Spirited player in the game of his life

"Give it a lash." It was a catchphrase synonymous with Mick Doyle, whose life was tragically cut short yesterday in a car crash outside Dungannon, but it could also be a summation of his 63 years.reports

The popular description - "a colourful figure larger than life" - doesn't really do justice to this son of Currow, a parish outside Castleisland in Kerry that produced three Lions: Doyle, Moss Keane and Mick Galwey. He shoehorned so much into his life as a player, a businessman and a coach, twice recovering from serious illness.

His father, Michael JP Doyle, who won a Munster Junior Cup medal with Castleisland, initially nurtured his prowess on the rugby field. It was no surprise that Mick and his younger brother Tom would follow the paternal lead, encouraged by his mother, Nell (nee Dennehy).

Educated at Newbridge College, Mick quickly displayed an aptitude for rugby that would see him play for the Lions, Ireland, Leinster, Blackrock College, UCD, Cambridge University, Edinburgh Wanderers, Cork Constitution and Garryowen.

He qualified as a veterinary surgeon from UCD but also held degrees from Cambridge and Edinburgh. He became one of the foremost authorities in Ireland on poultry, a legacy perhaps from the family business that revolved around broiler chickens.

He was twice married, first to Lynne (nee Thompson), with whom he had three children, Andrew, Sharon and Amanda, and latterly to Mandy, with whom he had a daughter, Emma.

Doyle won his first cap for Ireland against France in 1965 and would play 20 successive tests for his country before retiring in 1968, aged 28, after the Australian match.

In that final season he took great pride in being joined in the Irish team by his brother Tom. They played in the Five Nations Championship game against Wales at Lansdowne Road in 1968, Mick celebrating the occasion with a try, one of two he scored in the green jersey.

He continued to play club rugby and build his veterinary practice before joining the Leinster provincial set-up as a selector. In 1979 he was chosen to coach the team and thus began a hugely productive friendship and managerial partnership with Mick Cuddy.

It was to prove a halcyon era for Leinster rugby, producing three successive interprovincial titles (1979 to 1981), a share of the championship in 1982 and the title again in 1983. During that time the team never lost a match.

He was approached to succeed Willie John McBride as Ireland coach - on a 3-2 majority decision - for the 1984-1985 season, his first match in charge a creditable 16-9 defeat at Lansdowne Road to the Grand Slam Wallabies.

It was during that season that Doyle espoused the "give it a lash" policy, plumping for a host of new faces at international level and demanding of his charges that they go out and run the ball. It was a huge metamorphosis for the hitherto predictable, forward-orientated Irish team.

Ireland would celebrate that season with a Triple Crown and Five Nations Championship title, famously clinched by virtue of Michael Kiernan's drop goal against England. The following season proved hugely disappointing but Doyle was still at the helm for the inaugural World Cup in New Zealand in 1987.

He suffered a mild heart attack prior to the first game of the tournament, against Wales, but despite missing a couple of training sessions recovered to preside over wins against Canada and Tonga and defeats to Wales and, in the quarter-finals, Australia. He stepped down as coach at the end of the tournament.

In 1991 he wrote an autobiography, Doyler, and this foray into print was to prove a precursor to a career as a columnist with, first, the Evening Herald and then the Sunday Independent. Players and administrators alike were to feel the sharp edge of his outspoken articles.

His biggest setback came in 1996, when a blinding headache one morning turned into a sub-arachnoid haemorrhage, or to give it the more common term, brain haemorrhage. His recovery entailed a spell in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, partially paralysed initially and in a wheelchair.

He chronicled his experiences in a second autobiographical book, Zero Point One Six: Living in Extra Time, the title a reference to the statistical chance of surviving the brain trauma he had experienced.

He would reflect: "I used to go out on my own along the beach in Kerry and try to walk. At first I kept falling but, lying on the sand, I realised I couldn't fall any further. It was just me, the sea and the seagulls. A brain haemorrhage makes you very insular. You become totally self-centred and obsessed with getting better. You home in on it."

He embraced the fight with gusto, gradually clawing his way back to reasonable health under the loving direction of his wife Mandy. He recovered sufficiently to return to a career as a radio pundit with RTÉ and resume working for Biogen International.

The cruel irony of yesterday's tragic accident was that friends had noted a significant improvement in Doyle's sharpness and analysis this year in particular.