Peter Bills: Running rugby catching on in Europe

Jonny Sexton led Leinster to victory with 28 points. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealander Joe Schmidt likes to set his Leinster players a challenge. He certainly set them one at halftime in Cardiff on Saturday evening.

'Go out there, just put behind you what has happened in the first half and show how you can really play' was the gist of the message handed down by the Leinster coach. The rest, as they say, is history. Leinster won a superb Heineken Cup final 33-22, turning around a 6-22 halftime deficit with 27 unanswered points in the second half.

But never forget, history teaches us important lessons. And the most important from a tremendous, absolutely captivating Heineken Cup final, one of the best there has ever been, was that rugby in this part of the world is still capable of matching most of what the southern hemisphere can achieve.

In a World Cup year, that is certainly a lesson worth remembering.

Saturday's European final was a terrific advertisement for the game in the northern hemisphere. Yet it was more than that. The way both sides played at their best was a stirring re-affirmation of the potential of Irish and British rugby players. When inspired by a coach whose philosophy is to attack, to create and to play with the ball in hand, albeit varying the tactics to suit the moment and the situation, players from the northern hemisphere do have the skill set and the ability to embrace such a fluid, fast moving game.

All you could say, once you had sucked in a few big ones and blown out your cheeks at the throbbing emotion of it all, was that Northampton had played superbly in the first half, yet Leinster even better in the last 40 minutes. Such a scenario creates immense emotion and a huge aesthetic appeal. This was undeniably a match that commanded intense focus on the part of spectators. No Mexican waves, born of crass boredom, here. No-one even thought of one, so spectacular was the entertainment in the 6-try spectacular, hallmarked by Leinster and Ireland fly half Jonathan Sexton's 28 points.

But if the Heineken Cup continues to get better, year on year, to such an extent that it is now, in many of our minds, a better tournament than the 6 Nations, it is heartening to say the same of northern hemisphere rugby. This has been, as a whole, a fairly ordinary season. The great pragmatists of rugby like Saracens in England and Racing Metro in France, those who seek a largely risk-free game, threaten to win their respective Championship titles in England and France.

Yet in Ireland, Leinster have shown that another way is perfectly possible. This different philosophy embraces (whisper it in the company of those who eschew individuality, individual player responsibility or risk-taking on the field) decision making by those in a position to make the call. Furthermore, those players are invited, challenged even to be bold, to take chances in pursuit of opportunities.

But this is not one person's ludicrously misplaced fantasy. Joe Schmidt, Jonno Gibbes and their coaching colleagues work like dervishes to ensure every single one of their players is not just physically prepared so as to be able to play this way but mentally attuned to the special demands of such a strategy.

Ball skills must be of the highest order, concentration levels so exalted that players feel shattered by the end of a game from a mental point of view, never mind the physical element.

The way Leinster applied a tourniquet to Northampton throats in the second half on Saturday, kept it rigidly tight by holding onto the ball and consequently never releasing the pressure, was an object lesson in how to play this game. You have to be precise and patient. That had been Leinster's undoing in the first half. They had utterly lacked precision and patience. Their first-up tackling had been poor, too.

But as Sean O'Brien said later, no-one panicked at halftime, least of all Joe Schmidt. Nor did the brilliant Leinster coach ever think of compromising his values. Leinster went out and won the final in thrilling, ball-playing style.

So why can't Ireland play the same way in the World Cup?