LONG READ A glut of Lions balances the less than rosy state of the Irish rugby garden

Learning to love the URC. That might not have been high on Leinster’s to-do list when they were cosying up to European competition for so long, but if nothing else the last lap of their season was compelling just to watch Leo Cullen bat his eyelids at the competition he once considered meat and two veg. The sound of Leinster’s head coach elevating the URC to Michelin star status was instructive of where they are.

The six weeks between losing to Saints in the Champions Cup semi-final and taking on the Bulls in the URC final surely were the most stressful of Cullen’s coaching career. True, season 2015/16 wasn’t much fun when he had been pitched into the gap as Leinster head coach, to replace the suddenly departed Matt O’Connor, but once Stuart Lancaster landed in late summer 2016 he probably thought those days were behind him.

Leinster’s situation has become a window on Irish rugby as a whole. Gradually it has been dawning on people here and abroad that the development pathways around the country are not without potholes, but when the brand leaders end up in a bind, what then?

While Cullen was spinning hard that as a boy in short pants he had always dreamed of big days in the Celtic/Magners/Rabo/URC final against South Africa’s finest, his opposite number, Jake White, was making Leinster out to be the biggest and scariest rugby team on planet earth.

While Cullen was spinning hard that as a boy in short pants he had always dreamed of big days in the Celtic/Magners/Rabo/URC final against South Africa’s finest, his opposite number, Jake White, was making Leinster out to be the biggest and scariest rugby team on planet earth.

Given the way things turned out White was able to continue the theme post-match. Effectively his team had to cope with long haul travel in the week of the game, and then terrible conditions against a quality side driven by massive determination.

What this tells us about Leinster is that when they’re good they’re really very good, and some of that is controllable. In order to keep it in check however you need to delete arrogance and complacency from your vocabulary. That has been Leinster’s painful lesson, and Cullen knows how lucky he is to be in a position to police that better next season.

None of the other three Irish provinces could ascribe their varying degrees of failure to forgetting to pick their best team, or to prepare a plan B in case the opposition were too comfortable in coping with plan A. So if you’re Clayton McMillan arriving into Munster’s High Performance Centre in Limerick next month that’s one item not on your agenda. But for the highly rated Kiwi, what exactly would constitute a good return next season?

On his way to the new job he will pass on the road a lorry-load of rugby IQ heading in the other direction. You can’t remove Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, Stephen Archer and Dave Kilcoyne at a stroke and not miss that level of experience.

If Munster have high hopes for McMillan then the reaction in Connacht to the news of Stuart Lancaster’s imminent arrival was jubilant.

Munster’s highlight this season was the quality of their performance against a struggling La Rochelle in the Champions Cup. Genuinely it was like a throwback to their best days. So too was their sheer competitive spirit in the URC quarter-final nailbiter in Durban. In the first game though the prize for winning took them only as far as Bordeaux, who are a different ball game to Munster; in the second it ended in a lost penalty shootout to the Sharks.

McMillan’s Chiefs go toe to toe with the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final this weekend. You’d wish him a winning send-off there for the Munster squad he’ll inherit will be a sobering experience for him. They look desperately light on star quality, which is why they’re hoping he brings a big hitter with him.

If Munster have high hopes for McMillan then the reaction in Connacht to the news of Stuart Lancaster’s imminent arrival was jubilant. Its timing? Perfect. Coming after Connacht being Connacht and blowing a home Challenge Cup quarter against Racing 92, compounded by missing the top eight cut in the URC, they needed a lift. They are good enough to do better, so there is huge interest in the degree of the Lancaster effect.

Up in Ulster Richie Murphy is coming around the corner into his second full season, having gone in there as interim for the last couple of months of the 2023/24 term. The way these things work, with each passing month the supporters become less open to the idea their team should have low expectations, and gradually they nudge them upwards. In Ulster’s case that’s not a plan. Yes, the arrival for next season of Wallaby loosehead Angus Bell, and South African number eight Juarno Augustus, will add significantly to the cause – but they both could have busy summers yet so let’s see what September brings.

If this doesn’t paint an especially rosy picture of Ireland’s rugby garden then it’s balanced by the Lions tour. A record 15 Irish players were picked for that adventure, and with the comings and goings of injury that number might well rise. Leinster especially will feel this stress early next season, but so will Ireland in the November series. In the first place that will expose more of Leinster’s second choice players to competitive rugby in the URC, and in the second – when the hangover clears and the injuries mend – those who travelled will be better for the experience. We might have to wait a while for the dividend to kick in.