Timing is perhaps the most underestimated skill in sport. Even the most talented player or coach in the world can misread the moment and instantly look silly. But do the right thing at just the right time, as the brilliant Antoine Dupont consistently did on Saturday, and life swiftly enters a whole new dimension.
Sure enough, the stats confirmed Dupont racked up five try assists in Toulouse’s 54-20 Champions Cup quarter-final win over Sharks, in addition to the three tries he helped engineer in the round of 16. No one else last weekend managed more than one. But what really set Dupont apart was his feel for the contest, allied to his speed of thought. A clever change of pace here, a sublime offload there; it was like watching a magician running through a whole repertoire of deft card tricks.
In his own understated way, Leinster’s Garry Ringrose was equally impressive against Leicester. People tend to assume they know what Ringrose can offer: quiet assurance, unselfish excellence, outstanding defence. At the Aviva Stadium on Good Friday he ascended to another level entirely, producing the best centre display in a European season that has witnessed some fine performances.
It wasn’t just the scalpel-sharp two tries and expertly selected pass that set up Jamison Gibson-Park’s killer try in the second half. It was more that Leicester’s midfield could not even get close enough to touch the hem of his garment. He was simultaneously everywhere and then – whoosh – nowhere to be seen. If you were selecting a British & Irish Lions Test team this summer, he would be one of the first names on the team sheet.
Maybe that was why Richard Wigglesworth’s timing jarred slightly on Friday evening as he sat in the tiered auditorium in the bowels of the Aviva and told us Leinster’s superiority boiled down to money. “They are an outstanding team with quality internationals and quality coaches that have been together a long time,” he said. “None of that is in question, but the gulf is in what you have available to spend. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. I’m not asking to spend more money. I’m just being clear.”
To many ears, particularly Irish ones, it sounded like unnecessarily sour grapes. Leinster’s Leo Cullen was less than impressed, stressing at length how much planning and hard work it has taken to elevate them to their lofty status. Yes, the Irish province have an enviable schools feeder system, centrally contracted stars, a huge catchment area and a shedload of Test-quality talent. Cullen, though, can remember when he and his teammates were choking on the fumes of neighbours Ulster and Munster. “It is not just by accident,” he said, recalling the days when Leinster were regarded as a relatively soft metropolitan touch.
He is right. Leinster have a head start when it comes to retaining their best international players, but, equally, they have done a great job of polishing their own homegrown diamonds. So, too, have Toulouse. When Ringrose and Dupont face each other in a potentially epic semi-final on 29 April they will be doing so surrounded not by platoons of imports, but primarily locally reared products. For Hugo Keenan and Jimmy O’Brien read Romain Ntamack and Thomas Ramos. And so on.
Dillon Lewis is the latest casualty of the financial uncertainty in Welsh rugby after it was confirmed that he will join Harlequins next season.
Lewis won his 50th cap during the recent Six Nations and will still be available for Warren Gatland’s side after the restriction on selecting players outside Wales was dropped from 60 to 25 appearances.
The 27-year-old Cardiff tighthead prop will replace South Africa international Wilco Louw, who is returning home at the end of the season.
“I’m over the moon to have signed and can’t wait to get going in the summer. I am looking forward to meeting the boys and playing at The Stoop,” Lewis said. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to work with Adam Jones and the likes of Joe Marler and Will Collier. I have big aspirations to improve as a player.”
So when Wigglesworth suggests money is at the heart of the gulf between the Premiership and the best Irish and French clubs he is parroting a line that is only partly true. Given his involvement with Saracens during the salary cap saga, there are also those who consider it slightly, er, rich of him to be complaining about financial inequality now the boot is on the other foot. Unsurprisingly, Leicester ’s’ website omitted those remarks from its match summary; the Tigers’ chief executive, Andrea Pinchen, is among those adamant the proposed rise in the Premiership’s salary cap should be abandoned.
Wigglesworth, furthermore, is about to commence a new job with England where recruiting top southern hemisphere talent such as Julian Montoya, Jasper Wiese or Handré Pollard will not be an option. It is another reason why he might have been wiser simply to count to 10, praise Ringrose, O’Brien and Keenan to the Dublin skies and instead look closer to home for the reasons why Leicester finished such a distant second.
Why, for example, with Leinster down to 14 players and Caelan Doris in the sin bin, was Jack van Poortvliet, England’s starting scrum-half, putting up fruitless box kicks? Why were Leicester collectively not trying for more proactive ways to change the game? As the past weekend has underlined, rugby union’s tactical emphasis is shifting. Sides who sit back and await opposition mistakes are increasingly being exposed by high-tempo, quick-thinking teams with the ability to alter the point of attack.
For the latest example, look no further than Exeter. For a while they played so much to their short-range rolling maul strengths that they struggled to express themselves in other ways. Now, with the French-bound Simmonds brothers back in business, greater tactical variation and renewed zest out wide, they have scored a total of 11 tries against the reigning Top 14 and URC champions inside seven eye-catching days.
Maybe a semi-final against La Rochelle in Bordeaux will prove too much, with a daunting final against Leinster or Toulouse awaiting the winners. The days of Premiership sides hoisting European titles may, for now, be suspended. But let’s be honest: if splashing the cash was the primary route to rugby glory where have Bath and Bristol been this past decade? English rugby needs to get real: what you pay does not always define how well you play.
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