Gordon D’Arcy: The season has properly started now – let’s see who can keep momentum going

It was difficult to escape the feeling that the season only started in earnest last weekend with the first round of fixtures in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. There was no fanfare. The budget doesn’t appear to allow for any razzamatazz. The Champions Cup has struggled with ugly duckling syndrome for quite some time, the format clunky and dull at the pool stage, where there is little jeopardy for those clubs who apply themselves for two of the four matches. This season’s rule tweaks regarding the qualification for the knockout phases and the try bonus point are a step in the right direction. I found last weekend’s rugby engaging for the most part across a broad spectrum of matches.Back when I was busy establishing myself in professional rugby after what I will politely term a false start or two – and the wilderness years that ensued – I came to value this time more as each season progressed.READ MORERequirements are different for every player depending on age, physical development and positional requirements. You must keep evolving, and preseason is where that happens. It might be skill development. For some players it’s physical. I was lucky, naturally springy and powerful. My challenge was usually keeping my weight in check and building the aerobic capacity for which there is no shortcut. Experience comes with time and so does physical development. The ability to last 80 minutes is something into which you grow.Munster back rows Seán Edogbo and Brian Gleeson came off about the hour mark on Saturday. No problem there. It’s good management from Clayton McMillan, looking after young players and not squeezing too much out of them, even in a game that needed the power they bring.Connacht’s Caolin Blade scores his side's sixth try despite Noah Caluori of Saracens on Saturday. Photograph: James Crombie/INPHO I can still picture walking out on to the back pitches at UCD, Michael Cheika sitting there with his big ghetto blaster while we ran shuttles. He and Jason Cowman, our head of fitness, had a view on where the game was going. They saw it getting quicker and felt the law changes would bring a higher tempo. They wanted us 5 to 10 per cent lighter, but fitter.It was a paradigm shift. The running was brutal and it was endless. You’d wake up in a cold sweat knowing what was coming that morning. But it gave the season a focus. Over a few seasons we built mental resilience, then fitness and then the ability to win. It took several preseasons to build up to that first European Cup.Joe Schmidt brought the same singular focus. We played an incredible amount of drop-off touch: where any time you touched the ball you then sprinted back to your own try line before you could rejoin proceedings. The defence was always short, so the smart attackers went where you weren’t. It was all work-rate and intensity, but it put a huge emphasis on skills too. The net benefit came out in season. I mention this because, four games in, you can see shape emerging in how the provinces want to play. Connacht and Ulster have the clearer picture. Richie Murphy is building on a longer runway in Belfast, and Stuart Lancaster is into his second year in Galway. Lancaster’s calling card is high-level skills execution under pressure. If you’re going to play high-tempo, possession-based rugby, it’s a prerequisite. Connacht won’t be the biggest team, or the strongest, or the fastest. What they can control is skill execution.There were plenty of examples in the 45-36 win over Saracens. Ruck accuracy was good. Decision-making was sharp both in timing and execution. Connacht head coach Stuart Lancaster with player Sean Jansen. Photograph: James Crombie/INPHO Ulster’s 40-21 win against Zebre in the Challenge Cup wasn’t as stern a test as those faced by their provincial siblings. It was though a chance to make changes, and after last season’s injury issues that’s no bad thing.Rotation in personnel and Ireland players returning in dribs and drabs over the first three United Rugby Championship (URC) games brought a level of early-season disjointedness in playing patterns, but that was less evident at the weekend. Munster honoured Anthony Foley’s memory with a suitably energetic display where Marnus van der Merwe, Edogbo, Gleeson and Dan Kelly led the way in the carrying game, putting their team on the front foot. The quality of the ruck ball was excellent, which brought Craig Casey into the game and let him dictate tempo. The way they want to play is clear. Charlie O’Shea, Alex Nankivell, Kelly and to an extent, Seán O’Brien, all get heavily involved in sweeping plays off the second and third wave of attack, hunting mismatches. That’s the start of a style of play, maybe even an identity.Shay McCarthy scores Munster's second try against Racing 92 on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Elliott/INPHO Shay McCarthy impressed me. I loved his try. A winger with pace, smart enough to realise that once he’d broken the line with a lovely drop of the hip, he had to go flat out for the try line, which he did, beating three opponents. That’s someone who knows when to be selfish for the team. It’s been a weakness in Irish teams from time to time. Leinster looked solid and strong up front, the tight five laying a foundation for everything else. Fintan Gunne was sharp. Yes, he made mistakes, but with little game time under his belt at this level those errors are understandable. The promise was there. His snipe around the ruck and the offload for Tadhg Furlong’s try epitomised modern game values: break the line and keep the ball alive.There was a lot to like. There is a willingness to explore. Sam Prendergast had a run in the first half and got caught. He didn’t get caught the next time. You don’t only judge the wins. You develop a feel for when to attack and why.The continuity is developing too. Off a Clermont knock-on, Prendergast broke from deep, and the kick was fantastic. But what matters is that Jimmy O’Brien was ready for it. A yard later and he doesn’t have the space to gather and get the ball back to his outhalf. Every time there was space in behind, O’Brien was there. That is players starting to see the same thing without having to communicate. Sam Prendergast played starring role for Leinster in bonus-point win over Clermont. Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO I’ve been a big critic of Scotland’s Finn Russell for much of his career. I had a barney with Simon Zebo about it. He defended Russell as creative and awesome. I questioned the outhalf’s ability to navigate big games when the bullets were flying. Russell has grown into a truly remarkable player. What sets him apart is his all-round game, putting the ball where it needs to be through whatever means necessary.Prendergast has shown similar qualities, a passing range against Cardiff and last weekend a spectacular kicking game out of hand. This feels to me like a player that has looked at himself over the last year and asked what he needed to do differently. Clermont’s inside defenders stood off him, not seeing him as a threat with ball in hand. Rather than panic, he watched the outside defence come up and dropped the ball on his foot into the space behind, often with team-mates recognising the opportunity at the same time.That brings out more in others. Tommy O’Brien will want to try things. Ryan Baird will get into it. The challenge for Leinster is seeing it together often enough for it to become ingrained. Next Saturday lines up beautifully. Leinster versus Munster. Preseason is over. Let’s see who keeps the momentum going.