Ah Christmas, the time of the Festive Feast.
Amidst the turkey, the stuffing and the dreaded Brussel sprouts, the Guinness PRO12 played host to 12 Christmas crackers (I’m sorry, I had to get that pun in there somewhere) as derby fever gripped all four nations and left us amazed in wonder at some of the rugby on show from prop Dmitri Arhip’s sprint down the touchline to set up Eli Walker for a try (Usain Bolt beware) to the emergence of a certain Garry Ringrose.
In fact, let’s address Mr Ringrose first, who has been receiving rave reviews after his performance at outside centre against Munster, with predecessor Brian O’Driscoll leading the calls for the 20-year old to start at 13 against Wales. High praise indeed, whether it is warranted is another matter, but it was certainly impressive to see such a young player play such a mature game and then back it up a week later with another strong showing against Connacht.
With Ben Te’o departing to the Worcester Warriors at the end of the season, there is no doubt the Leinster outside centre jersey is up for grabs and it could be Ringrose’s come the start of the 2016/17 season.
It was Ringrose’s Leinster who came out on top of the Irish derbies with two wins from two while Munster and Ulster took one win each, while in Italy it was Zebre who stole a march on Treviso in their double-header as the Zebras swooped late for a bonus point win in game one at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi before taking a huge step forward with a win at the Stadio di Monigo in game two.
The win managed to lift Zebre into tenth at the expense of the winless Dragons while Treviso still languish in last without a win to their names so far this season. It’s been a tough struggle for the Benetton team and already their prospects of qualifying for the Champions’ Cup next season seem to be nothing more than a dream with Zebre proving they are very much the Italian side in the ascendancy.
Similarly, Edinburgh caused something of a surprise by retaining the 1872 Cup over Glasgow.
True, Glasgow will undoubtedly have been affected by having to take their home game back to Murrayfield due to a waterlogged pitch, however it’s a huge scalp for the capital club to do the double over their country rivals. Not only that but they showed considerable poise and control to hold out the defending PRO12 champions at the end of their second game and seal not just the Cup, but also the second win.
Cardiff’s win against the Scarlets was probably just as impressive with the PRO12 leaders suffering another defeat that keeps them just one point clear at the top of the table, while their last gasp win over the Dragons a week before was also a reminder to the rest of the PRO12 that there is plenty of fight left in these Blues.
Not to downplay the efforts of the Ospreys either who were deserving winners over in Llanelli thanks in a large part to the aforementioned Arhip and Walker. Their home win over the Dragons perhaps was not quite as impressive but it’s still another win in the column for the resurgent Ospreys who have worked themselves right back into the mix after an indifferent start to the season. By contrast, the Dragons fall to eleventh, sandwiched between the Italian teams and with little in the way of optimism.
It means the table suddenly looks rather congested now – just nine points separates first and eighth in the table and certainly you’d give any one of those teams a realistic chance of winning the title outright. To guess who the top four will be at the end of the season right now would be just as accurate as drawing names out of a hat, this league is wide open and there is a lot of rugby to be played.
Regardless of where your allegiance lies, as we enter the second half of the Guinness PRO12 season there are plenty of thrills and spills to be had with plenty of shocks to keep crowds on the edges of their seats for the full 80 minutes every week.
Just how we enthusiasts like it.
“Main Photo”
