Point
7th-January-2007, 09:24
http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=15&si=17 (http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=15&si=1750538) 50538
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<TD background=/images/tile3.jpg>Scots forced Leinster re-think</TD></TR>
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<TD>Sunday January 7th 2007</TD></TR></T></TABLE>
MATT WILLIAMS is standing outside the Leinster dressing room in Donnybrook, and he looks like the world is closing in around him. What half an hour earlier was a story moving along nicely towards a happy ending, gradually had taken a horrible twist.
Mate, this was not good. Still, he was able to come up with a decent line despite the awfulness of the situation. He had just been heaping the blame for the disaster on referee Ashley Rowden, who had blown Leinster off the park in the final quarter of their Heineken Cup pool match with Edinburgh. Could he not have got a message on to query a few decisions and try to stem the flow of penalties?
"Maaayt, it's like complaining about your wife to your mother-in-law," he said. He shuffled off to be replaced by one of his players, Emmett Byrne, who did a manful job of tracing the sliver of silver lining on the huge cloud that had settled over the camp. In order to rewrite the chapter, Leinster would have to go and win in Biarritz the following week. It was January 2001. Leinster hadn't got to that stage of their development just yet.
There is an idea out there that Ulster's European Cup win in 1999 was the transformation of Irish rugby. It wasn't even the transformation of Ulster rugby, who since then haven't even got out of their pool. For sure, the romance of the journey and the colour of its last two stops broke new ground, and broadcast the game to a whole new audience, but it was what happened in the World Cup in Lens nine months later that actually woke the IRFU up to the professional game. Without that change in political will, the prospect of building a model that could take advantage of the new European highway was a non-starter. It didn't feel much like it at the time, but Argentina might have done us a favour that night.
For each of the three frontline provinces, the awakening was gradual. Munster were first out of bed the next season with their run to the final in Twickenham 2000, and Ulster are still having bad dreams, albeit in circumstances much improved from the days when they were champions.
For Leinster, the turning point was that Friday night in Donnybrook, when for most of the game they had one foot in the quarter-finals. Edinburgh roll up again at the weekend, almost six years to the day, and at the same stage of the competition. Even the balance is tilted similarly, with the Scots one up from the first leg in October. The memories will flood back.
It was all teed up for the home team. Leinster were top of the pool with three wins from four. It included a handy rout of Biarritz in Dublin, and back-to-back successes over the title holders Northampton. The glitch in their campaign had been away to Edinburgh, but this was the chance to right that. And the Scots were going through a bit of difficulty, not just with their form but also with their captain Don Mackinnon. He had to leave training early on the day they flew to Dublin to attend court on drink driving charges. It was a costly Christmas party for Big Don.
Just the week before, Leinster had gone down to Musgrave Park and beaten Munster 17-15 in an interpro. It reinforced the idea that they could emulate Munster's heroics in Europe the previous season. Bring on the Scots then. A win would virtually guarantee Leinster passage into the knock-outs, where they hadn't been since the inaugural tournament when there had been only a handful of teams takin
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="100%">
<T>
<TR>
<TD background=/images/tile3.jpg>Scots forced Leinster re-think</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>Sunday January 7th 2007</TD></TR></T></TABLE>
MATT WILLIAMS is standing outside the Leinster dressing room in Donnybrook, and he looks like the world is closing in around him. What half an hour earlier was a story moving along nicely towards a happy ending, gradually had taken a horrible twist.
Mate, this was not good. Still, he was able to come up with a decent line despite the awfulness of the situation. He had just been heaping the blame for the disaster on referee Ashley Rowden, who had blown Leinster off the park in the final quarter of their Heineken Cup pool match with Edinburgh. Could he not have got a message on to query a few decisions and try to stem the flow of penalties?
"Maaayt, it's like complaining about your wife to your mother-in-law," he said. He shuffled off to be replaced by one of his players, Emmett Byrne, who did a manful job of tracing the sliver of silver lining on the huge cloud that had settled over the camp. In order to rewrite the chapter, Leinster would have to go and win in Biarritz the following week. It was January 2001. Leinster hadn't got to that stage of their development just yet.
There is an idea out there that Ulster's European Cup win in 1999 was the transformation of Irish rugby. It wasn't even the transformation of Ulster rugby, who since then haven't even got out of their pool. For sure, the romance of the journey and the colour of its last two stops broke new ground, and broadcast the game to a whole new audience, but it was what happened in the World Cup in Lens nine months later that actually woke the IRFU up to the professional game. Without that change in political will, the prospect of building a model that could take advantage of the new European highway was a non-starter. It didn't feel much like it at the time, but Argentina might have done us a favour that night.
For each of the three frontline provinces, the awakening was gradual. Munster were first out of bed the next season with their run to the final in Twickenham 2000, and Ulster are still having bad dreams, albeit in circumstances much improved from the days when they were champions.
For Leinster, the turning point was that Friday night in Donnybrook, when for most of the game they had one foot in the quarter-finals. Edinburgh roll up again at the weekend, almost six years to the day, and at the same stage of the competition. Even the balance is tilted similarly, with the Scots one up from the first leg in October. The memories will flood back.
It was all teed up for the home team. Leinster were top of the pool with three wins from four. It included a handy rout of Biarritz in Dublin, and back-to-back successes over the title holders Northampton. The glitch in their campaign had been away to Edinburgh, but this was the chance to right that. And the Scots were going through a bit of difficulty, not just with their form but also with their captain Don Mackinnon. He had to leave training early on the day they flew to Dublin to attend court on drink driving charges. It was a costly Christmas party for Big Don.
Just the week before, Leinster had gone down to Musgrave Park and beaten Munster 17-15 in an interpro. It reinforced the idea that they could emulate Munster's heroics in Europe the previous season. Bring on the Scots then. A win would virtually guarantee Leinster passage into the knock-outs, where they hadn't been since the inaugural tournament when there had been only a handful of teams takin