It has been a curious European Champions Cup season so far, with very few sides performing above pre-tournament expectations. Gloucester and an understandably distracted Saracens have sent out weakened teams for fixtures which could have transformed their campaigns, the Premiership leaders Northampton were ultimately unable to live with Leinster while Bath, La Rochelle and Ospreys are effectively down and out.
There are, however, three notable exceptions. Leinster, Exeter and Toulouse are all still unbeaten and, along with Saracens, Racing 92 and Clermont, it is already hard to see anyone from outside that sextet making the final in Marseille on 23 May. Any international coach looking for an injection of confidence and quality into his squad after the World Cup should, in theory, look no further.
It is a time-honoured story: play for a top-of-the-table club and your Test prospects will improve no end. Sure enough, Eddie Jones was in Salford to watch Exeter on Sunday while Leinster’s impressive second-half performance in Northampton will certainly have encouraged Ireland’s new head honcho, Andy Farrell. When the Six Nations comes around, do not be surprised to see the odd “form” player named to keep even his most experienced teammates honest.
Why would Farrell, for example, not start Jordan Larmour and Josh van der Flier, based on the multiple problems they posed the Saints last Saturday? With so much lingering World Cup frustration around, Farrell needs to find some fresh positivity and Larmour, in particular, is an easy sell. Ireland won both the games he started at the World Cup and his pace makes even experienced defenders nervous.
With Johnny Sexton back on the injury list and Rob Kearney’s fine Test career having entered the final straight there is even a chance to go for broke by picking Ulster’s John Cooney, perhaps the most influential Irish player in Europe this season, at scrum-half and inviting him to kick the goals as well. If anything is likely to rejuvenate Conor Murray overnight, that should.
Farrell could also do worse than reacquaint himself with the events of 20 years ago, when Ireland had similarly stumbled out of a disappointing World Cup. For the opening game of the 2000 championship Warren Gatland stuck with his established men, only for them to be blown away 50-18 by an admittedly turbo-charged England at Twickenham. For round two against Scotland a fortnight later he made no fewer than eight changes, picking five new caps, and was rewarded with a 44-22 victory.
Shane Horgan, Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes, Simon Easterby and Peter Stringer all went on to enjoy productive Test careers, Gatland having bluntly informed the squad after the England game that “all bets were off” when it came to selection for Scotland.
As the great Mick Galwey later pithily observed, “it was ‘shit or get off the pot’ time” and nothing is more certain than that Shaun Edwards will be seeking to inspire a similar psychological bounce from a reinvented France when England head to Paris in the first week of February. Sides who simply revert to exactly what they did at the World Cup – and pick all the same people who did it for them – will be forgetting that, in top-class sport, you are only as good as your next game, not your last.
The trick, of course, is to unleash these new catalysts at the right moment. With Saracens currently on such an emotional roller-coaster, it was interesting to see Jamie George’s understudy Luke Cowan-Dickie playing with such vim and vigour against Sale. If France are going to come at England’s pack, as they almost certainly will having watched the World Cup final, there is also a strong case to be made for Joe Marler starting at loose-head prop and adding another big ball carrier to the matchday squad.
Anyone who has seen Harlequins’ Alex Dombrandt play in the past fortnight will be aware Billy Vunipola is no longer the only storming English-qualified No 8 around. It would not surprise me if the 22-year-old features in this Six Nations at some point, while opportunity should also knock in a Scotland jersey for the positive Northampton centre Rory Hutchinson.
Leicester’s England contingent, though, are stuck in the basement, representing a club in danger of being dragged down by relegation’s clinging tentacles. As with Bath, it is very hard suddenly to put all that to one side in an England jersey. With some new assistant coaches and limited training time, Jones will not be changing 30% of his squad as he has airily suggested he might do but he will be tempted to tweak things slightly. Players like Dombrandt, Ollie Thorley, Jack Willis, Sam Simmonds, Nick Isiekwe and Ben Earl may just be closer to featuring in 2020 than they think.
Bad education
More disturbing stories are filtering back about a topic previously aired in these columns. No names – yet – but we are aware of more than one well-known university where so-called “initiation” punishments are still causing serious disquiet. The latest case involves first-year students being given a blunt choice: they must either pay in the region of £70 to buy drinks for all present or submit to having a tattoo (in this instance of their university) on their backsides. Given the ever-rising tide of student debt, many feel they have little option. Such pressure has no place in either rugby or wider society and needs calling out for what it is. If anyone is aware of recent instances of a similar nature, please get in touch.
One to watch
Talking of student rugby, there is a good story lurking in the Oxford University front-row before Thursday’s Varsity Match at Twickenham. The Dark Blues’ loose-head prop Euan Friend was playing as an outside back four years ago, subsequently fell seriously ill with septicaemia while travelling in Africa and only made the switch to the front-row from flanker at the start of this season. Clearly he enjoys a challenge: good luck to him and all involved.
