Rugby

Gerry Thornley: Cooney shows merit of move between provinces

Former Leinster and Connacht scrumhalf has thrived given opportunity at Ulster

Ulster’s John Cooney scores his side’s fifth try against Harlequins. He amassed a personal tallly of 27 points in the victory. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Gerry Thornley's face
Gerry Thornley
Tue Dec 19 2017 - 06:00

So Irish teams completed eight wins from eight in the back-to-back rounds for the first time in 19 years of this pool format, and also completed clean sweeps on successive weekends for the first time ever. That will do, and sets up the interpro mid-season nicely.

The net effect is to leave Leinster and Munster very well placed to reach the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup. Leinster’s strength in depth, sprinkling of world-class quality, cussedness and ability to win in different ways makes them real contenders again, and so too Munster’s mix of similar ingredients, including an increasing strength in depth of their own, all the more so in what appears to be a particularly open competition.

Meanwhile Ulster are still very much in contention, albeit one senses they may still need to win both their remaining games at home to La Rochelle and away to Wasps.

As for Connacht, two more wins away to Worcester and at home to Oyannax would guarantee a home quarter-final in the European Challenge Cup, and one win may well be sufficient.

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In a good weekend overall for the Pro14 – bar Glasgow – the Ospreys and the Scarlets completed doubles to remain alive.

By contrast, following on from the Premiership’s historic blank in round three, when all seven of their clubs were defeated, there were another five defeats over the weekend, redeemed only by Bath and Wasps beating Toulon and La Rochelle at home.

That Leinster and Munster are again contenders should not be that surprising, given their rich Euro pedigree and the way they revived themselves last season in reaching the semi-finals.

Yet it’s only two seasons ago since there were no Irish sides in the knockout stages for the first time since 1997-98, and no Celtic sides for the first time ever. The Anglo-French carve-up, comprising of five Premiership and three Top 14 sides, prompted talk of this being the new order which, of course, merely underlines that any one European season is only a snapshot, not a trend.

Usual suspects

Besides, while Harlequins, Northampton and Leicester have seen their goose cooked before Christmas, Wasps, Bath and Saracens are still very much alive. Realistically, Saracens will have to take the back door into the last eight, and they face a point of no return away to the Ospreys in round five.

But wins away to the Ospreys and at home to Northampton should suffice for them to qualify as one of the three best runners-up. And come the end of April, the last opponents any team with home advantage in the quarter-finals would want are Saracens.

The French have consistently provided three quarter-finalists in each of the last five seasons. With Clermont and La Rochelle atop their pools, and Toulon, Racing and Montpellier still in the mix, they’re well placed to achieve a similar representation.

La Rochelle perhaps finally showed their inexperience in Europe when opting to make eight changes for their return meeting with a Wasps side fighting for their lives. Except for the usual suspects sometimes French sides just don’t get the European Champions Cup, or at any rate it takes them a while. It’s something Clermont and Toulon would never do now.

La Rochelle are away to eighth-placed Bordeaux Begles on Saturday in the Top 14 but so what? By coming away empty-handed from their game against Wasps, they have put themselves under pressure in advance of their trek to Ulster in round five.

At least Ulster will have Christian Leali'ifano for their final two pool games before he heads back to the Brumbies. The Australian has been such as astute signing and in Friday's entertaining joust with Harlequins, carefree and swinging from the hip, he demonstrated his rich variety of inventive kicks as well as his zippy passing. He even eclipsed John Cooney as Man of the Match despite the latter helping himself to a haul of 27 points.

Cooney has arguably been the signing of the season so far. Ulster fans were understandably up in arms about the IRFU’s insistence that Ruan Pienaar had to move on, thus obliging Ulster to finally develop an indigenous scrumhalf. When this was followed by news that they were effectively replacing him with a Leinster developed player who had mostly been Kieran Marmion’s understudy at Connacht, one imagines they were not swinging from the chandeliers.

It was a brave move by Cooney, who was immediately under the spotlight. At 27, he has made the absolute most of this opportunity. His decision-making, general game management and passing have benefitted from his first real extended run at this level, and then there’s his goal-kicking and ability to occasionally fill in at outhalf. Straight out of the Pienaar manual.

So it was that Cooney was called into the two-day Irish camp yesterday and today by Joe Schmidt, meaning that there were four indigenous scrum-halves in the squad.

The IRFU's high performance director, David Nucifora, can also afford himself a wry smile when reflecting on the furore over Pienaar's departure and Cooney's performance levels at Ulster. Ironically, Munster's chief harvester of points over the weekend was also a product of the Leinster schools/club/academy system who cut his teeth at Connacht.

Of course, considering Gaelic games and the way the parish/club/county is ingrained in Ireland’s sporting DNA, the extent to which the provinces might lose some of their identity by too much crossover is a debate for another day. As is Ulster’s development from within in recent years.

But Cooney’s impressive transition adds to the overwhelming evidence that there’s merit aplenty in some traffic between the provinces.

gthornley@iristhimes.com

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