Advertisement

Reddan refuses to accept Leinster have slipped behind wealthy Top 14 clubs

The 35-year-old says an acceptance of that narrative cannot be afforded.

EOIN REDDAN SAYS Leinster’s players cannot simply accept the growing consensus that the financial might of the likes of Toulon means the Irish provinces will find it impossible to compete for European success.

LeinsterÕs Eoin Reddan Inpho / Billy Stickland Inpho / Billy Stickland / Billy Stickland

While Ulster provided some hope with their double over Toulouse in the last fortnight, Leinster were beaten twice by an incredible powerful Toulon outfit that remains some way from their best form.

Munster, meanwhile, lost their back-to-back ties with Premiership side Leicester, adding to the feeling that our provinces will struggle to return to the peak of the European game in the coming seasons.

All over the country, supporters and media alike have been agreeing that the provinces’ relatively weak financial positions and the IRFU’s limit on foreign signings means they may be facing into a barren run in the Champions Cup.

However, Reddan feels that Leinster and the other provinces cannot simply accept that narrative as they aim to rebound. The 35-year-old believes the pressure on Irish players to deliver trophies must persist.

Any tournament I’ve ever won, all I feel after it is relief because the pressure was on me to win it,” said Reddan yesterday in UCD.

“It was kind of like that coming to Leinster; they had won the Heineken Cup in 2009 and I was asking myself, ‘What have I put in that trophy cabinet, what have I delivered while I’m here?’

“That’s the way champions think. External comments that ‘you can’t do it, you can’t do it, you don’t have enough,’ they don’t work. They’re not helping.”

The fact that Leinster feel they could and should have beaten Toulon twice over the last fortnight feeds into Reddan’s refusal to accept that the Irish provinces are streets behind their European rivals.

He points to Ulster’s hugely impressive wins against a disappointing Toulouse side as further evidence.

Eoin Reddan Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

“Look at the first-half we put in last week (Leinster led Toulon 16-5 at half-time last Saturday in Dublin); why can’t we do that for another 40 minutes?” asked Reddan

“There are far more simple issues at stake than for us all to follow down a path. Ulster just produced two amazing results that show we can all be working at doing. There’s other people thinking about the bigger picture and working on them.

“There’s a danger they become excuses and affect your day-to-day, which they can’t do.

People just make arguments to suit results a lot of the time, whereas you go in and look at the video and say, ‘OK, we gave away twice as many penalties in the second-half as we did the first.’ Let’s sort that out before we start wondering who’s getting paid what.

“I mean you (journalists) can’t write an article that says, ‘Don’t give away penalties next week, Leinster’ and hand it in, whereas that’s what I can do and what Leo (Cullen) can do. Even though it’s only one line it actually might make a huge difference.”

The French and English club’s private ownership and inward focus is in stark contrast to the situation in Ireland, where the provinces are part of the IRFU.

The sad performances of the French national team in recent seasons is damning of the lack of joined-up thinking between clubs and the FFR, while the recent Steve Borthwick furore shows how England clubs and the RFU can come to loggerheads.

Duane Vermeulen is tackled by Eoin Reddan Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

Reddan insists that the current struggles of Leinster, and by extension Munster, are down to a failure to perform to peak levels, but he does see scope for a reorganisation of the European competition to ensure that everyone involved is thinking of national teams.

A limit of foreign players might be one tactic with that in mind, but Reddan underlines that Test rugby will remain the most important thing in rugby.

“I think there’s an opportunity there for somebody to structure a club tournament that fits in with international rugby,” said Reddan. “If you do that, then you can attract big sponsors to that club tournament because the players will be able to play in it.

There is an opportunity there because the English and French leagues, their problem is that their club game is not suiting their international rugby.

“If you’re talking twenty years [from now] or big, big picture that is probably the opportunity that exists for someone: to develop a tournament and get big money for it and the players are available for it and available for international rugby as well.

“The international game for the unions is very important, that’s not going to go away. It is probably a bit different from soccer from that point of view. The annual competitions have so much more meaning than they have in soccer.

“I can’t see that changing any time soon.”

Lam counts cost of injuries ahead of festive interpro

Cullen: ‘We need to reassess where we’re going and what we’re actually doing right now’

Close
32 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Clancy
    Favourite Brian Clancy
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 10:02 AM

    Ah this is hardly considered a genuine sport now is it, its like footgolf, a bit of fun only

    84
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Christiaan Theron
    Favourite Christiaan Theron
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 2:40 PM

    @Brian Clancy: Sky has Darts on and am pretty sure there is more athleticism involved in this than snooker as well.

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Christiaan Theron
    Favourite Christiaan Theron
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 2:42 PM

    @Brian Clancy: Time it was televised.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eddiemac
    Favourite Eddiemac
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 10:47 AM

    The dude with the hat on backwards proves it’s not a real sport!

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Coghlan
    Favourite Michael Coghlan
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 12:23 PM

    Tore my cruciate in tralee 8 years ago playing tag , pain was serious so I went to the hospital down there ! Met the porter at the door who wheeled me in , he asked what happened and I told him I thought I’d torn ligaments after playing tag rugby as my knee had swollen 5 times the normal . Porter looked at me and in his best Kerry accent said ‘We won’t tell anybody you were playing tag , we will just tell them you were playing rugby’ !!!

    65
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DuskyTheCat
    Favourite DuskyTheCat
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 9:22 AM

    42 trolls its readers.

    63
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Aaron Buckley
    Favourite Aaron Buckley
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 11:36 AM

    Lads I’d venture that each and every one of those guys and girls are a hell of a lot fitter then any of you lot.
    And it seems to define perfectly “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Motley
    Favourite William Motley
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 10:26 AM

    The thighs on your one in the first pic. Holy MaGolie

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Joe Mackenzie
    Favourite Joe Mackenzie
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 12:45 PM

    Haha you’re man in the photo looks like a top shagger

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Guru
    Favourite The Guru
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 1:26 PM

    Not sure I believe those stats on Australia having 100,000 players. I live here and haven’t heard of anyone playing tag. In fact most people have absolutely no knowledge of rugby union at all, it’s a compete minority sport. According to Wikipedia there are 86,000 rugby union players in Australia.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bill Madigan
    Favourite Bill Madigan
    Report
    Jul 23rd 2017, 6:57 PM

    @Paul K Murphy: touch football is a different sport to tag

    3
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.