Leinster for the Heineken Cup!

 
In about an hour, Leinster will contest the Heineken Cup final for the first time, having smashed Munster off the park in the semi-final 3 weeks ago - something that gave me much satisfaction. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Munster at all. Munster is the heart & soul (not to mention proclaimed/propaganda crown jewel) of Irish rugby and I will happily and passionately support them, and Ulster & Connacht for that matter.

But many Leinster folk have morphed into fairweather supporters of our own provincial side, instead jumping on the winning bandwagon, claiming Munster is "their team", which bothers me. I'm confident those people will be back wearing blue today and it gives me satisfaction to say truthfully that blue was always my primary colour.

Allegiances aside though...

Ireland are Six Nations champions and Munster recently took the Magners/Celtic League (claiming Leinster's crown). It would be just FANTASTIC if Leinster could win the Heineken Cup (claiming Munster's crown in return!) to complete a clean sweep for Irish rugby and cap our greatest ever season.
 

Penalty shootouts

 
The penalty shootout has finally managed to blight itself on rugby. Damn.

Last weekend saw one of the (Heineken) European Cup semi-finals decided on a penalty shootout. This was certainly the first time in this has happened in Heineken Cup history and possibly rugby history. I've struggled to find another game that has been decided like this (the 2003 World Cup Final came within seconds of it) and unsurprisingly it's given rise to much discussion & debate.

It is a LOUSY way to decide a game... and I've always thought so.

Penalty shootouts are most commonly seen in football, generally follows a dour period of extra time (which has often itself followed a 90-minute snorefest) where teams have decided to sit back and take their chances with the penalty lottery. FIFA, to their credit, did attempt to experiment with alternatives such as "golden" and "silver" goal: golden was sudden death, i.e. first team to score won, while silver gave the team who conceded until the end of the half to equalize otherwise the game was over. But both concepts failed due to teams more concerned with "not losing" the game rather then winning it. How often do you hear post-match reaction fob off the shootout inferring it's a lottery? The game wasn't really lost and I'm sure that's saved many a coach/manager job in the past.

At least in football all the players are (loosely) doing the same thing - attempting to kick a ball through a target - so it can be argued there isn't much different about what they're trying to accomplish with penalties.

Rugby union is completely different - yes there is kicking involved but it's not the core of the game nor core skill for every player. Rugby union is incredibly specialised - players need have a very different physiology and skill set depending on the position they play. A winger doesn't pack down in the scrum and you don't see a front row forward punt the ball 50 yards down field and chase down the catcher (Keith Wood being the exception). Martyn Williams, one of the greatest back row forwards to ever play the game, missed what turned out to be the decisive kick and I feel for him - he's there to win ball and be creative with it in hand, NOT to kick goals.

Peter Wheeler, Leicester's chief executive, summed it up well: "Let's not get involved in the blame game here because this was unchartered territory for rugby and we are all learning, but I found that very uncomfortable to watch. Just imagine if it had gone on for a couple more kicks. For all I know Martin Castrogiovanni or Gethin Jenkins might be useful goal-kickers, but almost certainly not, and how humiliating and illogical it would have been for two of the best in the world at what they do, having to decide a European Cup semi-final by attempting something that they never do."

Rugby union continues to have an ethos/code of gentlemanship, respect and honour about it. Players will pummel each other on the field and occasionally things flare up but generally once it's all over they will shake hands and say "good fight" regardless of winning or losing. Most if not all post-match reaction from Leicester (who won) conveyed a message of "we didn't want to win it like this." So Wheeler's choice of words - humiliating and illogical - is pretty appropriate.

Solutions? Let's look at some other sports.

In basketball and ice hockey, the concept of a tie game doesn't even exist. Extra time periods are played (as many as are necessary) until the game is decided. In basketball this is determined by the score at the end of each period while in ice hockey it's sudden death, first goal wins.

In the sport of Touch (Touch Rugby / Touch Football) an elimination game is decided by a "drop-off." It's still plain ol' extra time but each side plays with a player less - that is instead of 6 players they play with 5, with a further player from each side dropping every 2 minutes until it's 3-on-3. Meanwhile it's sudden death rules - the first team to score a touchdown wins but both must have had possession before the game can end. (I should probably mention though that in Touch unlimited rolling substitutions are allowed - thus teams can continually get fresh legs on.)

I love the drop-off in Touch and think it's a brilliant way to decide a game. There is no difference between normal and extra time in what a team has to do to win the game, i.e. score touchdowns. It's urgent and exciting: teams know that there is an increasingly higher chance they will concede that sudden death touchdown - fewer players, same size field - so they go out gung-ho to score it themselves. You always know when and where there's a drop-off at a Touch event because spectators and players who've only just finished their own game literally flock to that field - and the atmosphere is always, ALWAYS electric.

I can accept that maybe the drop-off maybe doesn't directly translate to rugby but I can certainly see a variation of it being a viable solution - after all, the Sevens version of the game is established and strong. With football too, there is 5- and 7-a-side, albeit on a smaller playing field. So we're not talking about breaking new ground here, just applying modifications of pre-existing concepts. Drop some players off, say down to 10-a-side, disallow all kicked goals and make teams score a TRY to win.

Ultimately, games should be decided though by playing the core of that game. Anything that gets closer to that - even if it's still imperfect - surely has to be a good thing?
 

Feeling grand (slam!)

 
Wales vs. Ireland in Cardiff with the Grand Slam at stake... again. Well it's nice to see I wasn't too far off with my pre-tournament predictions given how things turned out. Italy were awful (Sergio Parisse aside) while France and Scotland were pretty much as expected (Scotland with their token win over the Italians and France up & down but clearly building for the future). I honestly didn't see Wales losing to France and but for ill discipline England may have surprisingly found themselves in the championship hunt.

It hasn't been the most spectacular Six Nations - not by a long way - but for the destiny of the Grand Slam, Championship and Triple Crown all to come down to the last kick of the last game, well Hollywood couldn't really have scripted it better, could it?

I thought it might be gone when Jones slotted that drop goal with 5 minutes left but once Munster (yes Munster... read on) got camped inside the Welsh 22 you just got the feeling a drop of our own was on the cards. O'Connell takes the line-out once again to get us on the move... maul... ruck... O'Connell picks... ruck... Horan to Wallace... I'll let RTE commentator Ryle Nugent's words tell the rest: "Horan... Wallace... Ireland in position... this MUST be it... this MUST be it for Ronan O’Gara... drop at goal... Grand Slam at stake... HE’S GOOOOOOT IIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!"

Two minutes remaining. In the grand scheme of things 120 seconds isn't much, but when your country is on knife edge between winning and losing major honours and the heart is pounding, well, it's a hellish eternity. Please lads don't blow it all by conceding a silly penalty...

Sixty seconds later: "No penalties," pleaded the RTE commentators, voices trembling about half an octave higher then about an hour ago. Seconds later: "Penalty to Wales."

Paddy Wallace might have had thoughts of emigration while Stephen Jones' kick - on target - and the last action of the game remember - looked like it had the legs to get over. "I just felt the game lacked a bit of excitement," Wallace joked back in Dublin at the public reception in response to O'Gara (at the time) being "ready to kill" him. Form a orderly queue...

But joyfully for a country starved of national (team) sporting success, it fell short. CHAMPIONS AS LAST!!! :-)

I woke at 4am Sydney time hoping to catch the game online. Thank you whoever you are, that piped the TV coverage live (well almost live) back across the 'Net. Despite the early morning drowsiness and sleep in my eyes at the time, I'm feeling pretty "grand" now.


 

It's Six Nations time again

 
France and England at home, away to Italy, Scotland and Wales. I've always looked at every second campaign as the more realistic opportunity for Ireland to win the championship - it's a big ask to beat both England and France on their home turf in the reverse season.

I'm finding that 2009 is no different. England are a shambles while France seem to be doing the entirely sensible thing of blooding new players early into the second year of the World Cup cycle and building some depth & experience into the squad for 2011, weakening them (I use the term loosely) in the short term. Italy are, well, Italy. My concerns are Wales & Scotland.

Wales have, by the proverbial country mile, been playing the best rugby in the northern hemisphere during the past year or so with a superb blend of skill & style - of course there is also the memory of what happened in 2005 (the last time Ireland went to Cardiff in 2005 for a Grand Slam showdown) when Irish arses were well and truly spanked. Scotland have too many average days at the office but every so often, like last season against England, spring a quality win. In my mind though, again, is the 2003 season Ireland were competing for the Slam only to self destruct in Murrayfield - so make no mistake Scotland are a slapstick comedy sized banana skin and you need look no further than Leinster's results in Edinburgh for evidence of that.

And so we come to Ireland. It's hard to know what to expect - will we get more apathetic toothless displays of recent memory or a return to some of the most exciting rugby we've ever seen? Irish sporting mentality for the longest time has us content to be the plucky lads just happy to participate and anything else is a bonus (I'd wager you can remember where you where and how you completely lost your mind when David O'Leary slotted home that penalty in 1990). It's argued that such a mentality no longer applied when it came to Irish rugby's "golden generation". While I do think this was true initially and we demanded success, we remained unsurprised and accepting when defeated (2007 World Cup excepted). Prior to this Ireland won three Triple Crowns in four seasons - the first was an achievement to be rightly celebrated, but subsequent ones became acceptable consolation viewed as a successful campaign even though we couldn't get over France, at least we "won something".

This is where I start to take exception. The competition is for the SIX Nations Championship, not four. We shouldn't be content with the Triple Crown anymore but kicking on to win the whole damn thing, not accepting anything less than the Championship. As a nation we've shown we have what it takes to be European Champions with Munster winning the Heineken Cup last season and Leinster claiming the Magners League not to mention both provinces being in the mix for both competitions this season - and I have genuine hope this year we will finally get the formula right and translate that success to the national team.

So come on lads, get stuck in and HAVE A GO. Answer Ireland's call - show us all what you're capable of and bring home that elusive Slam.