TV VIEW/Philip ReidThere are many bar-stool pundits in this country who think the world of sport revolves around what happens with an oval ball. And, yet, for those who live, eat and die for the game, there's probably an even greater number - many of them sports people, passionate and committed to whatever turns them on - who couldn't care less about the game of rugby.
In fact, there are vast tracts of land - urban (much of Dublin's northside and the satellite towns) and rural - where it is possible to go for miles without sight of a rugby goalpost.
And, if, in this age of professionalism, the very existence of the Connacht rugby team is in danger, you must wonder where the wherewithal to promote the sport in those areas that wouldn't know the difference between the oval ball of rugby to that used in American football is going to come from. And this at a time when, it seems, Irish rugby is flying higher than it has for a long, long time.
The debate over Connacht's future threatened to cast a shadow over the booth occupied by RTÉ's resident rugby experts for the Heineken Cup match between Leinster and Swansea from Donnybrook on Friday evening.
"A gloomy start," opined Tom McGurk in bringing us the latest news of the crisis in Connacht before, seconds later, ensuring us it would be a "wonderful weekend" for rugby. The swift shift in mood could only heighten the belief that much of what happens in rugby centres around Dublin 4 and, certainly, Leinster are on a high and can do very little wrong as far as most television pundits are concerned.
But, then, as we discovered, one of the secrets is that Leinster take pride in what they do. How do we know this? Well, they all have clean boots. Shiny, polished ones. Not like Swansea. Before a ball was kicked, Brent Pope could tell us the Welsh visitors were not up for the game. He knew because they had sauntered out on to the pitch in "dirty boots."
"It's always a sign of a team who have no pride," explained Pope. "People may laugh and say it is insignificant. It's not to me. I looked out the window and saw guys out there with absolutely filthy boots. It (clean boots) always used to be the mark of a side who are together. I guarantee you Leinster will come out and their boots will be shiny."
He was right. They were shiny, and they had pride. Which is why, when it was over, and Leinster - who, according to McGurk, tend to begin a game like a Rolls Royce, in taking "just a little time to start . . . but when they do, wow!" - had walloped Swansea and took another crucial step towards securing a home quarter-final match, Pope was able to lambast the Welshmen as "awful".
The tell-it-as-it-is Kiwi called the Swansea defence "terrible . . . that tackling is a disgrace to rugby. These people call themselves professionals in a once great rugby nation, (but these) guys are flailing their arms."
Indeed, on a weekend of rugby banter on RTÉ, it is unnerving to witness just how accurate the resident pundits can be. Nobody can doubt they know more about the sport than most mortals - certainly more than the bar-stool pundits - but it is the simple things that manage to hit home with most couch potatoes. Yes, like knowing that a team who emerge from a dressing-room with dirty boots aren't up for the job . . . and like knowing that a team that has a prop with a small bum will find it difficult to win in France.
Sorry? No, there weren't pigs flying on Saturday in the chat that ensued in the RTÉ studio far from the blue skies above Perpignan for the European Cup tie involving Munster. Part of the discussion came down to the dimensions of Munster prop Marcus Horan's rear end as George Hook remarked that a prop needed a "big backside."
McGurk, not to be outdone, said it was what the English called "a hairy arse". Hook was nodding, and made the point that Horan didn't have a big enough backside and that he was "liable to be turned over by a strong tighthead".
All of which was sufficient talk to make any non-rugby viewers wonder what on earth they were about to witness on state-funded television although Pope reassured us that it was all jocular talk by wondering if all the props in the country were now looking at themselves with the aid of a mirror.
Seriously, though, there was a feeling of trepidation among the studio guests - Pope, Hook and Ciarán Fitzgerald - that Munster would come unstuck in Perpignan.
When, as Hook observed, Munster had "survived" in the first half, having played into the wind, the half-time mood of the pundits remained reserved.
"There's still a lot of work to do," remarked Pope, who made the point that teams often prefer to play into the wind. He was to be proved right. And, this time, he didn't need dirty boots or a big, hairy backside to prove the point.
