Bob Dwyer Rugby Workshops

Around most of the major rugby playing nations of the world, the individual competitions are closing in on their respective conclusions. Last weekend saw the semi-finals of the Magners League, for the Celtic Nations of the UK and Ireland, the Guinness Premiership in England and the Top14 in France. In the southern hemisphere, the Super14 - arguably the major sub-international competition in world rugby – completed the round robin matches, amazingly with the top six teams playing in three of the games. Two of these were virtual quarterfinals with the losers, the Hurricanes and the Brumbies, missing the cut.

These leading teams will normally provide the bulk of the international squads to contest the upcoming internationals – the European teams will play the SANZAR nations and Argentina and the mighty Tri-Nations will follow – so it seems a valid exercise for me to evaluate the comparative quality of the performances in each of the competitions.

The Super14 has had its moments with some excellent dynamic performances mixed with some average play, but in the last few weeks, the standard has lifted considerably. The Bulls have been outstanding, looking every bit the slightly understrength Springbok side that they are. They have pace and power and a commanding kicking game. The loss of Bryan Habana to the Stormers is significant and I’m not convinced that their scrum is top class, but, at home, they look the team to beat. The Stormers are an excellent side in all aspects of the game and, a couple of weeks ago, I had them as favourites, but I thought that they got very sloppy last weekend against the Bulls ‘second team’. Perhaps this was understandable, but they will need to be much more clinical in the next two matches if they are to win. The Waratahs have developed considerably over the season, perhaps somewhat erratically, but recent injuries to some of their key players have diminished their strike power. They will need to be at their absolute best to proceed any further. The Crusaders started the season slowly, but, of late, they are looking more and more like the Crusaders that we have admired so much in ‘the Deans years’. The accuracy of their support play and their catch and pass game has lifted enormously and they look to me capable of defeating the Bulls in Soweto. I think that they play frequently – and, for me, unnecessarily - outside the laws of the game and, although the NZ referees seem to find this approach acceptable, others will not.

In the Magners League, the Ospreys and Leinster are through to the final and both are excellent teams. I have frequently sung the praises of the Magners, but I thought that the Leinster v Munster semi-final looked slow and tired in comparison to the Super14 games.

One of the commentators described the first half with the words “Benzedrine speed”, but the best that I could find was “cautious”. Admittedly the pace lifted in the second spell and Jamie Heaslip was all world class, but, as the Leinster scrum dominated, I thought back to the recent demolition of the same Leinster scrum at the hands of Toulouse. For me, this match was a level down.

We were not privy to the Ospreys-Glasgow match – courtesy of the TV programming – but I know Ospreys as a quality, if inconsistent, side. We’ll see more in a fortnight.

The French Top14 is a level up. France have been clearly the dominant European rugby team this season and this level is reflected in their club competition. There is pace and skill in abundance and the traditional French appreciation of ‘space’, but, once again, we see a real physicality in their play across all of the clubs. Toulouse made their priorities abundantly clear with their team selection for their semi-final, with next weekend’s Heineken Cup final obviously at front of mind. However, this should not detract from the victory by Perpignan, the current champions, who qualify for the final again.

The other semi-final was a ‘cracker’. Perennial bridesmaids, Clermont-Auvergne played the resurrected Toulon in a see-sawing, nail-biting match which went into extra time and, even then, was not over until after the siren.

The Toulon approach was anything but admirable to begin with, consisting of an interminable series of “high kicks and chases”. It was clearly a ‘non-French’ approach – not surprising perhaps when we consider that they fielded only three French players in their starting fifteen. Amazingly, Toulon’s first attack with the ball in hand did not come until the 53^rd minute! When points were needed, however, to pull back significant leads by Clermont, they looked constantly dangerous. Towards the end of regulation time, they hauled in a 10 point deficit in the space of just six minutes and towards the end of extra time, they mounted consistent pressure to score again in attempting to recover a telling 13 points.

This was a thrilling game, courtesy to some extent of the scoreboard, and was physically and emotionally draining for players and supporters alike. End of season games should all demonstrate such commitment and emotion and I’m sure that even the losing supporters were not completely disappointed. There was a massive physicality to the contest and the scrum contest alone was worth the price of admission. Clermont were well on top here and elsewhere upfront, but were strangely unable to turn this pressure into points. There were world class performances by the known world class players. Lobbe, Wilkinson, Williams, Ledesma, Parra and Rougerie all shone, but every player’s contribution was needed. They will all need the next two weeks’ R & R to recover for the final.

Unfortunately, we have not had the replays of the Guinness semi-finals to air just yet, so I cannot add my opinion of those matches to what I have already gleaned from the normal premiership games. Nevertheless, I am prepared to make the following prediction.

A few years back, an English journalist friend asked my opinion on the prospects for the upcoming Lions tour of New Zealand. I replied to the effect that “they have no comprehension of the pace of the game and the impact of the collisions, which they will encounter. By the time they come to terms with that, the tour will be all but over.” And so it was.

I have seen nothing recently to make me change my mind for this year’s north v south internationals.