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URC promised club rugby shake-up but Leinster too clever for Bulls
The more things supposedly change, the more they stubbornly stay the same when it comes to Leinster and whatever the latest name of the league they play in is. They simply remain top of the class, serial winners whom the rest too often struggle to chase and compete with. You can now add the famed South African Bulls to this lengthy list of Leinster victims, Jake White’s visitors to Dublin falling 17 points behind inside 13 minutes and playing like they hadn’t got off the plane.
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Come the finish the damage was 28 points – 31-3 – following a lengthy mid-game slumber by both sides and you can only hope this round one spectacle isn’t a bad omen for this now titled United Rugby Championship. There have been so many iterations of this difficult 21-year-old child that it is impossible to keep up with all the various name changes and changed tournament formats.
The PR fluff accompanying this latest coat of paint had promised a league “to shake the club rugby world” but if what unfolded at Lansdowne Road is a reliable gauge, we could be set for a troubling teething process before the latest revamp starts living up to the hype and the matches, especially those involving four-in-a-row champions Leinster, become more competitive.
Everyone involved knows this latest remodelling has to succeed given the flakiness of what has generally preceded it, something touched on in the build-up when RugbyPass caught up with the legendary Brian O’Driscoll.
“It has been disappointing the last few years and that is not because Leinster have had a monopoly on it and have won it as often as they have. Huge credit to them for that but I just feel that it’s been lacking quality, the games where international players are away,” he explained.
A brilliant run by @joshvdf gave @leinsterrugby a solid start early on ? #URC | #LEIBUL pic.twitter.com/LgUcdRQCbK
— United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) September 25, 2021
“If you look in the Premiership that is happening now as well but it doesn’t feel like their standards slip significantly which I feel that is the case in the PRO14 and we need better quality sides to come in with big reputations, with better athletes, and hopefully drive the standard… it will mean the players won’t be able to be rested like they were in the past and you will have to drive the depth of your squad an awful lot more.”
That said, we shouldn’t be all that surprised that this quickly became a damage limitation exercise for the Bulls. After all, they were embarrassed by Benetton when they last stuck their head above the European parapet for last June’s Rainbow Cup final, so they were never expected to be on a par with Leinster from the off.
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However, what was expected was that their basics would at least be sound and give them a fighting chance to make a good start and pose some new questions. Take the kick-off: it flew straight into touch from the boot of Johan Goosen. Take the resulting scrum: they coughed up a penalty. And then take the opening tries, Josh van der Flier and Andrew Porter breezing over with the defence non-existent.
Thankfully, it didn’t immediately become a ‘can’t watch’ rout. The Bulls had a 22nd-minute penalty to clip the early Leinster margin to 14 points and they can take solace in the match remaining scoreless from there through to the 57th minute.
But then came the traditional closing Leinster flurry, subs James Tracy and Ross Byrne getting in to clinch the bonus point and leave the Bulls with plenty to think about when their tour takes in matches at Connacht, Cardiff and Edinburgh before they have a six-week break to take stock of their new surroundings and the fresh demands it is bringing.
There was a genuine reason why White described Leinster pre-game as ‘the Barcelona of rugby’ when it comes to PRO14 rugby or whatever you want to call it. This is their playground, has been for years, and the hope can only be that these latest South African newcomers can quickly get up to speed and generate the level of competitiveness the PR fluff so gushingly promised.
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Fans at Lansdowne Road lapped up Andrew Porter's emotional try celebration in his first match since his tour-ending Lions injury ?#Lions #URC #LEIvBULhttps://t.co/RhOQeAxIGV
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 25, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Did the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
16 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to comments