A possible knock-on effect of poor performances in European club rugby this season is that some Irish players faded from Warren Gatland’s thinking for the Lions.
My feeling is the Irish players have also paid for relatively poor performances in the internationals played across 2020/21 with the exception of this year's match against England. But generally, Ireland didn't put many players in the shop window.
Realistically looking at Lions picks then, you'd have said Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Jack Conan, Robbie Henshaw, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong and Tadhg Beirne for sure, and then the long shots of Keith Earls, Rónan Kelleher etc . . .
What happened next was final auditions with Toulouse, La Rochelle and Leicester. As with any final trial, some will thrive, others wilt and somebody will come from nowhere. Murray's performance against Toulouse was a breath of fresh air. Munster got dragged into a game and we saw his best. An ode to his former self perhaps.
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Obviously, that creates more questions about how Munster are being set up. But he established himself in the selectors’ minds’ eye. Same with Beirne. Whenever he was on the pitch, he looked one of the most influential players. He continually reinforced his position in Gatland’s thinking.
Then you flip to Ulster against Leicester. Looking at that in the first half and you could have been thinking Jacob Stockdale is on to something here. There was also some chatter about Rob Herring.
Then the second 40 minutes and you saw those names swirling around the plug hole and draining away. They were no longer in the conversation. Only Iain Henderson, bucking the trend with form in competing well on the back foot with Ulster.
I still question the inclusion of Duhan van der Merwe, which adds fire to the conspiracy theory of preferring Scotland players over Ireland players. I genuinely doubt he will have the impact they hope for, a poor man's George North.
I think it’s a poor selection and somebody like Stockdale would offer more. But Ulster and that second half. That’s how selection works. You get your shot to impress and that is it.
In the Leinster match Johnny wasn't playing, so this has hurt him more than anything. If you take Gatland at face value saying that he was worried about his durability, well that was Leinster's biggest game of the season and for extremely good reasons Johnny wasn't involved. So, in this instance it was out of sight out of mind.
Soaking tackles
James Ryan and Garry Ringrose struggled to find their notes as the curtain was coming down. The physical aspects of the La Rochelle game seemed just out of reach, both of them missing and soaking tackles that we just don't associate with them.
Ryan hasn’t been able to rediscover his form from the 2018-19 season and in 2020-21 he’s been carrying injuries. I also think he’s been playing a game that is not getting the best out of his skillset.
Ryan is a smart rugby player and I think he's got away from what really made him special
I remember watching this guy in school. It was his threat with the ball in hand that set him apart, not his out-and-out ball carrying but his ability to soften defences with a pass, an offload or carrying.
He's a big man and he's athletic. But he is not dynamic in the same way as Maro Itoje is and he's not the same body shape as an Alun Wyn Jones. His ball carrying has now become readable in that he is not looking for options in a way he perhaps used to.
He gets through a phenomenal amount of work. But the one out ball carries are not necessarily the strongest part of his game. Ryan is a smart rugby player and I think he’s got away from what really made him special.
Garry has had similar injury issues and form seems just a match or two away. He was very good going forward with a couple of breaks, steps and acceleration but he was also chasing defenders in a way that exposed his inside shoulder a number of times.
The durability, comfort in the high defence line and consistency of Scotland's Chris Harris, got the nod over the creativity and pace of Ringrose and Slade.
Everything was falling for Henshaw and as it turns out Jack Conan. Conan's ability in contact has been superb, slight shifts before acceleration very visible once he got a chance and injury permitting. Henshaw again continued the form from the Six Nations, showing how just important it can be to string games together.
Look how well Conan played against England. Look how well he played against Exeter. Those games played him into it and gave an insight into what Gatland was and was not looking for. They want defensively-sound backrowers that take contact on their own terms.
There's no doubt that Garry, Johnny and James are among the best players in Europe. They have had injuries and timing is an absolute brute. Form is temporary, class is permanent, and we will see the best of them soon. Perhaps in a red jersey too and quicker than we think.
Bigger problem
Another thought I’ve had, which feeds into European rugby and the Lions, concerns the questionable quality of the Pro14. Since around the time I retired in 2015, Leinster have found a balance between mixing their senior more experienced and younger squad players for Pro14 matches.
For that they have needed around 50-plus players every year. This has benefited everyone at a European level when less experienced players are called as after amassing first team exposure, they hit the ground running.
In recent memory, on regular occasions without their front line picks, they are still winning and obviously very, very competitive at that level.
What Leinster have been able to do in the Pro14 has masked a bigger problem, which is the quality of rugby being played
There are two sides to every coin but what Leinster have been able to do in the Pro14 has masked a bigger problem, which is the quality of rugby being played. With hindsight, we can look back and say this is not a good thing because the standard has regressed with the frequency of quality matches in the league worryingly low.
That’s having an effect not just on Leinster, but Munster and Ulster too, when it comes to winning tough European knockout games. It’s like ‘okay you’ve hiked Carrauntoohil, now go climb Everest’.
Leinster were able to beat Exeter in a one-off match. They were waiting in the long grass, caught them and hammered the hammer, so to speak. They were able to force Exeter’s expansive game plan to a place where they became uncomfortable.
Denying them depth and space to roam, replacing it with options of isolated runners where the blue jacklers waited in earnest. Their strength became their weakness, Cullen and co displaying a masterclass in opposition analysis.
La Rochelle was entirely different. It was very, very clear they were going to offer a serious challenge along physical lines. Toulouse, too, and Leicester. But Leinster, Munster and Ulster just didn’t have enough games this season from which to draw confidence and face those challenges. Domestically Leinster winning at a canter, Munster and Ulster struggling to keep pace. From any perspective hardly the best preparation for Europe.
But Leinster won in 2018 (Racing) and were finalists in 2019 (Saracens). My feeling is they were at a different point in their squad cycle and were able to cope with those games and deliver results independent of the Pro14.
They were and are excellently coached and had the almost perfect balance of domestic players on-form at their peak complemented by a strong overseas player input.
This season all our provinces needed to rely on the Pro14 for that bank of experience, so valuable in knockout rugby. There is a phrase players have used down through the years and sometimes it’s not about how good or bad your squad are, you just need to be “battle hardened”. Leinster outsmarted Exeter. But they needed another weapon against the French, which the Pro14 is currently not providing.
Root cause
Ulster were also undone against Leicester for committing the sins of the Pro14 in a semi-final of Europe. They have demonstrated that they can get to Pro14 finals and semi-finals, start well but fail to maintain a performance for 80 minutes. Most notably Connacht a few weeks ago, the Pro14 final last September and the Pro14 semi-final this season.
Ulster failed to acknowledge the defeat to Connacht was not just down to lack of ‘physical preparation’ on their part, which Dan McFarland identified as the root cause for this loss. Their inability to close out that game, where they were largely the dominant team was sadly magnified against Leicester.
Munster were also schooled by Toulouse in their understanding of the gap between what they are doing and what Europe are doing. We do have a “what if” around Munster. For about 55 minutes they played like a team that could do something and have more gears available to be at the very least competitive.
But the conservative nature of Munster’s season has been reflected in a lot of the rugby played in the Pro14. However, last week’s mauling of Ulster has shone a little light on taking a bit more risk. Hopefully that helps drive the standard of the league, which can help them in years to come.
