A Celtic one, two, three in the Six Nations for the first time was followed by two sides from Ireland and one from Wales making the semi-finals of the Champions Cup for only the second year in which all the major European countries have taken part.
The other occasion was 2009, when Leinster went on to win the tournament for the first time. They are the favourites this year after Sunday’s victory against Saracens and they will enjoy home city advantage over the Scarlets this month while Racing 92 have a 400-mile trek to Bordeaux to face Munster in the second semi-final.
England is without a semi‑finalist for the first time since 2012, spawning theories about why the country that has provided the winners in the last two seasons has suffered a meltdown: two are that their Lions players are tired after not being as sufficiently rested as their Celtic colleagues and the style of play in the Premiership was tailored at a time when teams tended to play it safe.
The Champions Cup has resembled the Six Nations tactically. English and French sides have tended to be more structured, using lineouts as a means for the forwards to attack rather than the backs. Toulon and Saracens set up more rucks and mauls than any of the quarter-finalists, but taking play through multiple phases, waiting for a missed tackle.
New Zealand became pre‑eminent after devising different ways to attack other than trucking up the middle incessantly before moving the ball wide. If nothing happens after three or four phases, they tend to kick: not usually to give the ball back but as an attacking weapon, and not just through Beauden Barrett.
While Leinster, like Ireland, base their game on ball retention, they had more variety in attack than Saracens on Sunday in the heavyweight clash of the round, exemplified by Dan Leavy’s try when an unguarded ruck was instantly exploited.
It was only two years ago that Ireland failed to provide a Champions Cup quarter-finalist and had a 50% record in the Six Nations. Just as it was premature to write the obituary of the game there then, so it is with that in England now. Having a setback 18 months from a World Cup provides ample time for repair and there is not a huge amount to fix.
When he took charge of England, Eddie Jones said he would base his approach on the English staples of scrum, lineout and maul while sharpening the attack. The Champions Cup quarter-finals again showed how much the breakdown matters and how the set pieces, the scrum especially, are becoming marginal.
With referees increasingly reluctant to blow for a reset, there are not so many penalties to be harvested at a scrum as there were a few years ago (think the 2013 Six Nations title decider between Wales and England in Cardiff). From seeming to take up an inordinate amount of time, there are now so few scrums that the ritual replacement of all three front-rowers during a match cannot be explained by the work they do in the tight.
There were eight scrums in the match between the Scarlets and La Rochelle, nine the following day when Munster beat Toulon, and 10 in Dublin. The all-French quarter-final between Clermont Auvergne and Racing 92 provided the most, but no more than 13.
There were a total of 153 set pieces in the four matches. The breakdowns numbered 744 and ball retention was impressive, with only 19 failing to see the ball delivered back. The bulk of the 93 turnovers in the games came from possession being coughed up inadvertently in other areas, such as knock-ons, interceptions and charged-down kicks.
Celtic teams are quick to counterattack, English clubs less so, although Alex Goode had the eye for a chance in Dublin. The speed of transition marks out the All Blacks and it will be interesting to see the impact made by Chris Boyd next season when he takes over at Northampton.
Boyd is currently with the Hurricanes, the home of Beauden Barrett. They could not be a greater contrast in terms of style than with Northampton who, under Jim Mallinder and Dorian West, worked their way to the top of the English game, and into a European Cup final, through a highly structured game based on the set pieces, winning collisions and kicking.
In the bottom three this season, Northampton have been left behind. Boyd knows that transplanting the Hurricanes’ approach into the English game is unlikely to work but there will be a shift from structure to something resembling chaos.
“I have a clear idea of the way I want to play the game and that all relates to the southern hemisphere stuff,” said Boyd. “One of the things that is important for me is to get a handle on the differences between the north and the south and how the rugby can be played, the culture of the game. There are differences in the game and adapting the game to how I think Northampton should play is going to be critical.”
Boyd should be good for the Premiership. Jones has tended to work in isolation with England, observing a demarcation line between the club and international game. This season has shown that there should be a link beyond the players: England, where resources are spread more widely, cannot replicate Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but a game on the field that better serves the national side would benefit both.
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