There's a big weekend ahead for Leinster and Munster
© PA
|
Gerry Thornley looks ahead to an interesting weekend in Europe for the Irish provinces, and wonders if the bar has been set too high, in The Irish Times.
"So, make or break time again. Three wins out of five in the Six Nations, and just two defeats in eight Tests, along with three Irish quarter-finalists in Europe and two contenders for the Magners League play-offs cannot be deemed a bad season. But, because the bar has been set so high – last season especially – were Irish interest in Europe to end this weekend it might seem an anti-climactic end to a disappointing campaign.
"That will apply to the players as well as the supporters. Victories this weekend would go some way to soothing the disappointment of the defeat to Scotland, especially. This would even help sustain interest in the intriguing run-in to the league (including Connacht’s hard chase of Ulster for the automatic Heineken Cup place) if Leinster, Munster and Connacht could sustain their involvement in the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup for another three weeks.
"Helpfully, all three secured home advantage, and much has been made of the preponderance of home wins at this stage of the Heineken Cup, with 39 of 52 quarter-finals being won by the home side. However, while there were only two away wins in the first five years of this format (ie, 18 home wins to two away wins) in the last eight seasons there have been 11 away wins – including at least one each year."
RSS feed
