RUGBY: Gerry Thornley recalls when a famous victory at fortress Twickenham set Ireland up for their first Triple Crown since 1985
Friday, March 5th, the Twickenham car park. Clive Woodward is about to give his eve-of-match press conference. Lawrence Dallaglio, reinstated as England captain, pretends to be amused by some of the comments which have emanated from the Irish camp. "Your boys seem to fancy their chances," he observed. It could have been Clint Eastwood through gritted teeth, chewing the butt end of his thin cigar. "I don't think it's nice you laughing."
The primary source of his ire was a quote, assuredly a tongue-in-cheek one, attributed to Brian O'Driscoll in his BBC online column: "Hopefully we can give the prawn sandwich brigade at Twickenham something to choke on." When this was inevitably put to Woodward, the English coach smiled wryly.
"I'm surprised teams haven't learnt that about England: it's just best to keep quiet. We've had it in Scotland, we've had it from Ireland and no doubt we'll have it from Wales. We do our talking on the pitch. I've nothing to say to Brian apart from I don't eat prawn sandwiches. I prefer chicken and tomato."
Ye gods, Brian, what have you said? This was to have been another English World Cup coronation, their first game at fortress Twickenham since Jonny Wilkinson's unforgettable drop goal in the Sydney final the preceding November. They had beaten Ireland by 45-11 and 42-6 (in the Grand Slam decider of the previous season) in the countries' most recent clashes. They had won 25 of their previous 25 games, they had won 22 on the bounce at Twickenham and the remarkable Dallaglio had been on the winning side in 26 consecutive Test matches.
England did, admittedly, look more vulnerable than at any stage in the previous two years. Their enforcer, Martin Johnson, had retired. Their points machine, Wilkinson, was injured. So too was Mike Tindall in midfield and the awesomely consistent and effective Richard Hill.
Against that, Ireland's cutting edge had been blunted by the absence of Geordan Murphy and Denis Hickie, and though England's wins over Italy and Scotland hadn't been vintage performances, Ireland had lost in Paris while this was still, after all, the world champions at Twickenham.
But from the moment Paul O'Connell nicked the first Steve Thompson throw from the clutches of Steve Borthwick in the opening minute, there was the whiff something special in the air. England would ultimately lose 11 of their throws, stopping them from getting their multi-phase attack going against Ireland's aggressive defence.
Ronan O'Gara let England off the hook early on when he hit the post with what, for him, would be a tap-over, but thereafter he kicked immaculately, and despite the Irish scrum inadvertently coughing up 10 points, O'Gara's fourth penalty put Ireland 12-10 in front at the break.
Within two minutes of the restart England were denied a try after recourse to the television match official (TMO) when he adjudged Ben Cohen had made a double movement in touching down when held by Gordon D'Arcy (with the help of the covering Peter Stringer). Strictly speaking, this was beyond the TMO's remit.
After that reprieve, Ireland upped the tempo. It started with Girvan Dempsey counter-attacking and linking with Tyrone Howe on the left. Long skip passes to the right saw Paul O'Connell break Thompson's tackle and offload in another to the supporting Foley. D'Arcy took it on further before Ireland went wide left with long skip passes, and again back to the right, with O'Driscoll's pass eluding Horgan by some distance. Still, it was a statement of intent.
In the 10th minute of the half, the Irish packed mauled - a huge means of go-forward ball all day - off O'Kelly's take. Cue D'Arcy. There seemed nothing on until he straightened and quickened inside Mike Tindall and outside Paul Grayson to shoot upfield. Stringer and Howe took it on before Ireland went rapidly across field to the right where Foley again made vital extra yards.
Long skip passes by Stringer, D'Arcy and O'Driscoll quickly transferred the ball back to Howe on the other side, where he fed Dempsey for the famous sliding finish and late hit by Ben Cohen next to the corner flag. It was truly a team try. From lineout through three phases to touchdown the ball went through 17 pairs of hands. And given it was the product of shrewd video analysis and careful planning, one wonders if Eddie O'Sullivan has ever had a more satisfying moment in his coaching career.
"We'd kind of seen, in fairness to the Italians, where to attack England, and that was out wide, but they didn't retain the ball," said O'Gara. "So our policy was to play from side to side and the try was very satisfying. It was an outstanding pass from Drico to Tyrone and then to put Girv away. But we'd identified that from video analysis, that Lewsey shoots up out of the line there, so I think we got it spot on. We practised all week to play with width."
There were some scary moments, not least Malcolm O'Kelly's tackle from the end of the earth to deny Mark Regan. But no one, not even Brian Moore, could quibble with the merits of Ireland's win, and in fairness to the magnanimous Woodward and Dallaglio, they didn't either. One of the great days.
Ireland duly completed their first Triple Crown since 1985 by beating Scotland, as well as Italy at home; the outstanding D'Arcy won pretty much every gong going, Dempsey's try was voted try of the season and O'Sullivan was crowned Philips Sports Manager of the Year. Nearly all of what made a good year into a landmark year emanated from that day.
