Leinster on threshold of being greatest Cup team

GUARANTEED A fifth Heineken Cup in seven years and sixth overall, in three weeks’ time Ireland will draw level with the English as the most prolific winners of European’s blue riband competition, while moving one ahead of the French on five. This is almost getting faintly ridiculous, but either way we should enjoy it while it lasts, because it assuredly won’t last for ever.

Walking away from Stade Chaban-Delmas on Sunday, almost still reeling from the blinding, sun-kissed sea of yellow and bands of blue, and the deafening din throughout, it summed up everything about this competition when a cabal of Clermont fans were singing a word-perfect version of Cockels and Mussels.

Those in yellow who were sauntering around the pedestrian streets and classy architecture of downtown Bordeaux yesterday looked a little beaten in every sense. And as the incessant rain of Saturday returned at lunchtime yesterday, the thought again occurred that the gods had possibly smiled on Leinster. But only in terms of the weather.

The abiding feeling was that the better team had deservedly won, even if it could scarcely have been closer, and given the manner they did so, were they to retain their crown and become European champions for the third time in four years, Leinster truly would have claims to being the greatest Heineken Cup team yet.

It’s not just their handling and generally high skills’ set, the thrilling way they explore and find space – as evidenced by Cian Healy’s try – it’s the character of the team and the way they are prepared to mix it physically if they have to.

While it was a surprise that Clermont opted for the wide-wide running game and high tempo from the off, given it was always going to suit Leinster, this was as much borne out by Leinster’s willingness to engage in toe-to-toe combat with Clermont and ultimately defend their line by whatever means required.

The DVD of the end game could be a template for any under-age team in the world, when you look at the way, say, Jonathan Sexton and Seán O’Brien flew into Jamie Cudmore, or the way Mike Ross and Seán Cronin protected the base of the post from Ti’i Paulo in the penultimate of innumerable drives for the line from inside five metres.

For all the brouhaha over Leo Cullen’s light slap on Lionel Faure (who had held him before then hamming it up) in the first half, it’s also striking to note the punishment meted out on the Leinster skipper. Nathan Hines having done a tap dance on him earlier, in that frenetic end game Julien Bardy launches himself at Cullen with a flying head-butt, before grabbing Cullen around the face.

As for the final, decisive penalty, O’Brien was clearly on his feet when contesting for the ball after Brad Thorn had thrown himself under Vincent Debaty. It was a fair call, even if it was a brave one.

Wayne Barnes was balanced and relatively implacable in the face of an angry Shakespearian mob, and it’s almost to his credit that at one point he didn’t know the score. But the penalty count was still 12-11 to Clermont and the penalty against Jamie Heaslip for coming in from the side, when a ruck hadn’t been formed and he came through the gate, was the first of four in succession for Clermont which set up the home side’s late charge for victory was as bad as any he made.

Revealingly, and not entirely surprisingly, afterwards Nathan Hines admitted that had the game gone to extra-time, Leinster probably would have had more “gas” than Clermont. The fitness and conditioning, and the low injury profile (touch wood) which is commonplace across the provinces and especially under Jason Cowman at Leinster, is extraordinary.

Things can only get better? Looking ahead to next season, unofficially Leinster (now way out of sight at the top of the ERC rankings) and Munster will be top seeds along with Toulouse, Cardiff and Northampton, and Biarritz will join them if they beat Toulon in the Amlin Challenge Cup and thereby qualify. Failing that, Clermont are next best-placed to be a top seed, although Ulster could overtake them if they beat Leinster in the upcoming final.

Looking further down the rankings, there is a very good chance that Connacht will be third seeds. As things stand Exeter, the two Italians sides and up to three possible French qualifiers – Montpellier, Castres and Racing – would all be ranked below Connacht, as indeed might Sale be if they could yet squeeze through from the Premiership.

The only way that Connacht could drop down to a fourth seed, by this column’s calculations, is if Biarritz claimed the seventh French place by winning the Challenge Cup final, and if Stade Francais muscled into the top six in France at the expense of one of the aforementioned trio. (Stade, in seventh, play Racing, two points ahead of them in sixth, next Saturday at Stade de France).

The Cup again runneth over for the IRFU too. Two Irish semi-final wins makes for a total of seven meritocracy payments from the ERC dividend, which at €450,000 equates to a €3.15 million return (and the Union budget for one payment). A third rental of the Aviva this season ensures an additional return of roughly €1.2 million.

There was plenty of encouragement too for the watching Irish coaching ticket in Declan Fitzpatrick’s strong showing on Saturday (in two games after a five-month absence he has probably jumped to Ireland’s second best tighthead) and in the blooding, at this level, of the Irish under-20 outhalf Paddy Jackson.

Yet, allowing for the reminder of what might have been down in Munster, the biggest Irish loser of the week was arguably Ireland. Looking at the weekend’s events and how the season is panning out, the province’s success is again something of a mixed blessing.

Not alone will the core of the Irish team be part of a Leinster demanding effort to retain their Heineken Cup crown against an Ulster with an ever-increasing Irish contingent, they may also have a semi-final and final in the RaboDirect Pro12. The latter could even be against Munster, which would make the ensuing game against the Barbarians three days later next to useless, never mind a brace of all-Irish finals and all those demands.

Aside from heightening the pressure on Declan Kidney and his coaching ticket to translate some of this success into the international sphere, it perhaps also heightens the need for Kidney and co to take a more left-field approach in their squad selection for New Zealand.

But that’s for another day. There’s a little more rugby to be extracted from this 2011-12 season yet.

gthornley@irishtimes.com