Good luck today to our Mexican and Turnipstani friends as they push on for (repeated) European glory in the semi-finals of the European Cup and Challenge Cup respectively.
Under Joe Schmidt Leinster have moved it up notch from the, already impressive, level they were at under Cheika and McQuilkin and now look the most complete club side in the European game.
Somewhat annoying that their expected consolidation as the top club in Europe has totally eclipsed Ulster’s stumbling first steps in their return to the upper echelons of European Rugby but so brutal, powerful and pacy is their game that it’s hard to begrudge our southern cousins their meteoric rise.
It is, however, a rise that leaves us looking on in envy and one that brings to mind that Undertones classic “My Perfect Cousin” with the lyrics,
Always spotless clean and neat
The smoothest you can get them
summing up the silky style of “The Kevin’s” perfectly!
Yep, you can’t help but admire them, there’s a bit of you wants to be them, but after a while, boy oh boy, do they start to annoy!
It doesn’t help that they are packed with the most exciting players in the Irish rugby family and feature the greatest player of this, and many, many, other generations of Irish Rugby in Brian O’Driscoll who really is,
… his country’s pride and joy
His nations little golden boy!
and while they play some lovely rugby they have also to be admired for their hard and ruthless edge that they have developed of late.
There have been more than a few games where Ulster could claim that, “they flicked a kick , and we didn’t know”, but always the most grating aspect of the game was that Ulster were second best as they were bullied out of the game.
That has been the most annoying factor in Ulster’s recent relationship with our perfect cousins, “what we like to do they doesn’t” as they confidently impose their own style on the game.
If Ulster don’t want to be left on the shelf , they’ve got to be more in love with themselves!
I’ve got a cousin called Kevin
He’s sure to go to heaven
Let’s hope Ulster can learn from our Perfect Cousins as they continue to impress!
While our nearest neighbours are on the rise, it’s a bit of a gentle decline for our friends in Turnipstan.
It says so much, of the exceptionally high standards that the Munster men operated at, that a team sitting top of the Magners League and regarded as most likely winners of the Challenge Cup, can be said to be on the decline but it will grate on the proud bogmen that they are playing second fiddle, in their own backyard to, a team playing with a style and panache that they could only aspire to, even when at their pomp!
However Ulster can perhaps learn more from our most distant cousins than from our neighbours as if ever a team made the most of their resources it was the Munster men who constantly punched above their weight with their unstoppable desire to conqueror Europe.
They’ve been there and done that and yet they strive to achieve, and where other teams standards may slip while they look to rebuild, Munster have hung on to their much vaunted status through sheer grit, determination and refusal to admit defeat.
Admirable traits indeed and as Ulster look to enhance their reputation in the Irish family they look no further than their Perfect Cousins for inspiration.
Good luck to both!
Corrections, comments or questions?