Business as usual for low-key Leinster

By Brendan O’Brien

SO far so ho-hum.

Only four days to go to the Heineken Cup final – Leinster’s first let’s not forget – but you would never guess there was a game of such importance beckoning judging by pre-match press briefing yesterday.

Then again, the location doesn’t exactly lend itself to giddiness.

Professional rugby may be big business these days but the money washing through the upper echelons of the game has yet to trickle down to include the bricks and mortar at club level.

Bective Rangers’ clubhouse lies smack bang in the centre of one of Dublin’s most salubrious suburbs but it is the sort of ramshackle structure that can be found in every parish throughout the country.

Parts of it look like they might have been standing when the club’s first president RM Tabuteau was head honcho in the 1890s. Kind of like the hall where the local Macra na Feirme meeting would be held, in fact.

The Macra would attract a bigger crowd.

RTE sent a couple of extra faces and Graham Symonds flew over to do some player pieces for the ‘Rugby Club’ but none of the English newspapers bothered sending anyone to report from the ‘enemy’ camp.

The fact that Leicester were holding their own meet and greet today – in a much more modern setting - was obviously a factor and the credit crunch probably played its part too. 

Michael Cheika will be thrilled with the air of normality. Last month’s semi-final against Munster at Croke Park - the self-fashioned ‘biggest game of all time, ever’ - was greeted with the same nonchalant ease and look how that turned out.