Irish rugby is embracing new normal
August inter-pros behind closed doors is first step in road to recovery
“In the initial stages, it is likely to be closed doors”
‘John Cooney was having the season of his life’
THE idea of the provinces battling it out in front of empty stands in the Aviva Stadium at the tail-end of August seems utterly bizarre. Well, it would have three months ago before the sporting landscape – and the world in general – was turned on its head by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A good old-fashioned series of inter-pro clashes has been earmarked for the penultimate weekend of August by the IRFU. It’s their roadmap to recovery and the beginning of, what they hope, will be the gradual phasing in of competitive action.
The tricky and complicated issue of letting punters into stadiums aside, keeping it local behind closed doors seems like a logical place to start.
Philip Browne, the chief executive of the IRFU, thought as much when he announced the next steps in Irish rugby’s recovery last Friday. For now, getting back on the pitch is paramount – no matter how bizarre that picture may look.
‘Essentially, on the 22nd/23rd of August, in terms of the provincial game, I think that’s part and parcel of really what we’re talking about is we need to actually start, we need to actually get playing,’ he said. ‘And part and parcel of the assumptions starting on the 22nd 23rd of August, is the assumption that we’re going to be playing international rugby in October – end of October, November.
‘The issue will be what matches are we going to be playing? And, secondly, in what sort of conditions are we going to be playing in the stadium – is it behind closed doors or with a minimum attendance or full attendance?
‘That’s what’s happening elsewhere, around the world of sport. Certainly, in the initial stages is likely to be behind closed doors.’
A long summer is ahead and the IRFU’s proposed plans are yet to be given the green light from Government officials but assuming that all goes according to plan then the idea of Munster and Leinster locking horns in Dublin on August 22 is an exciting prospect.
Even more so because both sides are likely to be fully-loaded for a derby meeting, something that has been very much a rarity in recent times. The eagerlyanticipated inter-pro derbies across the festive period became bland, uninspiring and watereddown affairs in recent years.
Coaches and players know the score at this stage. The IRFU’s policy of booking windows in the domestic season when their top stars can rest overrides all other provincial priorities.
Last December’s meeting between Munster and Leinster in Thomond Park was effectively a glorified ‘A’ game with Johan van Graan and Leo Cullen rolling out scratch outfits as an understrength Leinster team beat an equally callow Munster outfit 13-6 in Limerick. Fans, coaches, players and pundits have become used to it as this stage.
Therefore it will be refreshing to see both squads roll out their big guns for this mooted August meeting. Leinster should have all their heavy hitters on display.
From Tadhg Furlong at tighhead to Johnny Sexton at out-half, every player will be champing at the bit to get back out onto the pitch.
Leinster’s backrow riches have never been greater and Cullen and his coaching team might even see this derby series as the ideal time to ease Dan Leavy and Jack Conan – both back from long-term injuries – back into action.
It should be quite the introduction for Munster’s newly-signed World Cup-winning Springboks as well. It is understood that Damian de Allende and RG Snyman will both be available for selection should the inter-pro series get signed off in the coming months.
The eerily quiet atmosphere will take some adjusting but the South African pair will get an early sense of what has been an arch-rivalry through the decades.
And there is plenty of unfinished business from this disrupted season.
The current campaign will always have an asterisk attached to it and any meaningful conclusions to the Pro14 and European Champions Cup will be tricky, but there are a host of players who will feel they have a point to prove when things kick off again later this summer.
John Cooney was having the season of his life before things ground to halt in March. The Ulster scrum-half will be keen to pick up where he left off.
Likewise, Conor Murray who was feeling the heat from Cooney all season prior to the sporting shutdown. This coronavirus-imposed hiatus will have done him a power of good. Who knows, it may have added a few years onto the careers of some of the older brigade such as Johnny Sexton and Devin Toner.
It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out. In more normal circumstances, the Aviva would be packed to the rafters for a fullblooded Leinster v Munster game. Locking the doors is the first of many sacrifices rugby must make to get things moving again. The new normal must be embraced.