FEW THOUGHT it likely last October that two Irish teams would compete for a European sports title in an English stadium eight months later.
But this afternoon Leinster and Ulster make Irish and European sporting history. For 80 minutes in one small corner of a foreign rugby field at Twickenham, the winning team will take not one but two titles: official champions of Europe and undisputed champions of all Ireland. Over 80,000, mainly Irish supporters, will attend the game. Few competitions in sport have produced more memorable sporting moments, or provided many more tales of the unexpected, than the Heineken Cup. Who can forget last year's final, and Leinster's dramatic second-half recovery to beat Northampton? This afternoon's game promises to be another in the great tradition of epic Heineken Cup encounters.
For both teams, the challenge is clear. For Leinster, it is to achieve what few other teams have managed, back-to-back victories, and so become European champions for the third time, surpassing Munster's record of two cup wins in this competition. For Ulster, the trail-blazing province that last won the European cup in 1999, the challenge is to defy the betting odds, and win the title again in 2012. The dying wish of a great American football coach, George Gipp, "to win one for the Gipper" has often been invoked in sport, and frequently used in politics by Ronald Reagan. The Ulster team, whose coach Brian McLaughlin leaves his post despite his remarkable success in guiding his team to the final, will be strongly motivated to win this one for him.
Irish rugby has much to celebrate. After today, an Irish club will have won the European title no fewer than five times since 2006, despite smaller budgets than some of their club rivals in England and France. This remarkable record of achievement has evoked a mixed reaction: admiration tinged with envy, and now pressure for change. The critics - mainly French and English clubs - point to an Irish monopoly grip on the European cup, and cite today's all-Irish final to bolster their claim. An English proposal to alter the format of the competition - if accepted - would mean no place for Italian sides in the Heineken Cup. A European cup with reduced European participation would be much diminished and should not be accepted. The Heineken Cup has, from modest beginnings in 1995, become the fastest growing rugby tournament in the world. Why change this winning formula?