THE HERALD REPORTS

Tough talk beckons over future for Celtic sides

KEVIN FERRIE November 20 2007
Magners League officials will meet this week to begin discussions on how to make the tournament more competitive with the introduction of end-of-season play-offs high on the agenda.

Since the World Cup there has been a growing realisation in all three Celtic countries that pampering leading players has been counter-productive in terms of preparing them for pan-European and international rugby.

Thursday's meeting will be the Celtic Rugby Board's first since the event in which Ireland and Wales were knocked out after the pool stages, leaving Scotland as the three nations' lone representatives in the quarter-finals.

Since then there has been much attention paid to how England and France, whose domestic competitions are much tougher and more cut-throat, out-performed their Six Nations rivals.

David Jordan, the Magners League tournament director, is expecting a change of tone from some quarters when the representatives convene. "I think issues such as the intensity of the competition and the structure of the competition will be under discussion with a view to taking it forward to another stage," he said.

"What we have achieved particularly since Magners came on board as title sponsors has been to significantly raise the profile and the stature of the tournament. That, however, has in turn raised expectations of our teams to compete against those from other countries."

Instead, there has been a significant drop off so far this season, with just five wins registered by Celtic teams in 18 matches played in the first two rounds of the Heineken Cup, just 18 months after Munster's apparent breakthrough when they lifted the trophy in 2006.

"Last year our teams won seven of their eight first round matches so it could be there has been a bit of a hangover from the rugby World Cup.

It's hard to put a finger on it," Jordan said. "However, we ought to be looking ahead to see what steps we need to take to further our individual and collective goals."

He added: "I think there's a realisation that perhaps wrapping players in cotton wool is not the way to do it.

"Another example of that is New Zealand's performance at the rugby World Cup after players had been taken out of domestic competition for a year. Tournaments like the rugby World Cup are about winning, not playing style, so it is about how you learn that and many would say it is through playing intense matches."

It was perhaps also significant that while the All Blacks were being protected by their management through this World Cup year, it was the South Africans who got it right, getting two teams into the Super 14 final for the first time before winning the World Cup.

With that in mind, the Magners League looks set to look at devices such as end-of-season play-offs and opening up European qualification so that individual countries do not have guaranteed numbers of places.

Jordan was not prepared to discuss the detail of any proposals that might be put forward. But he did indicate that while it is within the jurisdiction of the Celtic Rugby Board to introduce play-offs - albeit such a decision would have to be unanimous - it would be down to the three individual countries to sort out whether they were prepared to make changes to their rights to places in the Heineken Cup.

"Each country has been doing its own review since Rugby World Cup and it will be interesting to see how that affects discussions," said the tournament director.

"The Celtic Rugby Board certainly does not in any way try to dictate to individual unions how to run their business. I understand that there has, though, been a softening of positions regarding certain questions."

In the past the Welsh have been opposed to end of season play-offs because they believed their season was too congested, partly because of the Anglo-Welsh Cup they squeezed into the schedule just after the league's title sponsors were brought on board last year.

Yet there seems an acceptance that the sponsors as well as spectators are due greater respect in terms of the quality of teams in the Magners League.

This article was originally posted on 20-Nov-2007, 08:37 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 20-Nov-2007, 08:42.