Other provinces must do better in game of catch-up
‘KITSHOFF DEAL WAS A MONUMENTAL WASTE OF MONEY’
TEAMS under attack for their unfair advantages don’t usually look as starved of success as the current Leinster generation do. It is six years since their last European Cup and, whatever the merits of the URC, it is by Europe that the best teams measure themselves.
The failure of Leinster to get past Saracens and then La Rochelle since winning their fourth title in 2018 was supposed to saddle Leo Cullen’s squad with significant pressure this season.
With Stuart Lancaster departed, Johnny Sexton retired, the inevitable disruption caused by a World Cup, and the impact that had on the timing of Jacques Nienaber’s arrival as Lancaster’s replacement, this was reasonably seen as a potentially fraught term for Cullen.
It still could be, given Northampton will present as more than glorified tackle bags in Croke Park on Saturday, and the tightening competition in the league table.
Yet a flow of news stories that emerged in the days after Leinster thrashed La Rochelle have seen brows furrowed in concern about their advantages.
First came confirmation of the short-term signing of Jordie Barrett, a second superstar name to join RG Snyman in fortifying the Leinster challenge next season.
Then Tyler Bleyendaal’s hiring as a replacement for Andrew Goodman – the attack coach is joining Ireland at the end of this campaign – was confirmed.
News followed that Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan will, from next season, be on central contracts, the lucrative deals reserved for the country’s very best Test players, and under whose terms the IRFU cover the entire cost of the player’s contract, thereby freeing up provincial funds.
Leinster will have 10 players on these arrangements from the start of next term, compared to one each at Munster, Connacht, and Ulster.
Finally, at the end of last week, Croke Park sold out in hours for next week’s Northampton game.
There is no direct financial benefit for Leinster in that, but coming as the final flourish in a parade of positive stories, it led to pearls being clutched and fretting about the narrow base on which the Irish rugby pyramid is built.
And there should be no doubt that the national reliance on Leinster is a concern – but it’s one for the people running Irish rugby, and not for Leinster. Cullen was asked about this earlier in the week, and he showed a nimbleness not necessarily redolent of his playing career in sidestepping a debate stoked to some extent by begrudgery.
He insisted Leinster’s ambition is to produce players for the national team, but in finishing a temperate answer, he made one observation that resonated.
‘Because you have only so many opportunities to bring coaches and players from the outside, you want to make sure that whoever you are bringing in is really going to add value,’ he said.
Also this week, Steven Kitshoff’s early departure from his Ulster contract turned out to be even more premature than expected, as he is already departed, injured.
This was a monumental waste of money. The too-long tenure of Johann van Graan at Munster could be easily categorised as such, too.
Leinster are not the only province capable of making high-profile signings from abroad. The difference is that their success rate is unerringly good.
In the early years of professionalism, Munster brought in a handful of inspired imports, starting with Jim Williams and John Langford, through Trevor Halstead, Shaun Payne, Rua Tipoki and Doug Howlett.
Ulster’s brief uplift in the early 2010s was largely down to South African signings, in Johann Muller, Pedrie Wannenburg and Ruan Pienaar.
Clever additions, on and off the pitch, are the basis of modern Leinster, beginning with Rocky Elsom.
They enjoy the enormous advantage of the private school system that is refining talent to an extraordinary degree, too.
And there could well be a case for adjusting direct IRFU investment in the other provinces, given the funds freed up at Leinster by having 10 players on central deals. No solution should involve punishing Leinster. This would quickly have repercussions for the national team but, more importantly, it would involve succumbing to small-mindedness.
Leinster think big and act accordingly. There is no organisation like them in Irish sport.
That, surely, is worth protecting.