Wayne Pivac believes his champion Scarlets have undermined the claim that big budgets rule in professional rugby.
The New Zealander has claimed that his region – crowned Guinness Pro12 title winners after their routing of Munster on Saturday – are only eighth in the rich list of the 12 teams in the tournament.
The Scarlets’ six-try 46-22 triumph in Dublin was their first silverware for 13 years and the first Welsh title for five years. It was also delivered against a backdrop of intense and heated debate during those five seasons about the finance given to the four Welsh regions.
But whilst conceding that his region are one of the poorer relations compared to their richer Irish cousins, head coach Pivac has stressed that money alone is not the only determinant in building a successful rugby team.
The Kiwi won two titles back in his homeland with Auckland but said: “I’ve been lucky enough to win a few but this one is special because I don’t think we’re in the top three or four budgets, we’re probably seventh or eighth.
“So, it’s just been about getting quality people in and around the group with management and then getting quality individuals and our recruitment has been quite smart.
“Tadhg Beirne’s a classic case. He’s nowhere near on the biggest contract, I can tell you, but he’s one of the biggest players.
“We’ve been fortunate this year that we’ve finally got a squad together. It takes a couple of years to get the squad you want when you come in and Rassie Erasmus is finding that now with Munster.
“He’ll want to make some changes no doubt and when you’ve got contracted players for the next year or two it doesn’t happen overnight. The same with your staff. It takes a bit of time and this has been three years of hard work, it hasn’t just happened this season.”
This was only the Scarlets’ second championship crown, and first since 2004, so it was perhaps understandable that Pivac chose to invoke Llanelli’s landmark 1972 win by 9-3 over the All Blacks.
“This win is huge. The club had got a proud history. There’s a lot of talk about what happened in 1972 and we’ve talked as a group about building towards achieving the goal we’ve achieved. We were ready to create some new history and build going forward. It’s very pleasing to put the icing on the cake on what’s been a great timing of the run.
“We work on a lot of basic skills. We’ve got some players that have got a lot of X-factor, but it’s giving them the ball going forward. We’ve been able to do that.
“We’re talking about our attack now, scoring tries, but also our defence has been fantastic. We let a couple of soft ones in at the end, but generally speaking our defence was pretty rock solid. I think we’re not only a strong attacking team now, but we’re also a very strong defensive team.”
This was the second Pro12 final defeat for Munster in three seasons and their fourth successive loss at the Aviva Stadium, including last month’s Champions Cup semi-final exit to Saracens.
They looked tired, both physically and mentally, at the end of a campaign that was tinged with great sadness following the tragic passing of head coach Anthony Foley in October.
Their South African director of rugby Erasmus, who can still take plenty of positives from his first year in charge, was magnanimous in defeat and offered no excuses.
“I think if you go and look at those tries (from Scarlets), they were just unbelievable tries, Erasmus said. “A lot of speed and skill. They out-and-out deserved this game, and even from last week, playing with 14 men (against Leinster), going into this game they just stepped it up.
“You can see they are a team that really believe in one another, that understands one another, and really believed in the way the coaches are coaching. If you are a little bit off your game, they punish you like they did, so no excuses.”