The Road Ahead

Curse you, Dean Richards!!!

I decided to take advantage of the week off in the TriNations schedule to take a break from this blog to gear up for the exciting new European season around the corner and when I decide to come back, when I should be focussing on Leinster’s and Ireland’s prospects, there you are front and center in the rugby news cycle, wrecking my buzz!

So I feel I’m forced to first get my views on the whole “Bloodgate” thing out of the way so I can get on with the important stuff.

For the most part, I applaud the ERC for what they’ve done. I believe the 12-month ban initially handed out to Tom Williams was merely a ploy to force him to weed out the real culprits, and that is exactly what happened, and his sentence was rightly reduced, and Richards rightly copped for the major punishment.

Should Harlequins have been kicked out of Europe for a certain length of time? Absolutely. BUT…I think it’s too late to do that at this stage. Fixtures have been set, tickets have been sold, arrangements have been made. The ERC should have acted sooner on a charge so serious and THIS is where they’ve been found wanting.

But at least this has exposed the general public to the fact that although the sport itself is considered “professional”, there are still those who organise the game who have a mindset harking back to the “good old” days of decisions being made in “smoke filled rooms” behind the scenes, with the protection of individual names and reputations taking precedent over the image of the game as a whole.

Hopefully the IRB will wise up to this and make the necessary adjustments to bring their disciplinary procedures into the professional era, and with their ruling to close the loophole surrounding uncontested scrums, it seems they’re beginning to do this.

And to those who feebly try to stick up for Richards & co by saying “why should they be singled out when there are so many others doing the same?”, I say simply this : stop talking bollocks.

You think this matter is messy the way it is? Imagine if the cheating had been uncovered and Quins had actually WON the game!!! Not only no victory in Edinburgh for my beloved Leinster, but no bumper payday for the city of Dublin for the semifinal at Croker!

OK. Enough of that. 400+ words are more than enough on that bloody mess (pun intended). What about the season ahead?

Well, as a Leinster and Ireland fan, I have only one question…HOW THE HELL CAN WE IMPROVE ON LAST SEASON???

Simple. Win Grand Slam, Heineken Cup AND Magners League this year ;-)

Hey – maybe I have my tongue SLIGHTLY in cheek, but who’s to say we can’t do it all again?

As far as Leinster goes (I’ll worry about the national team closer to the Autumn Internationals…), our future hinges on how we fill the gaps left by such names as Elsom, Contepomi and Whittaker.

Of course we already know what Johnny Sexton can do under pressure at Number 10 (SO glad I was proven wrong in my doubts about him from early last season) but it has to be said we have a big gaping hole at Number 6 and the popular opinion is that if we don’t fill it, we could struggle to get near the dizzy heights of Croker & Edinburgh last May.

Personally I’m pinning my hopes on the statement on the Leinster website that “there is one remaining vacancy in the playing squad". You’d like to think that means there’s a marquee name waiting in the wings to join us, wouldn’t you?

If there isn’t, it’s rotten PR by the organisation, that’s for sure! That’d be like handing a boy a present of a massive box in wrapping paper and a bow only for him to open it up and see it’s just a geometry set for school!

Hopefully there will be some kind of announcement before the pre-season friendly with the LettinOn Irish at Donnybrook, followed quickly by our Magners League opener (now they have the play-offs PLUS the prospect of two Italian teams I hereby vow never again to call it the ‘Meaningless League’) against another of our Heineken Cup opponents, the Scarlets.

It will all of course give me plenty to blog about, not to mention material for my vidcast which I’m hoping to premiere on August 29 with a little help from my family…more details next week.

You can safely say I’m itching to get stuck into the new campaign, so BRING IT ON!!!

Finally I’d like to thank both Leinster Rugby and Wicklow RFC for an excellent day out back on August 5 as they conducted their training session at the club. As you can see my kids really enjoyed themselves!