The draw for next season's Heineken Cup has been made, and Champions Munster have been drawn in the same group as their old nemesis, the Leicester Tigers.
I for one am delighted with this draw. Munster and Leicester have a long-standing and healthy rivalry, and we can be sure that when these teams meet, a memorable match is in prospect.
Who can forget the infamous Back-hand incident in the final in 2002? Or Rob Henderson taking a shortcut through Austin Healy in the revenge match the following season in Leicester, which Munster won 20-7?
Add to this two of the best sets of supporters in the entire competition and we should have at least two great games in this group. Also in the group are Cardiff Blues and Bourgoin.
In other groups, Leinster are up against Gloucester, Edinburgh and Agen; while Ulster will face Toulouse, London Irish and Llanelli Scarlets in what is probably the toughest group of the competition.
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There are a number of commentators who are predicting that this could be when the Irish take the All-Blacks by surprise and break their duck against them. They point to Ireland's relatively successful Six Nations, when they came second to France and won the Triple Crown. Irish rugby is indeed on a high after Munster's success in the Heineken Cup and the Irish 1-2-3 in the Celtic League.
I hate to say it, but we're not going to beat the All-Blacks this time either. Why not? Well there are a number of reasons:
1. Just as the Munster team comes up as greater than the sum of its parts, the Irish team does the opposite. We have great, experienced players all over the park. For their provinces or clubs they play like gods, but when they come out onto the field in the green shirt, they just don't gel. Remember the first game in the Six Nations? The one where we nearly lost at home to Italy?
2. The back row is one of the key areas. Our backs simply have to get a good supply of fast ball from the ruck if they are going to have any chance of doing their thing. Neil Best is a rookie and is a weakness in our back row. If Eddie O'Sullivan was serious about trying to win this game, he would have the most experienced back row unit available. (That's the one that was wearing red on 20 May, in case you're wondering.)
3. These All-Blacks don't do defeat. There is no "second-string". The 15 All-Blacks that come out on the pitch on Saturday deserve to be wearing the silver fern on their chests. They want to be sure of being in Graham Henry's plans for the World Cup next year. There will be no passengers.
The good news of course is that we have Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll back, both of whom were missing for the drubbing in Lansdowne Road last November. That in itself should keep the margin down a bit.
Overall, I think we will lose by 15-20 points on Saturday and by a score in the second test. Our only hope of salvaging some pride on this tour would be a win over the Wallabies, which we are capable of.