Bright lights offer hope

Munster paraded the Heineken Cup through the streets of Cork City last night when more than 30,000 fans turned out to welcome their rugby heroes. At the same time Ireland were playing a one-sided game against The Barbarians.

While the Baa-baa’s match could be labelled a largely meaningless game, and the team facing Ireland lacked the cavalier skills to rightly carry off the illustrious team name, there are a number of positives that can be taken from the game. Most notably the continuing form of some young lights, which could show that the future of Irish rugby is not as bleak as many had expected.

For such a game, the choice of Luke Fitzgerald at centre allowed the young Leinster player to get his hands on the ball and demonstrate his undoubted talent. And now with two years of professional rugby under his belt, his confidence in both attack and defence bodes well for the Irish midfield in years to come. While he has the potential to be heir apparent to his cousin, Brian O’Driscoll, centre might not be the position to unleash his pace, step and aggression.

While full-back may provide another outlet for Fitzgerald’s talents, there is quite a queue building up to take over from Girvan Dempsey. Geordan Murphy still has a year or two, but the emergence of Rob Kearney during the Six Nations and the more recent form of Munster’s Denis Hurley have provided, initially Michael Bradley and then Declan Kidney with a bit of a selection conundrum.

Another area of over-supply is in the back-row. Jamie Heaslip, for one, again demonstrated his excellent footballing ability and with the Munster back-row joining up with the squad in the next 48 hours, Bradley will again have some tough decisions to make down under. The enthusiasm of the squad will come as welcome relief to all following the dismal World Cup and Six Nations endured in the last year.

Indeed Ireland’s ‘blip’ lasted a bit more than the IRFU and the rugby supporting public expected, and O’Sullivan, correctly, paid for the blip with his job. But he did not leave the squad in good shape, mentally or physically.

However, following Munster and Leinster’s wins in the Heineken Cup and Magners League respectively, and the continued emergence of a group of bright young prospects, the squad Kidney inherits might not be in as bad a shape as expected.