Alex Spink: Ireland's provinces need to shape up or their Six Nations hat-trick bid is doomed
Only Ulster can still progress in the Champions Cup, but The Mirror rugby correspondent believes more than mere pride is at stake this weekend
Andy Farrell was pictured in Limerick watching crisis-hit Munster train as Eddie Jones put the finishing touches to his first England squad selection.
How the rugby world has changed in a few short months.
Back in September, England were second favourites to win the World Cup and Munster were unbeaten at the top of the Pro12.
If the start of 2016 was to bring any change to the life of Farrell, England’s assistant coach, it seemed likely to come in the form of an upgrade to his OBE. We like World Cup winners in these parts.
But it all went pear-shaped for England. They didn’t get out of their pool - the first World Cup host nation to master that trick - and by December the rugby league legend was out of a job.
At much the same time Munster’s season was hitting the skids. Last weekend they lost for the sixth time in seven matches.
Out of Europe and down to fifth in the Pro12 and eight points off the pace, change was required.
Farrell’s phone rang.
And so it is we arrive at the fifth round of rugby’s Champions Cup, the weekend on which Europe’s big dogs really start to bark.
Not in Ireland it’s not.
Aside from Munster, Leinster are also out of the tournament. Ulster are alive, but lose at English champions Saracens on Saturday and their hopes of a quarter-final spot hang by a thread.
There has been nothing like this since 1998, one of only two times in the competition’s 20-year history that Ireland’s three mightiest provinces have failed to qualify.
The wretched memory of ’98, and before that ’97, has long since been buried beneath years of glory, with an avalanche of titles for Leinster (three), Munster (two) and Ulster (one).
Only twice since ’98 has there not been at least one Irish semi-finalist. Between 2006 and 2012 the Heineken Cup, as it was then known, went to Ireland five times in seven years.
At Thomond Park and the RDS Arena this weekend face-saving operations are the order of the day.
Munster play Stade Francais, who spanked them 27-10 in Paris a week ago to seal the two-time champions’ fate.
Leinster, meanwhile - still looking for their first win in the competition - host Bath, who themselves need victory to stand any chance of escaping Pool 5.
Watched by Farrell, who has been drafted in as a consultant ahead of his post-Six Nations switch to become Ireland defence coach, Munster will expect much better, though stopping the rot against these opponents looks a tall order.
Leinster are already on an upwards curve after a horrendous start to their Euro campaign and successive Pro12 wins over Munster, Connacht and Ospreys suggest that they will test Bath’s fragile confidence.
Ulster, too, are playing well. They have won five of their last six and last week came from 23-0 down to win in Oyonnax.
With the Six Nations just around the corner, that would have cheered Ireland coach Joe Schmidt.
Now what he needs to see is signs of a beating heart in the other provinces.
Without one, the Emerald Isle’s bid for a hat-trick of titles is doomed.
