I made my confirmation in April 1994. On the same night, Dermot Morgan was finishing a run of shows at the Olympia Theatre. The old VHS tape thereof remains one of the best pieces of comedy the senses here have ever encountered. There are so many comedic gems therein it’s hard to nail down a favourite, but, outside of the great man’s ditty about Eamon Dunphy Release The Little B****x In D-Wing – to the air of Kevin Barry – undoubtedly the favourite gag therein was the one pertaining to the travails of the Irish rugby team at the time.
“Of course, the main difference between the soccer team and the rugby team – who share use of Lansdowne Road – is that the soccer team tend to win the games”. That didn’t age well at all. Of course, the other side of that coin is that in the interim ours has become one of the best teams expediting the oval ball code anywhere on the planet.
Getting there is one thing, remaining in situ a drastically different task. A list of those personnel who have passed through the halls of Irish rugby in the years between will one day form part of the annals of some of the greatest occurrences the oval ball code has produced. Brian O’Driscoll’s hat-trick in Paris; Ronan O’Gara’s drop goal(s); Ulster being the first Irish side to win the European Cup; Leinster’s spell of complete dominance therein and, finally but most significantly perhaps, Connacht’s capture of what was then known as the PR0-12 (now the URC) at a time when arrogant idiocy within the game was openly trifling with the idea of disbanding the team in the province.
Can you imagine – no Johnny Muldoon, no Mack Hansen or no Finlay Bealham, and that’s only off the top of this writer’s head. Anyway, one of the absolute necessities if one is attempting to keep any entity successful is to maintain a constant state of evolution. In the Ireland camp at the minute, part of same is being forced upon the Brains Trust and the other portion is by design.
On one hand, you had the requirement for Simon Easterby to take over from Andy Farrell owing to the latter being distracted by the unwieldy circus that is a British And Irish Lions tour, but, on the other, such is the depth of talent flowing through the game in this country presently that Easterby and his stock piled backroom team have the choice of Sam Prendergast or Jack Crowley for all important fly half berth.
Shock, horror, the man in the blue corner got the nod! Seriously, though, the reality is that Leinster have been sweeping all before them, and whether that is down to Prendergast’s influence on the team or the team’s influence on him you can decide for yourself. But it’s probably a moot point anyway.
Other than that, the team is very much along expected lines, bar the inclusion of Ryan Baird who deputises for Peter O’Mahony.
Ireland: H. Keenan; M. Hansen, G. Ringrose, B. Aki, J. Lowe; S. Prendergast, J. Gibson-Park; A. Porter, R. Kelleher, F. Bealham; T. Beirne, J. Ryan; R. Baird, J. Van Der Flier, C. Dorris (Capt.)
Replacements: D. Sheehan, C. Healy, I. Henderson, T. Clarkson, C. Murray, J. Crowley, R. Henshaw.
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