No split loyalties for ex-Ireland stalwart Dion O’Cuinneagain when Springboks take the field

All is good in Dion O’Cuinneagain’s world, particularly in the week of an Ireland-Springboks Rugby World Cup clash. The South African-born former Irish captain has remained close friends with the former Ulster player Johnny Millar, who hosted the O’Cuinneagains among others at a beautiful, 10-bedroom chateau in Bordeaux for a week. The chateau is owned by a friend of Millar’s, and it is O’Cuinneagain backdrop under blue skies and bright sunshine when he calls by face time.

He and Michelle have 19-year-old twin girls Caitlin and Amy. “Good Irish names.” Caitlin has inherited her dad’s athleticism and is on a sports scholarship in Wichita where she is a 3,000m runner, while Amy, who is on a break from her studies, is with her parents in France.

They travelled on to Paris on Thursday, where O’Cuinneagain met former Irish team-mates Paul Wallace and Jeremy Davidson for, eh, lunch the day before the game. “It might be a long lunch,” he admitted in advance.

O’Cuinneagain was eligible to play for Ireland through his dad Connell, a dentist who hailed from Enniscorthy. An athletic, super-quick backrower, after moving first to Sale and then Ballymena and Ulster, O’Cuinneagain played 19 times for Ireland from 1998 to 2000.

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“Excellent memories. Great people, a fantastic time in my life, a fantastic time in my wife’s life, and still a time we look on with great fondness.”

He made his Irish debut in a 37–13 defeat against South Africa in Bloemfontein in June 1998 when Warren Gatland was coach. It was the first of a two-test, six-match tour.

“We had a reasonable tour. South Africa were the number-one team in the world and were on an unbeaten run under Nick Mallett, and Gatty was just getting into his rhythm as a coach. That game and the match against France, when I had a good game, are my two favourite games.”

O’Cuinneagain captained Ireland 10 times, in the 1999 Five Nations Championship, on a tour of Australia and in the 1999 World Cup, winning his 19th and last cap in a 60–13 win against Italy at Lansdowne Road in March 2000.

Although he was signed as emergency cover by Munster and played in their Heineken Cup semi-final defeat by Stade Francais in the Heineken Cup semi-finals a year later, he was forced to retire at the age of 29 due to a broken wrist and his medical studies.

“When I initially left South Africa my medical school gave me a year off and every year I used to write to my professor at the time. ‘Dear Prof, I’m a actually going to stay for another year.’

“Then in my third year, I wrote to him: ‘Can I stay for a fourth year?’ And he said: ‘No, come back, finish your medicine and if you still want to play rugby after that go and play rugby.’

“I was at a delicate situation in my medical year. I’d done five years and sixth year is your final year. So I went back, did my sixth year, and I got offers from Brendan Venter and Laurent Cabannes, at London Irish and Racing, and thought about it, but decided that at 29 it was time to pursue a normal career. For my body and the next phase of my life, I think I retired at the right time.

O’Cuinneagain has his own successful general practice in Cape Town, although he needed a sabbatical after the pandemic. Although his mother died four years ago, his dad still keeps a close eye on the Irish team, as does O’Cuinneagain himself.

Despite some coaching at the University of Cape Town rugby club with the former Munster backrower Barry O’Mahony, and with the South African 7s alongside the late Chester Williams in the early 2000s, O’Cuinneagain would not classify himself as a rugby expert anymore.

But there is no question of split loyalties.

“I’ve just done a South African TV interview now and I said: ‘Ireland’. It’s actually never confusing. I support the Boks against every other side except Ireland. It’s always been that way and will continue to be that way.”

It is a measure of the anticipation that this evening’s game has engendered in both countries that O’Cuinneagain actually begins our chat by simply saying: “I can’t believe how big this game is going to be at the weekend. I think everybody is watching it as sort of a World Cup decider.”

He agrees that whoever wins may well go all the way to the final.

“It sounds so strange, but no one wants to play France, particularly in the quarters. I think both Ireland and the Springboks back themselves to beat New Zealand at the moment, which is extraordinary, going to the World Cup and wanting to play New Zealand.”

O’Cuinneagain talks about the 8-9-10 axis for France, South Africa and Ireland. He believes the hosts might have an edge in Gregory Alldritt, Antoine Dupont particularly, and Mathieu Jalibert.

Looking from afar, he believes the last 15 years have been incredible for Irish rugby.

“When I played for Ireland we always talked about how smart the Australian rugby side was, and I think the Irish side is the smartest in the world now. They play to their strengths and the opposition’s weakness, and they’re gutsy, and the whole structure of Irish rugby looks very professional, very well managed.

“Rassie [Erasmus] brings a massive amount of detail to the Boks but there are so many contracted players in the South African provincial system that you don’t have to develop that talent. Whereas in Ireland every good player is well looked after, well-coached and well-conditioned and has a proper career path ahead of them,” says O’Cuinneagain, who has been particularly impressed by Caelan Doris.

Comparing the two sides, O’Cuinneagain cites the Boks’ monster pack and how their 7-1 split suits them, while also believing that Andy Farrell was correct in sticking to what suits Ireland.

“We all know the Boks will attack the Irish scrum and lineout, and be physical in defence, and Paul O’Connell will have been working hard on the Irish lineout to disrupt them [the Boks]. If Johnny Sexton can dictate things from 10, some clever inside passes, slow down that Boks’ defence, Ireland have obviously got a chance.”

He believes Manie Libbok has “incredible footwork” and can develop into a modern-day Carlos Spencer. “I know the Stormers coach John Dobson very well and Dobbo rates him highly. He has a good placekicking record with the Stormers, but hasn’t carried that through to the Boks yet,” says O’Cuinneagain, who believes the Boks might have missed an opportunity by not bringing the Stormers’ kicking coach Gareth Wright out to France.

O’Cuinneagain goes with the view that Pieter Steph du Toit is back to his best. “They have rushed Eben Etzebeth back, which shows how importantly the Springboks view this game, but getting those two firing gives a massive physical presence in that pack. Ireland will need Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Beirne to match the physical presence of that Bok pack,” he says.

“I think the breakdown is going to be massively contested and also I worry about a red card,” adds O’Cuinneagain. “In a big, physical game, guys are going to be flying into tackles, then the possibility of a strike on the head from either side is massive, and it will be sad if it goes down to 15 vs 14.”

In what he believes is a 50-50 game, O’Cuinneagain says, “if Ireland are within three points with 10 minutes to go, they’ll win it. I just think that in finishing off a match, Johnny Sexton is a master. Then, if it comes to it, he’ll move that pack around and they’ll get themselves into position for a penalty or a drop kick. They could win it in a tight finish.”