LEINSTER… 43
SALE SHARKS… 13
There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer takes the hump because half of Springfield gets a new phone prefix. More than that, the main man has a theory – which proves to be correct – that only those from the rich side of the town get the new fancy numbers.
Scorned by being on the wrong side of the tracks, as it were, Homer recruits The Who to play in the ‘other’ half of Springfield until, almost inevitably, they get tempted to the other side.
Yes, I know, I can hear ye already, ‘What the hell has all that got to do with Leinster’s win over Sale’? Well, quite simply, as a light hearted illustration of just how quickly the popularity of things or indeed people can oscillate and/or dissipate.
Remember, it’s not all that long ago that it was considered there was only a toss of a coin between Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast as to who should have possession of the pivotal No. 10 jersey on the Irish rugby team which would go on to lift the Triple Crown.
Fast forward just a few short weeks and the reality is that Prendergast didn’t even make the Leinster 23 for Saturday’s win over the English Sharks. Why that is the case is particularly hard to fathom. Especially in view of the fact that Ciaran Frawley is headed out the door and into the West for next season.
However, having said all of the above, circumstance has worked out in such a manner that there’s a valid case to be made for Harry Byrne to be, at the very least, the backup fly half to Crowley in the Irish setup. Either that or Prendergast is being ridiculously hard done by at ‘club’ and international level.
What can be said is that Byrne – whose brother Ross was let go far too easily by the blue province – is well up to the melting pot of top tier competition and becoming ever more so.
Here, where he faced off against one of the proven best in the business in George Ford but it was Byrne who commanded the ball like a cat with a ball of string. With the result that, once the imperious Hugo Keenan got to grips with Ford’s aerial spiral bombs, Leo Cullen’s charges went about marching into another semi final in a very business-like fashion.
Which makes the fact that they were only 7-3 up at the midway point all the more astonishing. Mind you, it wouldn’t take a massive leap to imagine the Leinster players miffed by that fact themselves.
Hence why they cut loose after half time and tacked on a further 36 points via tries from Ryan Baird, Dan Sheehan, Keenan, Rieko Ioane, Tommie O’Brien and Jamie Osborne with Byrne’s boot garnishing the lot.
There’s no doubt Ireland’s remaining representatives could be in a bit of a pickle in relation to resources with both Tadhg Furlong and Alex Usanov (on European debut) picking up nasty looking knocks.
Looking at the bigger picture, it seems somewhat surprising (to me at least) that, with Jamieson Gibson-Park getting on and Luke McGrath on his way to Perpignan at the end of the season, that they haven’t gone recruiting for the other half of their half back line.
Regardless of all that though, they should still have enough in hand to be reunited with an old friend in a few weeks time.
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