Letter of the week

Since our mail box is seldom empty we've decided it's about time to give you a chance to air your views and get published.

Planet Rugby readers are never short of an opinion and our mail box is seldom empty. So, we've decided it's about time to give you a chance to air your views and get published.

Do you have an opinion you'd like to share with the world? Reckon you can express it in a coherent, balanced argument? Well, send it to us! The best letters will get some time in the spotlight.

Please note that the views expressed in readers' letters to not necessarily reflect those of Planet Rugby.

This week's letter comes from Brian Donnelly in Ireland:

“The end game cometh”

Here is a question for you. What was the most significant date in Irish rugby in 2009? I suspect most of you will go for 21st March, the date of the famous Grand Slam victory in Cardiff while the more blue-eyed amongst you may opt for 23rd May when Leinster clinched the Heineken Cup in Murrayfield. Increasingly however, as I watch Ireland stumble through this pre-Rugby World Cup 6 Nations, I am coming to the view that the most significant date in Irish rugby in 2009 was 2nd May. And if you need reminding that was the day Leinster beat Munster comprehensively in the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park.

And why so, well Cardiff marked the end of what I believe we can now call the “Munster-Irish”,era based upon utterly pragmatic, set-piece oriented rugby and where, absolutely deservedly, Kidney/McGahan/O'Gara rugby reached its peak while Croke Park marked the changing of the guard and the dawning of the “Leinster-Irish” era. Since then Cheika/Schimdt/Sexton rugby has been and is utterly dominant in Ireland with Leinster's smarter, sharper, high tempo, offloading rugby holding sway.

And therefore after the Grand Slam, and against the backdrop of IRB rules tinkering, the single greatest challenge for the supreme Munster-Irish operator Declan Kidney, and his highly experienced multi-national coaching team, was to translate the Leinster-Irish philosophy into the Irish team's performances. Alas it is not happening.

You might say this is a matter of opinion but the results as well as the rugby bear me out. Leaving aside the home Autumn series of 2009 when post-Grand Slam euphoria saw Ireland unbeaten we have now experienced 2 very indifferent 6 Nations campaigns which are going to finish, at best, with a pair of 3 and 2 win loss ratios. And add to this home and away matches with southern hemisphere sides that have delivered victories only over Argentina and Samoa and defeats to New Zealand (twice), Australia and South Africa. Hardly significant evolution despite all the management speak of “getting better”.

But the most damning indictment of Kidney's failure came at Murrayfield a couple of weeks ago. In a gesture of the ultimate short-term expediency (and ye gods with the IRFU as his employer his job was hardly on the line) Kidney reverted to type and Munster-Irish rugby. Ronan O'Gara duly delivered but while this might do against Scotland or Italy in the 6 Nations it will absolutely not suffice any further up the competitive greasy pole and already this has come to pass. Neither O'Gara nor Sexton looked comfortable in Cardiff on Saturday last and the team as a whole looked bereft of ideas, low on confidence and self-belief and ultimately resorted to a kicking game that has long been consigned to the bin by the progressive sides in the world, New Zealand, Australia, and, it has to be said, Leinster. And I have not even touched here on Kidney's inability to use a bench effectively or Ireland's discipline problems this season.

And so I believe we have reached the beginning of a long and slow endgame to Kidney's reign, which will conclude with inevitable elimination from and failure to make a significant mark on another Rugby World Cup. The irony might be that Leinster may be acclaimed as the best professional club side in Europe while it happens.