Iain Morrison: Raise a glass to Magners

Published on Saturday 28 August 2010 15:48

It comes to us all in the end. With the obvious exception of Peter Pan and certain Premier League footballers, we all grow up. The Celtic League has recently made the move out of short trousers and, at the age of nine, it seems the right time to do so.

As a sign of its growing maturity, the league has finally appointed its first chief executive in the burly form of John Feehan. For all his undoubted abilities, Feehan may need 25-hour days if he is to find time to drive the league to fulfil its potential, since he already heads up the Six Nations and the Lions.

At least the Irishman will have an eight-man board of directors to help him manage the Magners, and former SRU president Andy Irvine will chair it. David Jordan remains as the operating officer for the league and after years of being head chef and bottle washer, the one-time Glasgow boss finally has the proper support structure in place.

All in all these are exciting times for the Magners League and even the English press, who have long regurgitated the Sky Sports line about having the best league in the world, have come around to admitting that the Magners might not play host to the pub rugby that some of them had always assumed. The French Top 14 provided four of the eight Heineken quarter-finalists last season, the Celts three while England's premier division, now sponsored by Aviva, managed just one.

It's pointless arguing the contrasting merits of the Aviva against the Magners because the two leagues are different animals but the Celtic competition is growing nicely, albeit from modest beginnings, which makes it all the more bizarre that the authorities should tamper with something that is purring along quite nicely thank you.

All the pre-season chatter has been dominated by the arrival of two Italian teams, Aironi and Benetton Treviso. While the Welsh and Irish worry that the new arrivals won't be competitive, it's tempting to suggest that the Scots' biggest concern is that they will be.

The Italian teams have recruited strongly over the summer and both have sufficiently strong squads to win a good few matches at home, which is pretty much what Connacht manage. But even if they are competitive every weekend, the extra matches played means that the league must now compete on internationals weekends; twice during the autumn Test window and the same number during the Six Nations. Given that the national teams generate the vast majority of their income for the three Celtic Unions, that scheduling is akin to shooting yourself in the foot.One of the selling points of the Magners League was that it was more sympathetic to the players' welfare with fewer games to play… not any more. The introduction of the Italians adds four extra matches on top of the two extra play-off games, so the season now stretches to nine long months, from the first weekend of September to the last one in May. And if, as seems likely, clubs rest their big guns to keep them fresh for the more important matches, that only undermines the integrity of the league and we are back to where we were a few years back, with Munster not giving two figs for the Magners, instead concentrating all their energies on Europe.

And yet, despite all these many drawbacks, if having a presence in the Magners League significantly boosts rugby's footprint in Italy it will all be worthwhile. One Magners League insider admitted that the Italians would be the net beneficiaries of this deal for years to come, but insisted with his very next breath that "it was the right thing to do". This evangelical/altruistic side of the game is what lifts rugby out of the ordinary, differentiating it from other sports whose every move is determined by the bottom line and nothing else.

The Kiwi flanker Josh Sole stated last week at the league's launch that he expected 6,000 fans through the gates at Viadana and that alone would be a mark of success even if his team doesn't win a match all season. If he is right then the Scottish crowd numbers will be put to shame, although there's never been a better time for rugby to convert a few fans because Scotland's traditional sport is giving them little enough to cheer.

If you are 12 years old or younger you have never witnessed the national football team play in a major tournament and the performance of our clubs is arguably worse. It's still August and there is just one Scottish side with an on-going interest in Europe, four others have exited already. Whatever the pro-teams' shortfalls in the Heineken Cup, they give little away against the best in Europe, although that doesn't make them winners.

One of the Magners big four, Leinster and Munster in Ireland or Cardiff and the Ospreys in Wales, will triumph in the final come May, although all true rugby fans will hope that the Italian teams are at least competitive from the off.After a tortuous birth the two Scottish pro-teams have grown from squabbling bairns to highly competitive teens, but they still have some growing up to do before they can look the big boys of the league eye to eye.

SCOTS' RIVALS

AIRONI

Coaches: Franco Bernini and Rowland Philips.

Founded: 2010.

Colours: All black, which is brave, although the change strip is white.

Key Players: Fabio Ongaro and Marco Bortolami.

Stadium: Viadana's Luigi Zaffanelli is being extended to hold 7,000.

We think: If the club can ride the long injury list and the inevitable teething problems they have the strength of squad to stay out of the bottom two or three places.

BENETTON TREVISO

Coaches: South African Franco Smith and Fabio Benvenuto.

Founded: 1932.

Colours: Green and white stripes.

Stadium: Stadio Comunale di Monigo (cap: 6,700).

We think: The torch bearers for Italian rugby might struggle a little especially away from home.

BLUES

Coach: Dai Young.

Last season: 5th.

Key player: Flyhalf Dan Parks.

We think: The Blues were the form team in the Magners at the tail end of last season and Parks should propel them into the playoffs.

CONNACHT

Coach: Eric Elwood.

Last season: 10th and last.

Key player: Irish hooker Sean Cronin.

We think: That the perpetual Irish strugglers will still be a handful at home after beating Leinster, Edinburgh and the Blues in Galway last season.

LEINSTER

Coach: Joe Schmidt.

Last season: Beaten finalists.

Key player: Scrumhalf Isaac Boss will add another dimension.

We think: That the new coach will have to go some to match Michael Cheika's achievements.

MUNSTER

Coach: Tony McGahan.

Last season: Semi-finalists.

Key player: It has to be Paul O'Connell when he's fit.

We think: The squad is aging and time is running out for this group of players to make another big win.

DRAGONS

Coach: Paul Turner.

Last season: 7th.

Key player: Winger Will Harries scored a hat-trick against Edinburgh.

We think: That the Dragons' inconsistency must drive Turner mad, after losing to Connacht his team beat the Ospreys a week later.

OSPREYS

Coach: Sean Holley.

Last season: Winners.

Key player: Tommy Bowe rightly won the player's player award.

We think: The Ospreys conquered the Celtic teams last season and they will make a splash in Europe this time round.

SCARLETS

Coach: Nigel Davies.

Last season: 9th.

Key player: Welsh centre Jonathan Davies makes them tick.

We think: That the appointment of former Wales coach Robin McBride to whip the pack into some sort of shape is timely.

ULSTER

Coach: Brian McLaughlin.

Last season: 8th.

Key player: The signing of Ruan Pienaar (instead of Mike Blair) is a gamble but if it comes off…

We think: That the Ulstermen have underperformed in recent years and 9,000 odd fans inside Ravenhill agree.