The first block of Heineken Cup matches are over and I feel exhausted! Two weeks of wall-to-wall coverage of top class games is very draining and I'm looking forward to the relative calm of the Magners League for a couple of weeks. And then we have the Autumn Tests. No-one can accuse the professional game of being boring.
The first pool matches clearly showed that the standard of play continues to improve, that the vast majority are very competiive and any team can beat any other team on their day. Who would have forecast that Treviso would beat the French champions, Perpignan or that the holders, Leinster, would lose at home to London Irish in their first defence?
It seems that players treat the competition with great respect, they want to impress on a bigger stage with their day-to-day workmates and I believe the standards set are often higher than those in international matches, including the Six Nations.
So where do Glasgow and Edinburgh fit, in the grand scheme of things?
Glasgow never looked like winning at Newport. They lost their most influential player, Chris Cusiter, after fifteen minutes and their game was effectively over at halftime. Actually, the Dragons are a greatly improved side, made up of home grown talent - unlike the other Welsh regions- and supported by a very vociferous set of supporters.
But Sean Lineen, Glasgow’s head coach, must be very disappointed at the number of turnovers that directly or indirectly led to points for the opposition. I was disappointed to read that he reckons his team's European campaign is over when you consider that second place in the group could still take Glasgow into the later stages of the Challenge Cup. It shows a certain lack of ambition, in my opinion.
Edinburgh, on the other hand, "toughed" it out at Murrayfield and were deserved winners against Ulster. They left their fast flowing, off-loading game in the dressing room and resorted to a more direct, pragmatic approach, especially at the business end of the game giving Ulster no chance to counter attack once they had taken the lead.
It was ironic, however, that, after all the prior publicity that Edinburgh are a "Scottish" team it was their only foreign player, Tim Visser who won the game for them and gave them hopes of at least a second place in the group. I read somewhere that Edinburgh supporters expect their team to play entertaining rugby. Aye, thats all right against the likes of Connacht but, in tight games, victory is all that matters to supporters, however it is procured.
The Magners League is back for two weeks - Glasgow should dispose of Connacht at Firhill whilst Edinburgh welcome Munster to Murrayfield. The champions at not playing particularly well at the moment so the home team have a great opportunity to win and cement their place at the top of the league.
