Waiting for the Celtic League to catch fire

On the face of things, the Irish provinces would seem to be sitting pretty. Three of them are in the top four of an embryonic Celtic League table, with Leinster leading the chase behind early pacesetters Neath-Swansea Ospreys.

But it's also been a decidedly underwhelming start to the season. Many of the leading lights in the English Premiership aren't firing on all cylinders yet either, with last season's top two in the bottom half of the table. The average number of tries per game is 3.5 in England, only marginally higher than the 3.3 in the Celtic League.

The Sky-led hype of the coverage across the water creates an impression that the rugby is generally being played at a much higher tempo with a greater emphasis on keeping the ball in hand and with greater precision and skill. But that's if you were watching Wasps against Sale a week ago, not Worcester v Bath last Saturday. It's been a decidedly mixed bag.

Even so, for a league with nine Heineken Cup qualifiers in it, the Celtic League hasn't set the pulses racing just yet. And while the impression of the Irish provinces is that they are operating with second-string teams, if the truth be told most of the weekend's participants are relatively experienced campaigners at this level by now.

Alan Gaffney bemoaned the lack of precision in Munster's slightly self-inflicted defeat to Leinster on Saturday. For example, it was surprising to see David Wallace twice over-playing overlaps by running diagonally and cramping Anthony Horgan's space when running straight and releasing earlier might well have set the winger free. Likewise, Shaun Payne's failure to offload to Christian Cullen, one of two spare men on his outside shoulder.

In mitigation, Wallace was making his first appearance of the season and Munster, no less than Leinster - and even the other two provinces to a degree - will inevitably become more familiar with each other and more fluid when the frontliners are gradually bedded in.

By comparison, most of the English sides are nearer full-strength, buttressed as they are by a much higher intake of imported players. The Northampton team which lost at home to Gloucester had only three English players in their starting line-up (which was one more than the previous week). Long-term, what is this doing for English rugby? Likewise the Welsh, whose frontliners have been available to them, yet despite having had better pre-seasons, apart from the Ospreys, they haven't hit the ground running noticeably quicker than their Irish counterparts.

With one eye on the European Cup, the Ospreys' strong start to the season has potentially significant implications for Munster, whom they meet again in the pool stages. Very much an arranged marriage between Neath and Swansea last season, they appear to be a much more unified force this season, with the prospect of moving to a new 20,000 all-seater stadium which they'll share with Swansea City FC on the outskirts of the city clearly generating an excitement and fell-good factor within the set-up.

Indeed, the prospective new stadium was probably part of the enticement in luring the pick of the disbanded Celtic Warriors to the Ospreys - Sonny Parker, Brent Cockbain and, the most prized Warrior of all, young backrower Ryan Jones. The form of ex-Wellington Hurricanes scrumhalf Jason Spice confirms the close-season impression that his signing was quite a coup, and the mercurial Gavin Henson is already being tipped as a putative Lion next summer by an excited Welsh media after accumulating 51 points in three starts.

Their 39-3 thrashing of the Cardiff Blues was tragically overshadowed by the news that their Welsh international lock Brent Cockbain's baby son had died from a brain tumour on Friday night, although the poverty of Cardiff's performance will not have surprised those who saw them stumble to a 9-9 draw against Leinster.

The jury is still out on the Gwent Dragons under their new coach Chris Anderson, the straight-talking Aussie. However, their 15-0 win over Llanelli - the latter's first shut-out in almost 10 years - added to the growing belief in Wales than their standard-bearers of the last five years or so in Europe are a team in decline who have grown old together; an accusation which greatly angers their coach Gareth Jenkins.

In any event, the Celtic League should catch fire this weekend with the first cross-border contest of real note, that between Ulster and the Ospreys at Ravenhill on Saturday. No less than their Celtic counterparts, the Irish teams have been operating in something of an internecine bubble for the past two weekends, and given their slightly patchwork make-up were probably grateful for that.

Leinster have reason to be most satisfied with their start, certainly in terms of results, although their game has been lacking in continuity. Declan Kidney readily conceded in the aftermath of their win over Munster that they are not retaining the ball well enough and need to construct more phases. Aside from the high-profile absentees, both Leinster and Ulster are operating under new coaching regimes, and the prevailing rustiness of the Irish sides is possibly compounded by the need to blood new replacements in key positions. For example, Leinster, Munster and Connacht are all playing with new outhalves, namely David McAllister, Paul Burke and Paul Warwick.

The familiarity and rivalry that come with domestic derbies are also known for curbing ambition, with teams cancelling each other out. It's hard to credit that the six games in the interpros eight years ago produced 35 tries. But perhaps the Celtic League's internecine scramble for European Cup seedings has, for the moment, only stifled ambition. The competition could do with a break from interpros.