It’s September, and the rugby season has officially started. The provinces are in Magners League action, and the clubs are participating in various competitions throughout the country.
If you watch any of these games you will see the effect of the new rules regarding the ruck, where the tackler or the first player in can contest for the ball prior to a ruck beginning, and then can keep hold of the ball when the ruck forms.
I haven’t played under this law yet, so it is difficult to give my opinion on it. Much will depend on how the referee reads the situation.
On the provincial side, Munster and Leinster both had bad starts to the Magners League, with coaches opting not to play many of their front-line players – although this also gave fringe players a chance to make a name for themselves.
This was a tough week for me in particular, as I was back to work and my routine has changed so I need time for my body to adapt. I have to say Wednesday and Friday were particularly tough as I was in the gym in the morning, then to work all day, and then training that night. I imagine once I’m back at it a while I will be fine, but until then I’ll just have to grin and bear it.
At Leinster, the squad was cut last Friday from 38 to 28. It must have been tough on the coaches, and there were some tight calls between certain players. While it is also hard on those players not selected, it’s great that there is such strength and depth in the squad.
All players that didn’t make the final squad must still continue the fitness programme, as they will be brought on in case of an injury. I’m a firm believer that if you don’t get selected for a main squad, it must make you want to be part of it even more. Once you get over the initial sense of upset or annoyance, you have to get back training and push even harder.
Club training at UL Bohs hasn’t been going as well; we’ve had two cancellations lately due to bad weather and flooded pitches. The season is beginning earlier this year and this makes it difficult for us anyway, as we are a team with strong links to the University of Limerick and a number of students are still not back from summer holidays yet. While other teams have been training for the past two months, we have had just two sessions.
I think we will struggle in cohesiveness for the first few games, but hopefully our experience will pull us through. The first game is on Sunday 13 September against Highfield – a difficult team to play against as they are normally well drilled.
There has been some negative press surrounding rugby in recent weeks with regards to ‘Bloodgate’ – the controversy surrounding London club Harlequins, who are accused of faking a blood injury to bring a player back on to try and win the game against Leinster in the Heineken Cup quarterfinal.
Personally, I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. I am not trying to justify what happened, but it is not happening in every match and I would say it was pretty much an isolated incident that the press went to town on. Thankfully Leinster won the match in question, because I don’t know what would have happened if Harlequins had gone ahead in the tournament.
I’m not sure if it’s naivety or what, but no team I’ve ever been involved with has been encouraged to break any laws of the game, even though we all push the laws to the limit. I think it comes down to a question of morals and sportsmanship. Hopefully with this incident being made an example to others, it will weed out any similar ideas that might be lurking in the game.
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
