"Jesus, " says the barman handing the guy a pint. "This one is on the house mate, you boys did a great job over there."

"Muchos gracias senor."

There is some more fighting to take place in Argentina but before that we have to wait for some of our troops to turn up. They have a battle to fight on this side of the equator before they do . . . , the small matter of the Heineken Cup to attend to.

The reason I'm doing a preview is because Sky have decided that the match should be played on a Sunday. The FA Cup Final at Wembley is being shown live on Sky Sports on Saturday and so Sky don't want them to clash.

I don't see how it could. Sky have four sports channels, basic arithmetic tells you that you could fit both of them in at the same time. Soccer and rugby, I believe, have two distinctly different audiences, two very unique social sporting castes. I would doubt that there would be an overlap of more than 1,000 who would want to watch both live and probably an even lower television audience. ERC will tell us that it's kind of okay to have the big event on a Sunday. Everyone knows that's bollocks. Six Nations Sunday games don't work, neither does a Sunday Heineken Final.

At the time of writing there was an announcement to be made on the Saturday before the Twickenham extravaganza. A joint communique issued by a cabal of warring parties: the IRB, ERC and the English and French sugar daddy extortion lobby. The polemic will have been miraculously assuaged, there will be a self congratulatory missive from spooks at the spin factory saying that the Heineken Cup will go on to be the best competition ever and every one loves everyone againf and then they'll probably all bugger off to watch the FA Cup.

No point in watching Bath v Clermount.

What would you watch that for?

Whenever they say it's not the money, it's the principle . . . then it's the money.

This was always about the English clubs sticking the RFU for a greater share of the pie. This dispute is not resolved until the RFU cough up a serious amount of dough . . . enough money to ensure that the RFU will need to recoup it from somewhere else. All will be well for another five years until the clubs need more money to finance even more All Blacks who are flooding north and who can't believe that these f***wits are paying them the sort of dough that they are paying them.

So harmony for the moment and we should get to savour what it's really all about . . . the final. Leo Cullen, Shane Jennings, Geordan Murphy, Eoin Reddan and Peter Bracken will have to slog it out before they fly south to scrap for a World Cup slot in Buenos Aires. I hope Wasps win it, I played them twice in my career.

They have got an awful lot right about their club, for toffs they were always very friendly off the park and they always played a tough uncompromising brand of rugby on it. I congratulate them on the number of English home-grown players they produce and keep. I admire and respect Dallaglio and McGeechan . . .

Shaun Edwards too, and I am more than hoping that they win the game. I think they will win or come damn close to it.

There is a common denominator to both teams success over the last five years;

Dallaglio, who is always worth listening to, pointed it out during the week. That denominator will be familiar to Irish rugby fans.

Craig White was fitness coach to Ireland for three or four seasons. The guy knew his stuff and Ireland prospered as they kick-started a much needed longterm conditioning programme. He was somewhat restricted in putting the full range of his programme forward . . . it was a little bit too avant garde, particularly the supplements side of things. When Wazza Gatland was dispatched from IRFU-land it didn't take him long to re-employ White at Wasps. The former Wigan rugby league player came in and revolutionised Wasps and the silverware just kept coming. One Heineken Cup and two Guinness Premiership titles.

White introduced a supplements regime and the players began to take Maximuscle supplements, in the vernacular . . . performance nutrients. Products like Promax, Viper, Thermobol and Recovermax. The titles are almost onomatopoeic and are self-explanatory. They scare the hell out of me but there are assurances that the products are screened by one of the UK's independent WADA-approved laboratories.

It is no coincidence that Wasps were supercharged in the period in which White was in control. People used to wonder why Wasps made these great charges as the league came to a conclusion, how they were razor-sharp and fresh at the end of the season when other teams were out on their feet.

Professional rugby players are naturally bigger than the average plod in the street.

Wasps players were bigger again . . . acquired legally. I have no issues, they punished Munster at the collision zone with their physicality at the Heino semi-final in Lansdowne.

Even more recently, they just took Leinster out physically in Adams Park . . . Leinster never even got a shot off in the physical stakes.

Wasps are marvellous competitors. Gloucester may have shipped 40-odd points and didn't make their tackles in the Guinness Premiership final but I can't see that happening today. The shoe might be on the other foot now.

Craig White left Wasps at the end of last season and joined Leicester. Again it is no coincidence that Leicester look like they could keep going for another six or seven months.

No problem. They are going for a treble and they did indeed look awesome last week.

White has them humming whereas they didn't front up against Munster in Welford Road. Mentally and physically they were in prime condition for the return in Thomond and they have kept it at that pitch since that game . . . quite a difficult thing to do for that length of time.

The exact inverse of what Leinster have managed to do.

Looking back at both teams' performance in the pool stages one thing stuck out . . . how mean they were defensively. Wasps conceded 64 points, Leicester 60, jointly the lowest by a huge margin. The final will be all about closing doors. I think though that Edwards restrictive street wisdom manual will read Leicester's patterns without flaw. Edwards will even have a strategy to contain Tuilagi and Rabeni.

A three-week rest may not have suited Wasps, they are a team who play through pain. They like to be active. If they don't have a nightmare start I think they will match Leicester, tough it out and snatch the win.

To conclude, there are two things worth mentioning. I was staggered to find out that Manchester United have employed an ophthalmic professional to teach and instruct all their players how to maximise their peripheral vision, how to know when somebody is behind or beside them, how to spot someone making a run out of the corner of their eye etc. I thought that was as comprehensive as it can get in terms of preparation.

Leicester have a judo coach, Wayne Lakins, who teaches how to bring a player down to ground in a split second, how to wrestle, how to stay on your feet. Jayzus, Leicester really leave no stone unturned.

Secondly, Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings are on fire at the moment. They both leave Welford Road voluntarily to try and further their Ireland careers. They leave to join an inferior management and preparation structure.

No Craig White, no supplements, no judo, no cups. What's the bets, good players that they are, that they won't be quite the players they were this season.