THE HEAT IS rising in France, and Leinster land in Clermont at the back end of an interesting week.
On Tuesday, news broke that a number of French supermarket chains were affected by an unprecedented cyberattack which caused refrigerator temperatures to surge, spoiling food supplies across the country.
Catering hopefully won’t be a concern for Leinster as the province prepare to launch their latest Champions Cup quest at the Stade Marcel-Michelin today [KO 3.15pm, Premier Sports 2].
The supermarket hack was big news, but one story has dominated the French media over the last couple of weeks, as high school students have led mass protests across the country.
Most of the focus has been on Paris, but the movement has also been bubbling away in Clermont. On Sunday, more than 10,000 packed into the city’s Zenith Arena to attend a rally for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of far-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) and a four-time presidential candidate.
Clermont-Ferrand has traditionally been a place of strong support for the French Socialist Party, but in March’s local elections, the country’s main conservative party landed a symbolic victory in the area, a development sufficiently significant to make national news.
Against that backdrop, Mélenchon arrived to try to win back some of those swaying voters, using his address to show support for the strikers, who held a major day of protest on Tuesday. At the time of writing, there is no notable disruption planned for the weekend, so travelling Leinster fans should be able to make the most of their visit.
And if this is to be Leinster’s year, it’s perhaps fitting it begins here.
Start at Clermont-Ferrand’s main tourist attraction, the imposing Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, built entirely of black lava stone, and you’ll stroll to the Stade Marcel-Michelin in half an hour. There was a time Leinster supporters knew that walk well, but that was a different era for both clubs, and indeed, for the European Cup.
This Clermont Auvergne are a shadow of the Clermont Auvergne who won two Top 14 titles in the 2010s while reaching three Champions Cup finals and winning two Challenge Cups.
Leo Cullen playing against Clermont in 2012. Billy Stickland / INPHO
Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO
The club’s last Bouclier arrived in 2017. Across the six full seasons coming out of the Covid pandemic, their highest finish in the table has been fifth, reaching the quarter-finals twice.
Europe has been more of a slog. Franck Azéma led Clermont to the 2017 Champions Cup final, where they were beaten by Saracens. They went to the quarter-finals in three of the next four years (beaten by French opposition on each occasion), followed by two pool stage exits, two round of 16 finishes, one season of Challenge Cup and last year, a sixth-place, zero-point finish in a pool which contained Glasgow, Toulouse, Sale, Saracens and the Sharks.
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Leinster haven’t experienced the same fall from grace, having won back-to-back URC titles over the last two seasons, but in Europe, they have become the nearly-men. In the last six years, Leo Cullen has led the province to four finals and two semi-finals. That’s a remarkable record, but one undoubtedly tainted by the failure to get over the line.
And remembering those great Leinster v Clermont tussles, it’s remarkable to think Cullen is the only one of Leinster’s travelling party to have laced his boots at the Marcel-Michelin – with their most recent visit a 20-13 pool loss in December 2012, a result which ended Leinster’s 17-game unbeaten run in the competition.
There have been years when the expectation around Leinster has felt suffocating, but increasingly there has been a sense the big French beasts, namely Bordeaux and Toulouse, are galloping clear at a rate the chasing pack will struggle to keep pace with.
That’s a problem for later in the season. For now, Leinster just need to get through the pool stages while giving themselves the best possible seeding.
They arrive in France heavily stacked, if a little light on game time. Senior coach Jacques Nienaber has admitted the group might not be “rugby-ready” for their first European fixture, with most of the internationals only returning for last weekend’s win against Cardiff having sat out the two opening defeats in South Africa.
Joey Cabery is set to make his second debut for the province. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
Yet Joey Carbery is the only member of the 23 coming in cold, as he prepares to make his second debut for the province. With Jamison Gibson-Park still sidelined, it’s a massive opportunity for Fintan Gunne, who has looked sharp in the Ireland scrum-half’s absence, and 22-year-old Oliver Coffey, who covers the position off the bench.
Cullen will hope last weekend’s run-out was enough to shake off the cobwebs. He’d love to see a similarly fast start, without the elongated scoreless period which followed.
Clermont, six games into the new Top 14 campaign, have more rugby in their legs, but with only two wins, they sit 11th in the table, having lost at home to Bordeaux last weekend. Set-piece remains a strength, as do half-back pair Harry Plummer and Baptiste Janueau, who captains from nine. They finished seventh in last year’s Top 14 and operate with a healthy budget of €38.2 million, the seventh-biggest in the league.
Yet read the French press and the focus has been on the frustrations bubbling away behind the scenes. The issues on the pitch are glaring ones, head coach Christophe Urios lamenting an ongoing lack of accuracy in the 22 and a porous defence.
Clermont head coach Christophe Urios. Dave Winter / INPHO
Dave Winter / INPHO / INPHO
This weekend also marks the 10th anniversary of Anthony Foley’s passing. The date is etched in the memory of Nienaber. The South African was part of the Munster coaching team when Foley died in Paris on 16 October 2016, Nienaber’s birthday.
“The last message Axel had to the (Munster) squad was, you create your own reality. That’s probably something that I took into my career,” Nienaber told reporters earlier this week.
“Like, listen, whatever you say it’s going to be, it’s going to be. If you say you’re not going to make it, you’re not going to make it. If you say you’re going to make it, you’re going to make it.
“So you create your own reality, whatever that is.”
A strong mantra for any club with dreams of achieving something special this season.
Many coaches could feel beaten by all the heartbreak, and while the pressure appeared to be affecting Cullen last season, he tends to approach these campaigns with renewed enthusiasm.
Developing young players remains one of his great strengths, and the Leinster production line is a source of huge pride for a coach who has been part of every single one of the club’s European successes.
As such, he loved watching another long-running sporting journey reach its dream conclusion this summer, sitting in the Croke Park stands as the Mayo footballers finally captured Sam Maguire.
There were many seasons in which Mayo had looked better-placed to climb their Everest, but Cullen would be the first to tell you that’s not how sport works.
“Nobody was tipping Mayo to do it, nobody,” says Cullen.
“Kerry had a decent lead, but then you’re in the ground, and it was quite a strong breeze, so they can keep it close at half-time, they might have a chance here, which they did, and then you see some young guys…
“That was the great thing, I was trying to get that message across to our young players, they have to just grasp it, and that was the thing about when we were in South Africa, it was younger players against more experienced guys, but it was there for us, but we couldn’t quite grasp it, which annoyed me really.
“That was the beauty of the Mayo victory, because it was predominantly younger players really grasping it on the big day, and you’re never sure how they respond on the big day, but that was the thing I really enjoyed, because we’re in the business of bringing young players through as well, so you want them to get it now, so don’t wait around, just take it now.
“We can all be a bit too respectful I think of our elders and all the rest, but that’s what I loved about that game, not so much about the (end of the) curse, but the emotion through the Hill and the singing.
“When you have a fan base and then you get the momentum, and then it’s like it becomes this unstoppable force, so it’s performance, the crowd, the pressure on the opposition, it’s the whole thing, isn’t it?
“So, hopefully you don’t wait for whatever length of time, 75 years, but it was a cool thing to witness. Afterwards, the final whistle goes, and they’re all going berserk, on the Hill especially, pretty excited, weren’t they? Flares going off, but that’s the beauty of sport.
“That’s what you guys want to report on, isn’t it? Magic. The good stuff.”
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Leinster seek Champions Cup 'magic' as latest European quest starts on familiar ground
THE HEAT IS rising in France, and Leinster land in Clermont at the back end of an interesting week.
On Tuesday, news broke that a number of French supermarket chains were affected by an unprecedented cyberattack which caused refrigerator temperatures to surge, spoiling food supplies across the country.
Catering hopefully won’t be a concern for Leinster as the province prepare to launch their latest Champions Cup quest at the Stade Marcel-Michelin today [KO 3.15pm, Premier Sports 2].
The supermarket hack was big news, but one story has dominated the French media over the last couple of weeks, as high school students have led mass protests across the country.
Most of the focus has been on Paris, but the movement has also been bubbling away in Clermont. On Sunday, more than 10,000 packed into the city’s Zenith Arena to attend a rally for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of far-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) and a four-time presidential candidate.
Clermont-Ferrand has traditionally been a place of strong support for the French Socialist Party, but in March’s local elections, the country’s main conservative party landed a symbolic victory in the area, a development sufficiently significant to make national news.
Against that backdrop, Mélenchon arrived to try to win back some of those swaying voters, using his address to show support for the strikers, who held a major day of protest on Tuesday. At the time of writing, there is no notable disruption planned for the weekend, so travelling Leinster fans should be able to make the most of their visit.
And if this is to be Leinster’s year, it’s perhaps fitting it begins here.
Start at Clermont-Ferrand’s main tourist attraction, the imposing Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, built entirely of black lava stone, and you’ll stroll to the Stade Marcel-Michelin in half an hour. There was a time Leinster supporters knew that walk well, but that was a different era for both clubs, and indeed, for the European Cup.
This Clermont Auvergne are a shadow of the Clermont Auvergne who won two Top 14 titles in the 2010s while reaching three Champions Cup finals and winning two Challenge Cups.
The club’s last Bouclier arrived in 2017. Across the six full seasons coming out of the Covid pandemic, their highest finish in the table has been fifth, reaching the quarter-finals twice.
Europe has been more of a slog. Franck Azéma led Clermont to the 2017 Champions Cup final, where they were beaten by Saracens. They went to the quarter-finals in three of the next four years (beaten by French opposition on each occasion), followed by two pool stage exits, two round of 16 finishes, one season of Challenge Cup and last year, a sixth-place, zero-point finish in a pool which contained Glasgow, Toulouse, Sale, Saracens and the Sharks.
Leinster haven’t experienced the same fall from grace, having won back-to-back URC titles over the last two seasons, but in Europe, they have become the nearly-men. In the last six years, Leo Cullen has led the province to four finals and two semi-finals. That’s a remarkable record, but one undoubtedly tainted by the failure to get over the line.
And remembering those great Leinster v Clermont tussles, it’s remarkable to think Cullen is the only one of Leinster’s travelling party to have laced his boots at the Marcel-Michelin – with their most recent visit a 20-13 pool loss in December 2012, a result which ended Leinster’s 17-game unbeaten run in the competition.
There have been years when the expectation around Leinster has felt suffocating, but increasingly there has been a sense the big French beasts, namely Bordeaux and Toulouse, are galloping clear at a rate the chasing pack will struggle to keep pace with.
That’s a problem for later in the season. For now, Leinster just need to get through the pool stages while giving themselves the best possible seeding.
They arrive in France heavily stacked, if a little light on game time. Senior coach Jacques Nienaber has admitted the group might not be “rugby-ready” for their first European fixture, with most of the internationals only returning for last weekend’s win against Cardiff having sat out the two opening defeats in South Africa.
Yet Joey Carbery is the only member of the 23 coming in cold, as he prepares to make his second debut for the province. With Jamison Gibson-Park still sidelined, it’s a massive opportunity for Fintan Gunne, who has looked sharp in the Ireland scrum-half’s absence, and 22-year-old Oliver Coffey, who covers the position off the bench.
Cullen will hope last weekend’s run-out was enough to shake off the cobwebs. He’d love to see a similarly fast start, without the elongated scoreless period which followed.
Clermont, six games into the new Top 14 campaign, have more rugby in their legs, but with only two wins, they sit 11th in the table, having lost at home to Bordeaux last weekend. Set-piece remains a strength, as do half-back pair Harry Plummer and Baptiste Janueau, who captains from nine. They finished seventh in last year’s Top 14 and operate with a healthy budget of €38.2 million, the seventh-biggest in the league.
Yet read the French press and the focus has been on the frustrations bubbling away behind the scenes. The issues on the pitch are glaring ones, head coach Christophe Urios lamenting an ongoing lack of accuracy in the 22 and a porous defence.
This weekend also marks the 10th anniversary of Anthony Foley’s passing. The date is etched in the memory of Nienaber. The South African was part of the Munster coaching team when Foley died in Paris on 16 October 2016, Nienaber’s birthday.
“The last message Axel had to the (Munster) squad was, you create your own reality. That’s probably something that I took into my career,” Nienaber told reporters earlier this week.
“So you create your own reality, whatever that is.”
A strong mantra for any club with dreams of achieving something special this season.
Many coaches could feel beaten by all the heartbreak, and while the pressure appeared to be affecting Cullen last season, he tends to approach these campaigns with renewed enthusiasm.
Developing young players remains one of his great strengths, and the Leinster production line is a source of huge pride for a coach who has been part of every single one of the club’s European successes.
As such, he loved watching another long-running sporting journey reach its dream conclusion this summer, sitting in the Croke Park stands as the Mayo footballers finally captured Sam Maguire.
There were many seasons in which Mayo had looked better-placed to climb their Everest, but Cullen would be the first to tell you that’s not how sport works.
“Nobody was tipping Mayo to do it, nobody,” says Cullen.
“Kerry had a decent lead, but then you’re in the ground, and it was quite a strong breeze, so they can keep it close at half-time, they might have a chance here, which they did, and then you see some young guys…
“That was the beauty of the Mayo victory, because it was predominantly younger players really grasping it on the big day, and you’re never sure how they respond on the big day, but that was the thing I really enjoyed, because we’re in the business of bringing young players through as well, so you want them to get it now, so don’t wait around, just take it now.
“We can all be a bit too respectful I think of our elders and all the rest, but that’s what I loved about that game, not so much about the (end of the) curse, but the emotion through the Hill and the singing.
“When you have a fan base and then you get the momentum, and then it’s like it becomes this unstoppable force, so it’s performance, the crowd, the pressure on the opposition, it’s the whole thing, isn’t it?
“So, hopefully you don’t wait for whatever length of time, 75 years, but it was a cool thing to witness. Afterwards, the final whistle goes, and they’re all going berserk, on the Hill especially, pretty excited, weren’t they? Flares going off, but that’s the beauty of sport.
“That’s what you guys want to report on, isn’t it? Magic. The good stuff.”
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