Neal Collins rugby
The truth about the most extraordinary finish in the history of European club rugby is out. Gareth Jenkins summed up the finish of the Gloucester 28 Llanelli 27 Heineken Cup clash perfectly: “When a drop goal hits someone on the arse and bounces over, how do you blame yourself for that?”
Up to that point there had been some debate about Elton Moncrieff’s last-gasp winner. Was it Phil Booth’s back or Dafydd Jones’s elbow which helped send the otherwise wayward three-pointer over the bar? In the end, we can reveal it was Booth’s Bum wot won it.
Llanelli coach Jenkins, curiously, launched into the lady formerly known as Madame Fortune, saying: “Mr Luck hasn’t been seen around Stradey Park lately.” You can’t blame Jenkins for gender bending. To lose through a ridiculously deflected drop goal (which was travelling at barely head height until it made contact with Booth’s rubbery posterior) is tough, to lose to Englishmen and face a probable Euro KO makes it almost unbearable.
They asked Moncrieff afterwards if it had been the best drop goal of his life. Being Australian, he didn’t indulge in double talk: “No,” he said, “it was probably my worst. If I’d missed it, I would have been the most hated man in Gloucester. I stood there laughing for a while because I’ve never kicked one that’s deflected off somebody and gone over.”
But the real point (or should that be three points) is this: for the first time in weeks, rugby is a talking point around the bars and pubs. Well, for the first time since England’s three-match winning streak against Australia, Argentina and South Africa anyway.
The European Cup is the only way ahead a European Super 12. Just look how the final eight are shaping up from the six groups with one game to go: we’ve got just two English big guns Leicester and possibly Saracens (Northampton and Wasps are gone, Bath need to score eight tries against Newport on Saturday) plus the best of the French, Scottish and Irish clubs.
Stade Franais look unstoppable, Colomiers and Pau are worth keeping an eye on (but not a close eye given Pau’s reputation as gougers) while Swansea and Cardiff are desperate to do Wales proud.
But it’s the Irish clubs, Leinster and Munster, that fascinate me. Given that so many of their best-paid players are lured into England’s Premier, how exactly can both sides be topping their groups above clubs like Northampton, Bath and Newport?
Munster’s 39-24 win on Saturday came after big-spending Newport, complete with former Springbok captain Gary Teichmann, had taken a 15-point lead. Yet they came storming back to win by a full 15 points despite the pleas of 11 000 Welshmen.
ENDS