It was not quite Shane Williams's final finale as he is due to line up for the Barbarians against Wales on Saturday but the way his career for Ospreys ended in Sunday's RaboDirect Pro 12 final against Leinster in Dublin was fitting.
Williams has spent his playing days trying to confound the theory that rugby is a big man's world. He saw little of the ball in the final against the Heineken Cup winners but his two tries allowed Ospreys to win a game in which they had been outplayed for long periods.
A bigger player than Williams would probably have scored neither. His first was on his left wing, barely a gap and bodies blocking his way to the line. He contorted, wriggled and twisted while running at pace and defenders comfortable dealing with larger and more predictable targets found themselves trying to grasp mercury.
His second, three minutes from time with Ospreys trailing by six points, saw him drift to the right wing, as he did in 2008 for Wales in their grand slam year, and find space where none appeared to have existed. Again brute force would have been unlikely to breach the defence but Williams signed off by wriggling through a cat flap that did not provide access to the bigger beasts.
It was another impish player, Danny Care, who made Leicester sweat in the heat, never missing an opportunity to raise the pace of the game. He may not have Williams's pace but he has the same opportunism and he twists and weaves, keeping the ball alive.
The pair helped provide a rousing finish to the domestic season and a feature of both matches was the willingness of players to off-load rather than go to ground all the time and ponderously recycle. The Pro 12 final, like the Premiership final between Harlequins and Leicester the day before, had a flow and vibrancy to it. Tired bodies and minds ensured mistakes aplenty but the will of all four sides to create was strong.
Leicester had been remarkably consistent in the second half of the season, losing only one Premiership match, and that during the Six Nations, but when they were asked by Harlequins to raise their game, they were unable to.
It is one reason why the play-off system, which turns a league campaign into a cup competition, provokes qualms but in a World Cup year, when teams were without their international players for half the Premiership campaign, it is a surer way of finding the best team.
Quins finished at the top of the table and had the extra gear they needed. To outplay Leicester as they did was the hallmark of champions and, if it were typical of the Tigers to leap from the canvas as the referee was about to shout 10, their challenge ended at the breakdown when they conceded a penalty with time up, an area where they had come second all afternoon.
Ospreys, like Harlequins, were the underdogs, conceding not just home advantage – a neutral venue for the final is not an option for the Pro 12 organisers with four countries taking part – but playing a side buoyed by an emphatic victory in the Heineken Cup final.
It was not only Williams who was playing his final game for Ospreys. The region, like the other three in Wales, is struggling financially and the day after winning the Pro 12, a high court petition by Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue to wind up the region was adjourned.
Wasps also faced a petition from HMRC to be wound up but it was dismissed because the overdue bill to the taxman had been paid: the club was due to announce before the end of this week that a consortium had bought it from the current owner, Steve Hayes.
Ospreys have been forced to cut their wage will having made a loss of nearly £1.5m in the last financial year and changed their coaching team at the start of the year. Spirit is something that money cannot buy and, while at times they appeared in danger of being overrun by Leinster, every time they were knocked down they bounced back up.
Testing time down south
Attention now switches to next month's southern hemisphere tours. England are in South Africa, Ireland go to New Zealand and Wales tackle Australia, all three-Test series, while Scotland take on the Wallabies, Fiji and Samoa, 10 months after the start of the pre-World Cup friendly internationals.
South Africa are under new management and have to replace a number of experienced players, including John Smit, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, the All Blacks promoted Steve Hansen from within to succeed Graham Henry and will expect more in the way of continuity than the Boks while the Wallabies, despite being without Kurtley Beale and James O'Connor, should force Wales to be bolder than they were in the Six Nations.
The home unions are being given little chance of succeeding but South Africa could be vulnerable in next week's first Test given the little time Heyneke Meyer has had with his players. England are strong defensively and well organised. They are talking about playing more expansively but may delay that until later in the series.
England and Wales have it in them to win at least one Test but Ireland have never defeated the All Blacks. It may be a seminal tour for their coach, Declan Kidney, with a growing clamour for the Harlequins director of rugby, Conor O'Shea, to take over.
Ireland's Six Nations campaign ended with their scrum being destroyed at Twickenham. Statistics show the set-piece is becoming increasingly less influential at Tier One level, collapses and resets, but Irish supporters may see it otherwise.
Leinster lost to Ospreys ultimately because they were twice reduced to 14 men with props sent to the sin-bin for collapsing. They might not have reached the Heineken Cup final had Clermont Auvergne been allowed to exploit their advantage up front in the semi-final in Bordeaux. The scrum may be declining in significance but sides weak up front remain vulnerable.
And then there is Scotland, seeking redemption after a wooden-spoon campaign. At least they will not be facing a full-strength Australia but they will feel the heat in Samoa and Fiji who, at last, have been given meaningful Tests at home.
Scotland need results to avoid being in the third tier when it comes to the pools for the 2015 World Cup. Wales and England want to be in the top four of the world rankings by December while Ireland, after more than 100 years of trying, just want to beat the All Blacks.
Tip-tackle consistency
England's tour preparations were mildly inconvenienced by the surprising decision to cite the Leicester centre Manu Tuilagi for a tip tackle on Danny Care in the opening minutes of the Premiership final.
Citings depend on a red card test. If a citing commissioner deems the offence merited a dismissal, he calls a disciplinary hearing. Saturday's referee, Wayne Barnes, did not feel Tuilagi's action was worth a yellow card, never mind a red.
Barnes must feel baffled. When Ireland played Wales on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, he sent the home flanker Stephen Ferris to the sin-bin for a tip tackle on the second-row Ian Evans.
Ferris was subsequently cited and cleared. On that basis Barnes was right not to send off Tuilagi but so much emotion clouds tip tackling that there is little in the way of consistency.
Paddy O'Brien, in his capacity as the International Rugby Board's head of referees last year, issued a directive on tip tackling, re-emphasised during the World Cup when referees contented themselves with yellow cards during the group stage.
Two types of tip tackles were red card offences, he ruled: when a tackler dropped a ball-carrier head first or when he drove him into the ground. Tuilagi did neither; he kept hold of Care. It was not the smartest tackle to make in the current climate but it was nothing like Carl Hayman's in the Amlin Challenge Cup final and the case was quickly dismissed.
The sage on tip tackles emphasises the need for the IRB to appoint a chief judicial officer, someone who can help bring consistency not just to citings but disciplinary hearings; travelling would be kept to a minimum in an age of video and conference calls. Otherwise referees will react to mixed messages by leaving sanctions to others and bad offences, like Hayman's, will not be punished at the time.
France need rest and recuperation
The season in France goes on. The Top 14 play-offs reach the semi-final stage this weekend, Clermont Auvergne facing Toulon and Toulouse taking on Castres.
The final will be held next week and France then go to Argentina for a two-Test tour ahead of the Pumas' landmark foray into the Rugby Championship. Philippe Saint-André has been less outspoken about the rigours of the club system than his predecessor, Marc Lièvremont, but his selection for South America will be telling.
We are not going to take many players in their 30s, he said, pointing out that his captain, Thierry Dusautoir, was in urgent need of a rest. "We have drawn up a plan so that they can recuperate mentally and physically. It will be a tough tour for the players who are selected and after it they will need to regenerate.
"They need rest if we want them to be fresh for the November internationals. We are going there to play good rugby. We are coming off the back of defeats to England and Wales and, while we will be looking at young players, we also need to be competitive.
"All the other countries are organised. The Irish, Welsh, English and Scottish are really well organised. The Italians are in the process of doing it, along with the Argentinians, and let's not talk about the southern hemisphere. The France team needs to organise itself; our players need more time off."
Delve makes an impact
Danny Cipriani may not have made much of an impact on Super Rugby but another former Premiership player has, Gareth Delve.
Cipriani was released from his contract early by Melbourne Rebels and the England outside-half returned home to prepare for pre-season training with his new club, Sale.
Cipriani and Delve arrived in Australia at the same time after the Rebels became Australia's fifth Super franchise and the latter is the side's captain and, according to reports, one of their best players.
Delve, the Wales back-row who played for Bath and Gloucester, has not had much of an international career, a mere 11 caps, with injury knocking him back several times, but he may be back in Europe next season.
Delve, the first non-Australian to captain one of the country's Super Rugby teams, is considering an offer from Toulon. There will be no offer from a Welsh region because of their financial problems and he knows that, if he remains in Australia, where Wales are touring next month, his international career will probably be over.
Player welfare
Unlike the leading players the Breakdown is having a proper summer break. At least the International Rugby Board continues to address the issue of player welfare.
Another medical conference will be held in Dublin this November with the issue of concussion a central part of the debate. A trial will be held this summer which will see a player suspected of having concussion allowed to be examined off the field for up to five minutes and replaced in that time.
Research shows that the number of injuries in the professional game is falling to levels similar to before the game turned professional in 1995 but their nature has changed, reflecting the increased physicality, intensity and attrition not just of playing but training.
Other subjects for discussion in November will be the role of the match-day doctor, pre-participation, including a cardiac screening policy and game-wide injury prevention strategies.
While the IRB is made up of unions, its staff is able to take a more rounded view than member countries (and their clubs), the vast majority of which at Tier One level continue to subjugate the welfare of players to the welfare of their bank balances.
And so to next season, after the Olympics. Enjoy the summer.
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