Leinster Rugby completed the miracle year for Irish Rugby by adding the Guinness PRO14 Title to their own European Champions’ Cup and Ireland’s Nat West 6 Nations Grand Slam on Saturday and did so in style putting up 40 points once more on Scarlets.
Eight of the starting 15 were under the age of 25, seven of the Irish internationals, painting a bright future for the province.
It has been a tough run through the last two weeks with two Finals and the semi-final against Munster squeezed into the space of fifteen days and the depth of squad has been a key factor. With 55 players on the books, that does give Leinster an advantage among the home provinces but in a sport where millions have been poured into clubs across England and France, and with the strength of South Africa to compete against now in the PRO14, that is perhaps now an essential.
The end of the season marks the start of a busy period for the backroom team. While bank Of Ireland’s main support is signed up to 2023, there will be a major launch of the new kit deal with Adidas this summer.
In Saturday’s Final, the team took to the field for the last time wearing a Canterbury shirt. It still displayed just the three stars of European glory as opposed to the fourth but we were told yesterday that this was down to a focus on the Guinness PRO14 and not wanting to detract from the importance of that.
Rest assured the first Adidas kit will be fully adorned with a fourth star but there is merit in highlighting the PRO14.
As we discovered in last week’s in-depth interview with PRO14 Rugby Commercial and Marketing Director Dermot Rigley, the tournament is going from strength to strength. Every match in it for the next three years will be televised live and broadcast revenues have doubled in the latest deal.
The expansion to South Africa has been a success with more yet to come and while the glory days of the Champions’ Cup will still stand out for many fans, the week in, week out action of the domestic League event gets ever stronger.
Leinster will also be foursquare beside the RDS as they set off down the road of securing Government money from the major sports infrastructural fund of €50 million which is expected to open for applications in the coming weeks.
Saturday’s attendance of 46,092 was a record for the competition and with exciting plans for next year’s final ready to be announced shortly, both team and tournament can take a moment to savour the win before getting back to the business of winning.
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