All about the parish, people and the province.
The Champions Cup has been kind to the English club sides in the past few seasons but 2017/18 has been the exception. France have four representatives in the quarter finals, Wales have one [Scarlets] and Leinster and Munster are flying the Irish flag.
Saracens are the only Aviva Premiership representative in the last eight and they scraped in as eight seeds. This has led to some hand-wringing about the demands expected of English players, especially those included in the 2017 Lions squad. It has almost been a case of no rest for the talented.
However, it is much more than managed game-time that often plays a part in English sides under-performing or Irish provinces punching above their weight. The issue was excellently tackled by Tomás O’Leary on The Hard Yards podcast [from 14:00 below].
“I played in the Premiership for three years [at London Irish],” O’Leary began. “It’s a tough league but in terms of skill-set and analysis done, I think in Ireland and Wales, is far superior.
“And then you go to France for a year and you get an insight into the lack of preparation that teams have over there for games. It’s mental, really, when you think of the budgets they have an the investments in players. They don’t mirror that with medical staff or in terms of video analysis.”
The other big difference, according to the former Munster and Ireland No.9, is the investment the Irish players have in their provinces.
“People want to grow up and play for their province,” said O’Leary, “whether that’s Leinster, Munster, Ulster or Connacht. There’s an affinity with the fans and a genuine investment with the area. You can’t underestimate all that.”
The Cork native played 157 games for Munster and pointed out the difference between playing at Musgrave or Thomond Park to pitching up at an English ground. He said:
“It was weird going from Munster – a club that had a massive identity – to London Irish, an Irish club playing in Reading. There was no atmosphere at the games.
“The only time I was every in Reading was on the day of the games. Driving up the motorway and straight off then back on the motorway [after the game] and home. I was only in Reading town once, actually, in my three years there. It’s a strange place.”
That investment by players in the club they are playing for has a massive part to play in the success Irish provinces have enjoyed over the past 20 years.
It is, as Anthony Foley once declared, all about pride.
“It’s pride in place, pride in parish, pride in your friends,” he once declared.
“It is understanding who you represent. It’s not just yourself, it is the people connected to you going back to your underage coach, the school you came out of, the parish you came out of. A lot of people are connected toward you and it is how you hold yourself to that. That’s the best you can do.”
