WHAT'S all that malarkey about success having a thousand sons and failure being an orphan. It doesn't really apply in Leicester, they've been winning for years. But they can share it with no-one except their own because nobody else in England likes them. Some very personable fellas play for and manage them but there is a rich vein of Richard Cockerill-types which backbone the club and that is depressing. Pat Howard is as understated an Aussie as you will find and very pleasant company.

But his forwards coach Rick Cockerill was uncouth as a player and he's unctuous as a coach.

He may be seen as having a winning attitude but not by this writer. I respect Leicester's ability to win, but I don't like to see them do it.

Take Neil Back in Cardiff in the clutch play on that Munster scrum, he did what he had to do. I would have done the same . . . badge of honour for Neil Back, badgered by remorse by Neil Francis. Unapologetic if it meant winning. I have a conscience.

They won again last week. Christ, it was a stunning game. I'm struggling for a descriptive adjective . . . meaty suggests a lack of skill, cracking undermines the level of thought, aspirational doesn't conjure up the requisite level of endeavour. It was the best game I've seen at this level in quite a while, a while meaning the last time Leicester played in this competition which was the quarter-final against Stade Francais. It was another game of savage intensity and superior quality. A match the Englishmen were lucky to win.

But it tells you something about the English. They have become quite gullible and open to being led. Tell them something with a straight face and shout it at them and they will believe you. After the pool stages of the Heino it was claimed by many on this side of the pond that the game on the mainland (love that term) was supine. Well, Stade came up short. I'm sure I saw a few Chinese bookies in the crowd at the Biarritz/Northampton game. Both Irish provinces were routed. That left three English sides in it . . . not bad for a nation who had 44 points put on them by Ireland and who lost miserably to the Welsh in Cardiff.

Three clubs still standing out of four at the business end of the competition. I had a sneaking suspicion that Llanelli would win last week. They knew what they had to do it win.

Phil Davies will be the new Welsh coach after the World Cup ends, and Llanelli will gladly take Gareth Jenkins back as a trade-in.

Davies is a very clever coach and he plays a superior brand of rugby. It's very hard to cover the gaps when they crank up the intensity. I think if the two sides had met about a month ago Llanelli would have won. Last week as the game got into the 60th minute, I expected Llanelli to crank it up a notch, but it was the Tigers who had their foot on the accelerator and they put the Welsh away in the last 20. I was scratching for a reason and then it came to me . . .

the Welsh, no more than ourselves, are gearing their programmes to peak for the November internationals and the Six Nations championship. The English clubs gear their programme to peak for the business end of the club season. How many times have you seen some of the Premiership big boys, particularly a team like Wasps, loll (pardon the pun) around in mid-table in February and then ignite and go on a winning streak. Their form is practically irresistible and it is all geared to the club programme . . . the Premiership.

Llanelli, the best team in it at pool and quarter-final stage, burn out and suddenly, as if by absolute accident, Leicester steam through as the finish line comes into sight.

But Leicester winning has got to be good news for us, doesn't it? Yes and no. Leicester should have three certs to play in the first test against Argentina in Santa Fe but it's hard to see them starting in that test. However, by then Leo Cullen, Shane Jennings and Geordan Murphy all might have a Heineken Cup medal to console them, with Murphy in line to win his third. The English club game has a reasonably high entertainment quotient. It's not all bosh and looking for contact but that match at the Walkers Stadium, despite being a game of skill and quality, had a huge amount of turnovers, just short of 30, which would have had both coaches blinking in bewilderment. Such was the intensity of the contact that it was difficult enough to hang on to the ball, never mind present it. It's hard to hang on to your mobile phone when you have rearended someone.

The back-row's role took on added significance. I figured that Llanelli's Simon Easterby, Alix Popham and Nathan Turner would have the upper hand in their clash with Lewis Moody, Martin Corry and Shane Jennings. It was pleasing to see that the two best players in this battle were Irish.

I have always figured Simon Easterby to be a gentleman racer type. The type of fella that would shout en garde before he ran through you. Gratifying so to see his transformation to the dark side is almost complete. He brilliantly took out Chris Czekaj in the Welsh game in Cardiff while almost legitimately going for the ball . . . he got away with it. Last weekend he snaffled, stole and slowed at the contact though and got away with it, but still came second to Shane Jennings who must surely be going to start against Argentina in Buenos Aires.

There are inaccurate claims made in certain media outlets that Jennings hasn't much pace. Sad to relate he has more gas than most of the infield backs. His motor permits him to run at a hot pace for a considerable time and as the intensity of this match soared, it was incredible to see how many times Jennings actually appeared in play and did something constructive. Sad also to relate, but he would not have become the player that he is now if he had stayed at Leinster.

Young kids on the fringes aren't dummies, they'll see that and move too. The IRFU might not care to admit it either. Jennings at 6'1" and 16 stone might not be seen as big enough but he is bigger than Wasps' Tom Rees who comes in at 6' and 15 stone 12 pounds. It will be the highlight of the final, the open-side futures of Ireland and England locked in mortal combat. Rees has picked up a handful of caps this season and is a seriously good player as Leinster found out. Jennings is uncapped at this juncture but, in my opinion, is a better player. It will be interesting to see how Eddie O'Sullivan chooses to use him.

Leo Cullen didn't enter until the 60th minute. Hopefully he will start in the final although Ben Kay and Louis Deacon (hair too well groomed) had decent performances.

Cullen doesn't look anything like the quintessential second row. He moves camel-like across the park and goes to ground too easy in contact, but that's it in the deficiency department. His honesty of application is thorough. Sometimes it's a slight to call someone dependable but he never misses a tackle, always wins his line-out ball, constantly hoovers up restart ball and always closes down space. The only difference between himself and Denis Irwin is one foot and eight stone. He is the most effective second row we have if not the most spectacular or abrasive.

He still does his job when all around might be falling asunder. He has leap-frogged Mick O'Driscoll and Malcolm O'Kelly and a good tour in Argentina might see him bump Donnacha O'Callaghan. Remember, he made Paul O'Connell look ordinary in Thomond Park when Leicester beat Munster. He doesn't give away stupid penalties and he doesn't bother making a nuisance of himself by bumping into grounded players at ruck time.

There's a huge amount at stake here for the number four jersey.

What's eating Gilbert Grape? What's eating Geordan Murphy? He had another poor game in the semi-final . . . a compendium of mistakes and a display lacking clarity of thought and confidence. It's no secret that himself and the little general don't have a good relationship.

Does he need to go to Argentina? As the one Leicester player involved in the Ireland squad, his programme means that he is a lot less fresh than some of his Leicester colleagues.

He needs a rest methinks.

Finally I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar. How can Keith Barwell, Northampton's sugar daddy, state that he wouldn't mind going down to the second division if his side won the Heineken Cup. For someone who is engaged in the process of ending the Heineken Cup it does appear self-contradictory. Well, it's great news that Northampton are out of the Heineken Cup and at the time of writing they looked like they would be relegated, so happy all round. To be hoist by your own petard I think is the term we are looking for.