It's hard not to be swept up by the wonder of the remarkable rise of Leicester City this season. Even Connacht's growth, although significantly more signposted has been a joy to watch, and onlookers and neutrals alike have been enthralled by the story.
Not Neil Francis though.
No, our Franno is more concerned about why 'bad' teams are allowed to do so well; and predicts that both teams will feature some falls from grace next season. Of Leicester, he thinks that their success is predicated on the abject failure of the better, wealthier teams in the league:
The Leicester City story is not about the triumph of ambition and desire over talent and money - the feelgood factor is the failure of the wealthy contenders. The feelgood factor ends when they set foot in the Bernabeu or the Nou Camp.
Francis disregards the entire quality of the league, in one foul sentence:
Sad to say England's soccer league is chaff, as evidenced by a team like Leicester winning it.
Which brings him to his chosen sport. Unlike Leicester, Connacht showed tangible growth in Pat Lam's previous two seasons - first by beating Toulouse in France, and then by beating Leinster and Munster on a more regular basis before narrowly missing out on a Champions Cup spot in their best ever season last year. This season has just been a continuation of that growth, as their talented youngsters get better and more experienced.
That's not what Francis chooses to believe however, disregarding the evidence on paper before his eyes:
Connacht's rise ? Well you would like to think it is more to do with the recognition that they have stirred themselves. Their rise though has been facilitated by the palliative decline in the traditional powers in this league.
Have the rest of the league declined? You could argue that Glasgow, Scarlets, Edinburgh, and Cardiff are all better than they have been - while only Ospreys and Munster have fallen a big distance from what they were.
Despite the clear improvement and quality of the young players in Connacht's squad - Francis is pessimist about next season.
Connacht's flight, though admirable, masks just how s***e the league has become and pretty much like Leicester, next season the feelgood factor will dissipate after half an hour in the Stade Michelin or Allianz Park.
The whole point of his column is to suggest that because next season will be back to normal for the Westerners, that they must get something out of this year. He says this despite confirming that Glasgow will beat them this Saturday, and "do so with a good bit to spare." He even addresses that this article isn't meant to fire up Connacht as a means to stick up in the dressing room:
Sticking this article up on the dressing-room wall won't make that much of a difference.
Not content to limit his shots at Irish rugby's highest placed team at the moment, Francis whips out a wonderful but extremely harsh line about how Leinster are playing at the moment:
Leinster are playing like a little old lady in a 10-year-old Nissan Micra 200 metres from the traffic lights but with the foot on the brake waiting for the lights to turn orange.
It's one of those articles that you need to read to believe, and it will just make you laugh.
