Crusaders' class another lesson for Europe's elite

ON RUGBY:Watching Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams in sublime form at Twickenham, showed again the scale of the task facing New Zealand's World Cup opponents, writes GERRY THORNLEY

THE FIRST Monday morning after the completion of the Six Nations is, arguably, the most important day of the season for the Irish provincial coaches. Having watched the Six Nations through their fingers, they then find out who’s left standing, who is merely whacked and what kind of state their players are in mentally. The answers go a long way toward determining their trophy prospects.

Rewind a year and recall how – although they didn’t know it at the time – Munster wouldn’t see Paul O’Connell or Jerry Flannery again for the rest of the season. Leinster, emerged relatively unscathed 12 months ago, although they would lose Jonathan Sexton after he suffered a cracked jaw in the Heineken Cup quarter-final win over Clermont. Throw in two away semi-final draws against Toulouse and Biarritz, and both Leinster’s and Munster’s geese were already in the oven.

By contrast, when they assessed the fall-out from this Six Nations, the news would not have been too grim for Joe Schmidt, Tony McGahan and Brian McLaughlin.

Considering Leinster had 11 players involved with Ireland, nine of whom started at least three games and eight of whom started against England, that will have been a huge relief to Schmidt. With Stan Wright also back in harness, about the only “issue” facing Schmidt and the Leinster think-tank would have been Luke Fitzgerald’s confidence and form, and judging by his return to the left wing and a few slashing breaks in Sunday’s win away to the Dragons, that process has already begun encouragingly.

Similarly, the eight Munstermen and four Ulstermen involved at various junctures emerged unscathed, save for Tomás O’Leary, whose eye injury compounds an extraordinarily unlucky season. And, bearing in mind how the provinces and national team feed off each other, the feel-good factor generated by the win over England can only be a positive.

With Munster, Leinster and Ulster reintroducing some of their Test contingent and winning on the road to assume the leading three positions in the League table, and with the added potential of three “home” Euro semi-finals, the possibilities for the remainder of the season are more promising that at this point a year ago.

However, momentum has been interrupted. Leinster’s 36-11 win away to Racing Metro on Friday, January 21st, was their tenth successive game and sixth win in a row, whereas this Saturday’s renewal of hostilities between Munster and Leinster amounts to a one-game “prep” for their return to Europe.

And then, beware the Tigers and the Saints. Leicester will have five of the English 22 returning to the Aviva on Saturday week, and the Premiership leaders will surely be wiser for the experience. Saturday’s 37-6 thrashing of Bath at the Rec was their ninth win out of 10 in the Premiership and Heineken Cup, and Manu Tuilagi, with his footwork, pace and low centre of gravity, will provide more of a threat than the English midfield did.

David Lemi’s late try for Wasps against Toulouse which effectively sent Leicester to Dublin ensured Leinster the toughest home quarter of all. Meantime, with their English contingent back in harness, Ulster’s opponents Northampton whipped Wasps 39-3. However, the performance and the game of the weekend, by some considerable distance, was the Crusaders’ five tries to four win over the Sharks at Twickenham in aid of the Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Coming a week after the conclusion of the Six Nations, this was rubbing Europe’s noses in it.

Admittedly, it helps when conditions were perfect, they had a top Southern Hemisphere referee in Steve Walsh and the hindmost foot/offside line was obeyed/enforced. (Why don’t European referees and their assistants pay more heed to this?) The Crusaders had their bonus point by the 32nd minute thanks to sublime, yet simple, attacking rugby, target runners invariably coming from deep and ditto support runners (especially their wingers and fullback), who poured through the middle to feed off the best outhalf and inside centre combination in the world, for if Sonny Bill Williams doesn’t open you up, Dan the Man Carter will.

Williams is almost the perfect amalgam of pace, power, footwork and handling, particularly that bear-like right paw of his with which he confounds conventional coaching by holding the ball out in front of him one-handed.

It’s doubtful whether the game has ever seen a better offloader out of the tackle. His “new” Crusaders and All Blacks’ team-mates have already cottoned on to the possibilities, with trailer runners always looking to support him in the knowledge he’ll get the ball away. (That said, Williams would want to watch his tendency for high, no-arm, shoulder, rugby league “hits”.) For Carter’s try, Williams’ footwork and offload out of the tackle took out three Sharks to give the Rolls Royce of outhalves an untouched run under the posts with a return pass.

As the Sharks reacted to the initial threats posed by Williams and pushed up harder on the outside, so the Crusaders adapted by switching the point of attack closer in as Carter took the ball up to the gain line. Akin to his counterpart on a football field, the peerless Lionel Messi, so too Carter seems to have that peripheral vision thing – and players such as the electric Israel Dagg (at times a bit too cool for school but another World Cup star in the making) ran trailers off their number ten rather than 12.

For their fourth try, Carter also used his footwork and offload out of the tackle to take out three men and link with Dagg for Andrew Ellis to then release Zac Guildford. The key again was the offloading and two, three or four support runners for the line break.

The good news? While the All Blacks may have at least two quality players for each position (and often a good deal more), they only have one Dan Carter, one Sonny Bill Williams and one Richie McCaw (though his 23-year-old replacement on Saturday, Matt Todd, was fantastic). The world doesn’t make two of that ilk, never mind New Zealand. They also can only nominate any 30 of their World Cup squad, and best of all they are only permitted to play 15 of them at any time.

They’re also human, so who knows what might happen if the pressure comes on in a tight knockout match, and they have the weight of a nation and 24 years of hurt to cope with. Well, it’s something for the rest of the world to cling onto anyway.