Each game week Paul Williams ‘Black & White’ column will take a look around the world of the Guinness PRO14 and beyond. Known for his contributions to Rugby World, his obsession for the game and his notorious tennis elbow, as an independent columnist Paul will bring his unique takes on rugby to pro14rugby.org. With no grey areas, entertainment and enlightenment are assured. A must follow on Twitter @thepaulwilliams Leinster’s Front Row are 3-Dimensional Leinster are such a complete unit that it is often difficult to praise one aspect without seeming like you have overlooked another. But as they proved against Toulouse, their front row is as big an influence as any. With Leinster’s front row, the basics are a given, whereas in many other elite teams they aren’t. Leinster’s scrummaging against Toulouse was immaculate with a 100% completion. The lineout ran at 11⁄12, a 91% completion, and the ruck clearance and pillar defence was flawless. But what separates Leinster from the rest is that their front row can handle the ball – and handle it at pace. Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Sean Cronin and James Tracy were all able to slip a pass beyond Toulouse’ first contact. When a prop is running a simple short line, it is easy to defend, when they are able to pass ‘one-out’, that is not the case. Add to that Furlong’s ability to pick up an errant pass from his toes, when some of the Toulouse front row hadn’t seen their feet for many a year and you have one of the reasons that separates Leinster from the rest. Saracen’s front row have an equal skillset and as a result, we have one hell of a final coming up. Munster, Shutdown For many teams, to have reached the Semi-Final of the Champions Cup would signify a very positive season. But that isn’t how Munster roll. The defeat to Saracens will have obviously disappointed those associated with the club, but the manner of the defeat will have bothered them even more. Despite a relatively even first 40 minutes, Munster were choked-out by Saracens upfront. It was a position in which Munster rarely find themselves. They are usually the one with their hands around the throat, not the other way around. Munster’s set-piece was immaculate as you’d expect, 100% at the lineout and scrum, but it was at the breakdown where they really struggled. When CJ Stander and Peter O’Mahony have carried just 29 metres between them, something has gone wrong. And as with Toulouse, the ruck speed was where the problems lay. It is of course understandable that Munster would struggle upfront against Saracens – any team would. They have a starting line-up of test monsters and a bench that matches that standard of everyone else’s starting XVs. Many speculated that a fit Joey Carbery and Keith Earls would have made a difference, and they’re right, to a point. But it wouldn’t have changed the result. Even Carbery needs quick ball and Munster couldn’t deliver it. Forward Thinking Doesn’t Exist at 19 Stone To immediately contradict the headline, 19st isn’t too heavy for a forward. Tightheads and tighthead locks often need to be that weight and 19-stone No 8s are also not without their virtues. But an average pack weight of 19 stone is far too heavy for elite rugby. And you need only look at Toulouse’s performance against Leinster in Dublin on Sunday, to see why. Twenty years ago, getting to every other ruck and making 15-plus tackles used to be the domain of the back-row forwards and the back-row forwards alone. But that is no longer that case. Tightheads are now expected to make tackles in midfield and locks are expected to ‘drop’ centres when they run the outside arc – and you simply can’t do that when you’re 19 stone. To be more accurate, you can’t do it for 60-plus minutes. But the defensive lapses of being overly ‘massed’ is only the start of it. It also affects your attacking options as you simply aren’t able to get to the breakdown quickly enough to speed up your team’s ball, let alone slow down the opposition’s possession. Toulouse failed to score a single try against Leinster, and this, from a team who has been shredding the Top 14. It wasn’t as if Toulouse didn’t have any possession, they did. They had near parity of possession – 43% possession to Leinster’s 57% is well within the parameters of an equally contested game, it’s just that the ball was slow. Not one Toulouse back carried the ball over 42m – a clear indicator of slow ball. Not even the back three, where 80-plus metres is usually a given. Big packs may attract the headlines pre-game, but after the final whistle, they often count for nothing in the modern game. Even the Pros can’t Resist Childish Instincts Richie Gray’s slap at Leinster’s ruck ball was a wonderful reminder that no matter how high a level you’ve played at, you still remain a school boy/girl at heart. Lying flat on the floor, out of the game, at the base of a ruck, with the ball just inches away from the opposition scrum-half’s hands, in front of the referee, he still couldn’t resist giving it a little flick with his hand. For some reason, all rugby players, when at the bottom of a ruck, believe that they have donned an invisibility cloak. It must be something to do with the dim light and dank smell that makes you think you’re in some kind of cellar or underground dwelling, far away from prying eyes. Gray’s flick of the ball was as schoolboy as it comes. A scenario that continued when he was made to sit on what looked a school chair, in the middle of Aviva Stadium. It was the perfect punishment. Sin-Bin Sponsorship is an Opportunity Going Begging Seeing Richie Gray sitting on what seemed like a £20 school chair in the middle of one of the best stadiums in the world, in the Semi-Final of the best club competition in the world, should hopefully have got some marketing brains spinning. It’s not in keeping with a blue riband tournament. Spare a thought for those in Super Rugby, which makes their replacements sit on plastic patio furniture which is so thin that you can see your hand through it, but it is still a bad look. The sin-bin is a great opportunity for all leagues to offer sponsorship to all sin related sectors. Solicitors, decadent ice-creams and luxury chocolate bars should be throwing cash at the sin-bin.
