{"id":139208,"date":"2025-05-28T17:05:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T17:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139208\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T17:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T17:05:16","slug":"stephen-donald-claims-leinster-would-stand-no-chance-against-the-chiefs-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/139208\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Donald claims Leinster would stand ‘no chance’ against the Chiefs : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former All Black Stephen Donald is very confident that Super Rugby\u2019s best would overcome the likes of Leinster following the announcement of a Club World Cup.<\/b><\/p>\n

It was revealed at the weekend that a competition involving the best club sides in the world has been scheduled for 2028.<\/p>\n

The intention is to find the best non-international outfit every four years, which would help end the debate about who has the premier team.<\/p>\n

That has of course restarted the argument about which team is currently at the summit and, on The Aftermatch with Kirst & Beav, Donald<\/a> was asked by host Kirstie Stanway whether Leinster<\/a> would beat the current Chiefs<\/a> side.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I wouldn\u2019t have thought so,\u201d the 2011 Rugby World Cup winner responded.<\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s strength despite Champions Cup struggles<\/p>\n

Although the Irish province failed to reach the Champions Cup final this year, with Bordeaux-Begles and Northampton Saints instead contesting the showpiece event, they remain one of the best sides in Europe given the strength of their squad.<\/p>\n

Donald did add a few caveats, including the \u201crefereeing\u201d and the \u201crules they\u2019re playing\u201d, which could play a part, but also stated that the game is slower up north.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is the speed of game, and what have you, are different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the French Top 14, it\u2019s a different speed of game, so it would depend on so many external factors at who\u2019s going to come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanway then quipped: \u201cBasically, Leinster would have no chance against the Chiefs, that\u2019s what Beav is saying,\u201d before Donald replied: \u201cNot if it\u2019s played on a balmy evening in March in Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loose Pass: Club World Cup concerns, Henry Pollock advice and a \u2018mystifying\u2019 decision in New Zealand<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Champions Cup and Super Rugby sides will form the bulk of the competitors, but they are likely to be joined by a team from Japan.<\/p>\n

However, Donald feels that, despite the vast amount of foreign talent now in Asia, they would struggle to challenge.<\/p>\n

How Japanese teams would fare<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Japan, they have a list of foreigners but in any game day situation they can only have two or three of them on the field at once,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we come to the Club World Cup, they will all be on the field, so they might bolster up with more, but right now, if they have six [in the team], the other nine on the field are going to be Japanese boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level might be a bit beyond them, just from a physicality point of view. We\u2019ve seen Japan compete on the international stage but when you think of the Leinsters, who are Ireland in blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanway then chimed in, jokingly saying: \u201cBut they\u2019re playing in a low, low level competition\u201d, referencing the backlash Donald received for criticising the standard of the United Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n

Donald responded with, \u201cYeah, but they will get up for a couple\u201d, before speaking about the sheer size of the players in the Top 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got the Bordeauxs, all those big French teams. I think the Japanese teams would probably struggle, [but] it would be interesting to see how they do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to shut a few people up, isn\u2019t it? A few pundits, a few podcasts.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Club World Cup finally confirmed with EPCR set to run \u2018box-office\u2019 competition<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former All Black Stephen Donald is very confident that Super Rugby\u2019s best would overcome the likes of Leinster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[2383,58931,225,4306,12,4151,79,13881,10264,16,15,4510],"class_list":{"0":"post-139208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-champions-cup","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-leinster","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-stephen-donald","16":"tag-super-rugby","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114586551812434365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}