PLANET RUGBY

Gerry Thornleytakes a look at the world of rugby

Club-tied exiles won't be made  pay for missing squad gathering 

THE CONTINUING club-versus-country battle for players is set to provide a minor difficulty for the Ireland management over the next two days as the 41-man national squad assembles in Limerick this morning.

This follows the decision by Premier League Rugby (PRL), the umbrella group for the English Premiership clubs, on Thursday night that the five Irish squad members based in England would be withheld.

This could mean Eoin Reddan, Geordan Murphy, Bob Casey, Mike Ross and Roger Wilson will not be in attendance this morning, though it is believed Reddan had been granted some time off from Wasps in any event and may well show up.

As the players in question were going to be released to return to their clubs on Wednesday, their absence is unlikely to seriously jeopardise their Test hopes.

"Obviously it would be better for a player to have exposure to the coaches," admitted Ireland manager Paul McNaughton. "But I don't believe Declan (Kidney, head coach) and his team are going to make a call on the basis of them missing these two days."

PRL receives significant financial recompense for the release of England players as part of a new accord with the RFU.

"There's probably a bigger agenda here in relation to where the PRL are coming from," observed McNaughton yesterday.

The IRB, at their November council meeting, are set to review Regulation 9 regarding the vexed issue of player release in Test windows.

Ironically, the Ireland management were resigned to being without the Ospreys' Tommy Bowe for the next two days after the Welsh regions had refused to release their players for a Welsh training camp this week, but Bowe will now be in attendance after a high-court judge ruled in favour of the Welsh Rugby Union last Friday that the players be released from their regions for training over the next three days.

The ruling, by Judge Havelock Allan QC, is based on his decision that the WRU has first and last call on the availability of players for training sessions. An application for leave to appeal was refused.

The judge explained that his ruling was binding on the Welsh regions by virtue of the express terms of the Participation Agreement and also by virtue of their membership of the WRU.

The week  in quotes . . .

"Man alive, how does he think he's going to get away with that? That's terrible."

- Setanta co-commentator Liam Toland, on viewing the slo-mo of Ryan Caldwell taking out Denis Hurley, for which he was yellow-carded, and might, as one wag in the press box suggested, have earned a red for stupidity.

"Welsh rugby has right on its side and common sense has prevailed. This is a victory for the fans of Welsh rugby. Wales will face the world champions on November 8th and we have taken this action to ensure they have time to prepare properly for that historic encounter."

- The WRU group chief executive, Roger Lewis, in response to the high-court ruling that Welsh regions must release players for three days this week.

"There'll be moments when we'll be as happy as Larry but we'll also know that there'll be a big truck around the corner."

- The Lions manager, Gerald Davies, preparing himself and everyone else for the inevitably turbulent times ahead next summer in South Africa.

Sun shines at last for Nagusa

WATCHING THE forlorn-looking figure of Timoci Nagusa on his debut in the pouring rain at Ravenhill against Llanelli on the first Friday in September, the thought occurred that the Fijian winger would have been entitled to think, "This isn't what it said in the brochure."

It transpires that Nagusa made much the same point to the Ulster coach Matt Williams: "In Fiji it was 32 degrees. When I came here it was really cold . . . I said, 'Matty, when you gave me the contract, there was no mention of the weather!'"

Nagusa went into Saturday's game against Munster buoyed by his first try, against Harlequins a week ago: "I have been under pressure for the last games to score so I had to get my hands on the ball. I was a lot more confident this week.

"The game against Harlequins was a turning point for me. Everyone was saying to me that I could do better than that so I became more confident . . . I am very happy."

Incredibly, he only took up the game just over a year ago.

"I have told myself I can do much better than this. A lot of my friends have been playing for years and I just came out of the blue and got picked for Fiji. I have been praying for that," says Nagusa, who fasts and prays before every game.

White emphasises leaner, meaner approach to Lions management

A STRIKING feature among the great and the good in the newly unveiled Lions management ticket during the week was the clear desire to rediscover traditional virtues and move away from the grandiose bloatedness of the trek to New Zealand four years ago under Clive Woodward.

Recalling that tour, with its 54 players and roughly 30 back-room staff, the reappointed Lions physical conditioning coach, Craig White, recalled revealingly: "There were two teams of management and nobody got to know each other the last time. There were just too many people, to be honest."

Emphasising that a tighter knit would enable them to build more trust, the one-time Ireland fitness coach added that because of the two separate coaching tickets four years ago "it was difficult to get to know someone, to open your heart to them and build a relationship. I think it was difficult for all the coaches in that group."

Since being let go by Ireland, White has built an impressive CV, working with Wasps when they won the Heineken Cup, three Premiership titles and a European Challenge Cup, and with Leicester when they won the Premiership, reached the Heineken Cup final and won the EDF Cup in the same season, before Warren Gatland recruited him to the Welsh coaching staff. Looks like the IRFU missed a trick there.