Good things come to those who wait

Apr 20 2008 by Andy Howell, Wales On Sunday

THE GUINNESS Premiership has always been held up as the standard-bearer of domestic rugby in the UK, the league where the playing levels have been highest, the crowds greatest and the interest most.

For many years that has been the case, and the success has transferred to the international stage with England winning the 2003 World Cup, reaching the final last year and dominating the Six Nations in the 1990s.

However, are we seeing the winds of change with a shift in power turning more towards Wales?

Our regional teams may not have reached the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup, but there was no doubting some of the enormous talent at the Ospreys, Blues and Scarlets in particular.

The way the Ospreys humiliated English champions Leicester Tigers at Twickenham last weekend, highlighted the gulf between their best and ours.

Leicester, remember, are not only reigning Guinness Premiership title-holders, but they also reached last season’s Heineken final and lifted the EDF Energy Cup in 2007.

The way the Ospreys put them to the sword made one of the giants of European club rugby look like a second division outfit.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised about that because Ospreys stars dominated the Wales team that completed a Six Nations Grand Slam a month ago to be crowned northern hemisphere kings.

Ten years ago, the debate about whether English club rugby was better than Welsh club rugby wasn’t even worth having.

Not only was the standard of rugby served up by the best of England significantly better, they even had Wales’ finest playing for their clubs ... like Scott Quinnell with Richmond and Ieuan Evans with that season’s Heineken Cup winners Bath.

But that has changed. I have picked All-Star teams from today and yesteryear and reckon the pendulum has swung the other way.

I dread to think what the English Premiership side of 1997-98 I put together would have done to the Welsh All-Stars, such is the disparity in class and power.

A 50-point defeat, perhaps larger, was a real possibility.

But now it’s a whole new ball game, so to speak.

English club rugby no longer possesses the likes of Martin Johnson, Michael Lynagh, Philippe Sella, Jeremy Guscott, V’aiga Tuigamala, Agustin Pichot; Jason Leonard, Keith Wood and Francois Pienaar.

Barring glowing exceptions like New Zealand pair Carl Hayman and Chris Jack, and Argentine star Juan Fernandez Lobbe, the Guinness is hardly brimming with overseas talent.

Come to think of it, aside from Danny Cipriani and Andrew Sheridan, it’s hardly bubbling with up-and-coming English talent either!

Sure, the English All-Stars of 2008 have the same number of foreigners (nine) as 10 years ago while the figure in the Welsh regions’ side of today has grown from two to five.

It could have been more with Simon Easterby, Xavier Rush, Ben Blair and Nikki Walker all posting claims.

Former Ireland captain Easterby, New Zealand international Rush and Wales star Martyn Williams could have quite easily formed the back-row combination while another Kiwi, Blair, has his supporters for the No 15 jersey. So has powerhouse Walker for a place on the wing.

But you can’t, even though this is a Welsh All-Stars XV, ignore Wales’ performances in the Six Nations Championship, the Grand Slam and all that.

Forget the Ospreys’ disappointing defeat at Saracens in the Heineken Cup, nine times out of 10 they would have beaten them.

Individual errors and the presence of a certain Richard Hill, the only man to be in my teams of 1997 and 2008, in the opposition cost them a money-spinning semi-final at the Millennium Stadium. Simple as that.

There are 11 Ospreys in my Welsh All-Stars, three of them from overseas in the shape of All Blacks Filo Tiatia, Marty Holah and Justin Marshall.

Tiatia has been the form player in Welsh regional rugby this season, closely followed by Marshall so they had to be included.

The competitiveness and attitude of Blues signing Paul Tito also won my approval. The New Zealander has been a considerable acquisition and it was a pity he went into their Heineken walloping at Toulouse suffering from a bout of flu.

My other member of the foreign legion is Regan King. The silky one-time capped All Black is one of the best attacking outside-centres in the world and the Ospreys must be kicking themselves at failing to prise him away from the Scarlets.

With super Shane Williams, the in-form Lee Byrne and a potentially potent midfield triangle of James Hook, Gavin Henson and King, there’s plenty of firepower in the Welsh All-Stars.

Too much, I’d suggest, despite the presence of Hook’s likely British Lions rival Cipriani at No 10, for the Guinness XV to handle.

Up front, the biggest test would come for the Welsh All-Stars. Could its pack cope with the power of an English eight containing the likes of Hill, Andrew Sheridan, Raphael Ibanez, Carl Hayman, Jack, and Lobbe?

But Wales’ forward grunt under master coach Warren Gatland shouldn’t be underestimated, the Grand Slam being based on the improved work of the pack.

I reckon it would be a thriller, a corker of an encounter, but I’d expect our boys to edge it.

After all, isn’t my Welsh All-Stars stronger than the Wales Grand Slam winning team?