Toulouse are coming to Dublin. Munster face Saracens in Coventry. The best four European teams, with 12 titles between them. All looking like potential champions.
What could possibly cloud the lead-up to this rugby bonanza?
I am not going to make this a column about Israel Folau or Billy Vunipola because neither man deserves our full attention.
Folau’s career in rugby, union and League, appears to be over – certainly with the Wallabies – while Vunipola’s supportive social media post is allowed to remain on the internet by his employers without sanction.
Saracens disagreed with what Vunipola stated, noting it “contravenes his contractual obligations,” but a warning about his future conduct was deemed sufficient punishment; the very policy Australian rugby took with Folau last year when he said gay people are going to “hell unless they repent”.
The RFU were content yesterday to put Vunipola on probation for five years after “the player expressed genuine regret at his public comments”.
No fine. No apology. No removal of the Instagram post.
There is an irony to professional athletes – idols to thousands – using a public platform to promote a doctrine yet failing to meet the very standards they preach about. Using social media to attack homosexuals and other “sinners” while eagerly pushing brands and sponsored products is a blatant contradiction.
Do what I tweet but not what I actually do.
The great All Black flanker Michael Jones missed three matches at the 1991 World Cup because they fell on a Sunday. Here was a genuine example of a deeply religious man who was content with his own beliefs and didn't feel the need to judge others for theirs.
I see Channel 4 dropped the “Billy Cam” from their rugby coverage.
I also see Folau’s Instagram post for “Asics” trainers in between “Jesus Changed My Life” and “If the atheist is right the Christian has nothing to worry about [but] if the Christian is right the atheist has everything to worry about.” To the backdrop of these words is a hand reaching from what are presumably the flames of hell.
Can you believe we are talking about this subject?
That’s his perspective. The contradiction is clear but what is also obvious is modern societal norms are at odds with the religious beliefs as interpreted by Folau and Vunipola.
World champions
It comes back to what is acceptable to those who pay their salaries. When pro sport stars interact with the general public in 2019 certain opinions cannot be uttered, right? At the very least there should be employment consequences. A warning for the first offence seems about right, I suppose, but something tells me this is not the end of the conversation. That’s enough.
Back to the rugby, I see the All Blacks have lost Damian McKenzie to an ACL injury. That’s three men – Dan Leavy, Folau and McKenzie – all set to light up Japan in the autumn, gone. Injury rates are falling in rugby but the severity of the injuries are increasing.
Again, a topic we will inevitably revisit.
I’m not going to shed a tear for the world champions just yet.
Remember 2015 when Nehe Milner-Skudder came from obscurity to destroy defences with pace and evasion when everyone else sought power and size? Maybe Milner-Skudder will reappear this season. New Zealand will unearth someone special, don’t worry about them.
But never mind the other parishes. We have plenty to entertain our lost souls at the Ricoh Arena and Aviva Stadium.
Toulouse were magnificent when beating Clermont 47-44 last Sunday. Most interesting of all for Leinster is they rotated several players.
Medard and Ntamack came off the bench while the multitalented Antoine Dupont did a job at outhalf.
Front row mobility remains a weakness but the rest of their pack were incredible. Richie Grey and South African flanker Rynhardt Elstadt are weapons not fully utilised during the tournament’s pool stages. Kolbe looks untouchable whether he is gifted space or not, Lethal even when he slips.
This is more like the Toulouse we encountered in the 2010 and 2011 semi-finals than the team Leinster exposed in January at a very windy RDS.
Being in Dublin should tip the scales in Leinster’s favour. Home advantage always matters but it’s no guarantee of progress.
Being able to use 56 players has proved an enormous benefit for Leo Cullen... this weekend is all about fielding the best 23
We lost the 2010 semi down in Toulouse because we allowed them inch into a 9-0 lead, hauled it back to 9-all, only for Yannick Jauzion to put them 16-9 ahead. Probably the greatest club side ever assembled threw everything at us and I remember David Skrela cutting between myself and Shaun Berne for the killer score.
Ramos and Ntamack have struggled in three games against Irish opposition this season but the rebirth of French attacking flair is happening before our eyes. Leinster, at their efficient best, can deny these young playmakers any foothold in the game.
Immediate impact
Toulouse arrive full of confidence and momentum while Leinster have constantly, and understandably, changed their team since the Ulster quarter-final.
That's the worry. Being able to use 56 players has proved an enormous benefit for Leo Cullen but this weekend is all about fielding the best 23.
The three into two problem reappears, yet again. Actually, it is two into one as Scott Fardy, to my mind, has to make the match-day squad.
So, it's between Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe. Leinster needed Lowe's input for two tries to overcome Saracens last season but they won the final in Bilbao without him (when they had Leavy and Isa Nacewa).
It’s an enormous call. Lowe has previously missed out for logical reasons. He is a game changer but wingers can be shut out of tight games (yes, they can also win them with a moment of magic) while Gibson-Park should have an immediate impact should Leinster be chasing scores in the final quarter.
The change in tempo that Gibson-Park for Luke McGrath can deliver has proved too compelling an alternative weapon for Cullen and Stuart Lancaster in major European games. Tough on Lowe but another huge opportunity for Dave Kearney or Adam Byrne (or both if the back three that faced Ulster are retained).
Facing Perpignan in the 2003 semi, even with it being at Lansdowne Road, was an alien environment
Sunday is all about applying pressure, living in Toulouse’s territory and playing cup rugby. Toulouse must not be allowed replicate last week’s attacking masterclass. This must be a different type of game. It promises to be a battle to rank beside any of Leinster’s 10 previous semi-finals.
I played in seven of them. Won four, lost three. Four in Dublin, lost two of them, although 2006 felt like Thomond Park on amphetamines.
Leinster are banking on the familiarity factor. Facing Perpignan in the 2003 semi, even with it being at Lansdowne Road, was an alien environment. Mal O’Kelly and a few others were tuned into the pace but too many of us were not ready. I remember failing to clear an early ruck and Mal horsing in behind me. He dragged me off the ground, “Come on, Darce,” already in motion to next ruck.
It was the same feeling I had as a 16-year-old playing Senior Cup for Clongowes. The first half felt about five minutes long, the second half even shorter.
“Oh Lord no, it’s over, we lost”.
Cup smart
Six long years and one enormously painful defeat passed before atonement. I was ready for that Munster game in 2006. Once the game started the sea of red didn’t matter. But Munster had lost two European finals. They knew how to beat Leinster. They had developed a ruthlessness, even harking back to their Shannon contingent Axel [Anthony Foley] and [John] Hayes dominating the AIL, a cup smart mentality.
The current Leinster group have learned this lesson, after the extra-time loss to Toulon in 2015 and the 2017 defeat to Clermont in Lyon. Experience is their trump card against Toulouse, against Ntamack and Ramos.
The French aristocrats – to batter an old cliché – are back on the elite stage of European rugby but Leinster should make them earn the right to win the title.
No better lesson than being scolded in a semi-final.
Billy Vunipola and Saracens will seek to give Munster the same medicine they have had to swallow in recent seasons. That’s what we will be talking about next week; two great matches over a stunning weekend of rugby.
Not the other stuff. Sport needs to be inclusive. It doesn’t matter who you are when the curtain rises – it only matters what you do.
Surely in this day and age we can separate church and rugby
