‘People called to see bite, you can’t have it both ways’
SEAN CRONIN watched last Saturday’s tempestuous encounter at Thomond Park with his feet up on the couch, but the Leinster hooker would have had a wry smile watching all the mayhem unfold in Limerick.
It was a throwback to the grudge matches of the early noughties when the likes of Peter Clohessy, Mick Galway, Reggie Corrigan and Trevor Brennan ensured an abundance of niggle and nastiness.
Cronin, a Limerick native, would have been a witness in the stands many times during his younger years as a student of Ardscoil Rís. He could only watch at the weekend as the fire and fury returned to an interprovincial derby that had become a tad anodyne in recent times.
‘I think some would call it healthy competition,’ he said with a grin.
‘I know things probably got a bit out of hand at the weekend but I think the cards we got were more clumsy stuff instead of vicious play.
‘I think people have been calling for a bit of bite to come back into the interpro for years, you can’t have it both ways,’ Cronin continued, although he did admit that discipline was something that needed to be monitored
‘Things got a bit out of hand so I think that’s something that we definitely have to work on, instead of going above that line, we need to stay down here because we know if we stay down here and play to our ability, we’re a pretty good team.
‘So it’s about balancing that. Yeah, look there is going to be competition, we’re going into a big, big year for Irish rugby as a whole, for the provinces, everyone still in contention for Europe, and you’ve got the Six Nations and the World Cup.
‘There is a lot of competition for places and these games are going to fall into that.’
Despite the party line from the players, these interprovincial battles are very much mini-trials in an Ireland sense.
The final raft of a thrilling derby series comes to a conclusion with Leinster welcoming Ulster to the RDS and Munster heading out to Galway to face in-form Connacht.
It will be another chance to make a statement before Cronin and his provincial brethren reconvene at Carton House under Joe Schmidt’s watch next month.
‘Me and David Kilcoyne had a bit of a run-in a few years ago and we were calling each other two crazy Limerick men after the game,’ he recalled.
‘Like I said, it is competitive, it is rugby at the end of the day. I don’t like the word these games are “trials” because you have got huge games after this as well, so it is competition.
‘It is healthy, it is rugby and guys have got to work against each other in these games and it is going to be a tough match and guys have got to get used to it.’
The 32-year-old is set to pack down against Rory Best or Rob Herring on Saturday evening.
It will be a prime opportunity to prove his scrummaging mettle, a part of his game often cited as a weakness and the reason he has not started more matches at Test level. ‘I hope they name a strong team,’ he said. ‘It would be a good opportunity to go up against two good players. That’s what you want to do, you want to test yourself against the best. Hopefully it will be another packed house.’ Leinster will be looking to bounce back from that mauling in Limerick, but Cronin is anticipating an emotionally-charged display from Ulster following their defeat at the Sportsground.
‘They are coming off a loss as well, you know, to Connacht down there as well,’ he added.
‘So they will be itching to get themselves back up to the level of performance where they were. (They have a) big game against Racing 92 coming up as well. This is a big building week.
‘No 2 is a very competitive spot right across the provinces, there are quality players there.
‘All I can do is focus on myself and try and keep doing what I am doing and hopefully keep the national set-up happy and see what happens, that’s about all you can do.’