Last weekend’s Heineken Cup four timer for Irish provinces was greeted with warmth and excitement here. Leinster have sold over 40,000 tickets for the return game against Northampton on Saturday evening while Connacht Rugby is installing additional seating for what will be a red hot homecoming against Toulouse in Galway.
The negotiation and discussion over the future of the tournament continues in the background with the English RFU saying again yesterday that compromise should be reached for the ‘fans, players and for rugby’, though the Premiership clubs and the Welsh regions remain seemingly set against any participation.
Sometimes it is worth looking through the eyeglass of those who see things differently and it is worth linking here to a piece in Monday’s Daily Telegraph by respected rugby writer Mick Cleary on how he saw last weekend not so much as a triumph but as an example of the ‘poor standard’ that the club game has sunk to.
It is uncomfortable reading for those who soared on Saturday and who spoke of little else in anticipation of this weekend.
“The English clubs will not be missing out on much when they boycott Europe next year.”
“The standard in this season’s competition has been as poor as any in recent memory. There have been few clashes of real thunder, of snarl as well as of style, games that embed themselves in the memory, vie for attention in the mind’s eye with the sort of turbocharged Test matches that have just swamped our sensibilities.”
“Perhaps the rest will do Stuart Lancaster’s boys more good than harm in the run-up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup. There is always a silver lining.”
Read the Full Article here.
Sport for Business is a membership organisation. We help sport reach out to business, and business to engage the power of sport in its management, marketing and values. We publish a free daily news digest on the commercial world of Irish sport, we bring together smart minds in round table and larger formats, and we create initiatives among our members that make a difference.
