireland League model will remain a very attractive product for clubs, players and supporters alike.
“The Union has worked very hard with the branches to ensure we have an integrated programme - with the ‘A’s above and the branch competitions below. So there isn’t a clash at provincial level or the ‘A’ level,” Scott Walker said,
“Players need to make a decision whether they want to play for Ireland and make that step and we can’t deny the players the opportunity to do that.
“At the same time they can continue to play in a very dominant and dynamic domestic game.
Moreover, you can currently see this season how successful the AIB League is offering players a platform to further their careers, co-existing alongside the new programme of regular provincial ‘A’ games.”
Watchers of the club game will await developments with keen interest.