English digs fail to land as Leinster tool up for Wasps
IT USUALLY happens around this time of year. Whenever the Premiership clubs have a bad season in Europe, they invariably vent their fury at the Irish provinces.
The usual excuses are trotted out: the Irish system allows their best and brightest to rest up at key moments in order to be primed for Europe, the lack of relegation in the Pro14 and the restrictions of the salary cap.
That last point was raised by Dai Young, the director of rugby at Wasps, this week,
‘Look at Leinster last weekend, they had five Lions out injured and they still had 15 internationals on the field. They’ve got that strength in depth,’ he said.
‘Certainly in our group, it just shows the quality of the opposition we are playing against.
‘As Directors of Rugby, we have a salary cap that we all adhere to and we all try to get as good a squad as possible, but I think it’s plain to see for everybody that it’s an attritional league and you do pick up injuries.
‘When we pick up injuries, we are not replacing internationals with internationals, with internationals behind them as well.’
This is not a new argument. Here’s a quote from Warren Gatland after he had led Wasps to victory over Munster in the semifinal of the Heineken Cup at the old Lansdowne Road in 2004.
‘For Munster it’s easy to qualify; they’re in the Heineken Cup every year,’ he said ‘The Premiership is very important for us because it is extremely difficult to qualify (for the European Cup).’
Perhaps the English clubs should look at the way Leinster go about their business rather than throwing the usual sly digs.
It’s fitting that Leo Cullen’s match-day 23 contains 19 players that came through the academy system at the province. Then there’s Robbie Henshaw and Sean Cronin who came through the respective youth systems with Connacht and Munster. Jamison Gibson-Park and Scott Fardy are the only foreigners in Leinster’s ranks against Wasps tomorrow.
Wasps, who are winless after five rounds in Europe, have nothing but pride to play for at the Ricoh Arena. The Coventry-based club will lose the services of England international No8 Nathan Hughes and Springbok full-back Willie le Roux next summer, with another England star Elliot Daly poised to head for the exit door as well.
Rather than promote from within, Young has got out the cheque book and signed All Black Malakai Fekitoa and his fellow Kiwi Jeff Toomaga-Allen.
It’s worth noting that the salary cap is currently £7million per season across the water. We’re talking big money.
The panic-stricken nature of the Premiership and the threat of relegation to the Championship has fostered a fear of trusting and developing youth.
Invariably, the English clubs are looking to bolster their squad with overseas talent ahead of their own homegrown players, to the detriment of themselves and the national cause. It’s not like the English clubs don’t have a well of young talent to tap into. England have made the final of the past six U20 World Cups, winning three. Ireland have made one final across the same time period. There’s no guessing which country is better at maximising their own resources. It was a point not lost on Cullen when those quotes from Young were put to him yesterday. ‘We’ve got a lot academy players that have been involved in the team this year. It’s a huge part of the model,’ he said.
‘We come under pressure because we have a lot of players that are away with the national team at various different times. There’s a couple of other teams out there that probably get affected in terms of the same amount of numbers but you have to be able to get the players from somewhere.
‘We used a huge amount of academy players. In terms of a salary cap, they’re not that expensive in comparison. We have certain restrictions as well in terms of the amount of foreign players we can bring… whereas there’s none of those restrictions on teams in France.
‘It wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about the Irish teams not having a chance of doing well in Europe ever again.’ That last point is telling. It is fitting that Leinster are returning to Coventry tomorrow. It’s been three years since they were thrashed 51-10 by Wasps at the same venue.
It was a traumatic end to a miserable campaign as Leinster finished bottom of Pool 5. A swashbuckling Wasps side would progress as pool winners. How times have changed.
‘There’s a certain cyclical nature to it as well,’ said Cullen.
‘I remember sitting in these rooms almost trying to defend the situation of the Irish teams and the Pro14 teams, because you guys didn’t give us a chance so there is a certain… this is just today but what’s different from three years ago, is there the salary cap any different? I think the salary cap has gone up since then.’
Leinster will arrive with little to prove, although Ross Byrne doesn’t fall into that category.
The out-half’s name was a curious omission from Joe Schmidt’s Six Nations squad earlier this week.
Steering Leinster to victory at the Ricoh and a thus securing a home quarter-final would be the perfect reaction.
‘I think you can react or respond in many different ways, but at least Ross has a big game in front of him this weekend and he’s got something that’s very much in his control so he can go out and control and prepare as well as he possibly can to give him the best chance of playing well, and then he’s ready and available if something happens to someone else’ added Cullen.
‘He just needs to put himself in the situation where he’s the next best person so that whatever opportunities arise or whatever situation has changed in terms of the selection call from the national management, then he leaves himself best set.
‘They’re hungrier for it when the next opportunity presents itself. They go out and prepare better. So that’s what he can control.’
A big performance tomorrow would be a good place to start.