RUGBY/European Cup: Munster continued to enjoy their Heineken European Cup triumph yesterday, but today will return to training. A mere end-of-season fixture of relatively little meaning against Cardiff in Thomond Park on Saturday has now assumed an identity all of its own.
In the aftermath of Saturday's triumph, the Munster manager, Jerry Holland, ran into his Cardiff counterpart, Bob Norster, who joked that his team will have great fun in clapping Munster onto the pitch, and then kicking them off it.
But what might otherwise have been an opportunity to rest all or most of the dozen players already pencilled in for the New Zealand/Australia tour, has now become a coronation of sorts into what could well be a full house, particularly with others departing even sooner for the Churchill Cup (development tour).
Viewed in that light, as Holland said yesterday: "We can't go out and get beaten by 30 points. As we've not done any training since Saturday, we'll wait until Wednesday or Thursday to see how fellas feel, in having a chat with them all individually and then make a call. It's helpful at least that the match is on Saturday and not Friday."
Alan Quinlan, eager to fill the last place on the 30-man Test squad which has been earmarked for him, will be keener than most for a game, as might the soon-to-be-retired Rob Henderson. He is the only member of the 22 on duty last Saturday who will not be around next season, which shows the core strength of the frontline squad remains intact.
Anthony Foley was not just being a dutiful captain when he maintained that this could be the start, as well as the completion, of something, and the retention of all bar Henderson of their triumphant squad in the final shows that their strength shouldn't be unduly dimmed.
Nevertheless, there will be a significant exodus from the squad, with Trevor Hogan and Stephen Keogh bound for Leinster, Mike Mullins heading back to New Zealand, Anton Pitout back to South Africa, Frank Murphy heading off to Leicester and fellow scrumhalf Mike Prendergast retires.
And there must be a doubt about Christian Cullen remaining given his injury-cursed, three-year contract comes to an end at the completion of the season.
Cullen's move, alas, through no fault of Munster's or his own professionalism, hasn't worked out, for he was signed to give them some badly needed strike power from distance.
Peter Stringer's try will remain one of the abiding images of Irish rugby, and contributed to a relatively rare day of personal glory for this ultimate team pro.
But, the first score, completed by Trevor Halstead, encapsulated what Munster are all about. For after Anthony Horgan had cleverly tapped down Ronan O'Gara's chip ahead, it was the willingness of Jerry Flannery, Paul O'Connell and Anthony Foley, and then Denis Leamy, Marcus Horan and David Wallace, to punishingly make hard yards which created the go-forward momentum for Halstead to score off O'Gara's pass.
They always made the opposition work for their scores, but as Flannery pointed out afterwards, more often than not they have to work punishingly hard for their own scores. Hence, top of what Holland described as Munster's "wish list" would be a playmaker at 12/13 and a strike finisher at wing cum fullback.
"It's no secret that that's what we've been looking at for a few years and we have been working in the last few weeks at filling some of the vacancies in the squad. A Fijian-type finisher would give us that extra option, but World Cup players are being tied up to longer contracts and they are harder to find."
Holland conceded that having the tag of European champions won't harm their negotiating position, and Munster's triumph was also timely in terms of the new round of negotiating between the respective unions and clubs, especially English and French, to replace the Paris Treaty which has given the tournament such an invaluable period of stability in commercial structure and format.
This is all the more so when one thinks of the recent flexing of pecs by Serge Blanco on behalf of the French clubs and their English counterparts. Blanco's argument that the Celts are taking too big a slice of the European cake now looks risible in the light of Biarritz taking over a mere 3,000 fans (and among them was apparently a fair smattering of Munster supporters). And the argument that English and French clubs dominate the tournament has also been undermined by Munster's triumph.
Hostilities/negotiations resume with an ERC board meeting on June 6th.
English rugby is set for a return to the courts after Premier Rugby threw England's autumn international against New Zealand into doubt.
The controversial extra fixture, announced yesterday for November 5th, has been arranged to celebrate the official opening of Twickenham's south stand and to kick off England's World Cup preparations.
But it has been met with strong opposition from Premier Rugby Limited, the clubs' umbrella body, who believe they are under no obligation to make players available.
Clubs cannot be forced to release players because the game falls outside of the International Rugby Board window.
