Setting New Standards

RICHARD BATH IS AN AWARD-WINNING WRITER BASED IN THE UK.

FOR REASONS THAT AREN’T IMPORTANT, I have cause to speak to Sir Ian McGeechan about rugby on a regular basis.

As you’d expect from a man who has such a storied career as a player and coach, and who has long been viewed as an innovator able to stand alongside men like Carwyn James, Izak van Heerden and Vic Cavanagh, he occasionally expresses some profound thoughts about the game of rugby.

We recently spent the thick end of two hours chatting about Leinster. They are, reckons Geech, comfortably the most innovative side in world rugby at the moment, and possibly in the professional era.

It’s worth mentioning that they have always been fairly successful, having won the Pro14 four times and the European Champions Cup a record-equalling four times.

But recently, their development has been exponential, and has comfortably eclipsed the period up to 2014 in which they won seven major trophies in seven years.

This year it is not just excellence which has seen them dominate, it is innovation which has taken them comfortably away from the chasing pack.

That innovation has also brought results, of course. They recently won the Champions Cup at a canter against Dan Carter’s huge spending Racing 92 and, at the time of writing, having just edged past local rivals Munster, have made it to the Pro14 final in Dublin against a Scarlets side which they thrashed 38-16 barely a month earlier.

Given how close Munster came in the semifinal and how well Racing did against the Irishmen in the Champions Cup final, nothing can be taken for granted.

But then, this Leinster team is so rammed full of guile, wit and confidence that they invariably find a way to win.