RUGBY/ALL IRELAND LEAGUE FINAL:Brian Walsh, the Cork Constitution coach, talks to GERRY THORNLEYabout a tradition of success and making the right decisions on the pitch
SHANNON HAVE won more titles, a remarkable nine, but no club has arguably been more consistently there or thereabouts than four-time winners Cork Constitution, who have reached the play-offs in nine of the last 11 years. This season, they topped the table for the fifth season running en route to meeting Old Belvedere in Sunday’s Ulster Bank League final, their eighth in the 14 years of the play-offs.
Brian Walsh was an elegant and stylish fullback in the side when they were inaugural winners in 1991, and was in the team when they beat Garryowen 14-11 in the 1999 decider, courtesy of an extra-time penalty by a 22-year-old Ronan O’Gara.
However, he was also in the team when they lost the 2001 decider to a star-studded Dungannon, the first of three final defeats Con suffered after topping the Division One table again in ’02 and ’04.
For the last of those, a 22-16 defeat to Shannon, Walsh was in the first of his eight seasons as the Con coach, and although yet another final loss would follow in the 2007 decider to Garryowen (by 16-15), they avenged that setback 12 months later and last season won their fourth AIL title with a 17-10 win over St Mary’s.
“I suppose something I take pride in is looking at our stats over the last five years,” says Walsh, in reference to what is a remarkable 85 per cent winning ratio. “We’ve had a very good level of consistency, and from a personal point of view, just the way we coach and try to play the game, you can do that without being overly structured or patterned. You can do it by concentrating on the player and the unit, and making the players take responsibility more than anything else.
“We would have a fundamental way of playing, but players have decisions to make all the time and they’re given the freedom to make them. It’s a much more enjoyable way to play the game and be involved in it.”
But as he knows as well as anyone, topping tables counts for nothing when it comes to finals.
“You need to be a bit more dogmatic when it comes to finals, but they’re just different decisions, and there are different ways to be effective. I suppose finals are historically never the best of games for that reason and you have to adapt to that. It is about pressure and putting on more pressure than the opposition and taking your opportunities when they come.”
He has the utmost respect for Old Belvedere and the danger these new finalists represent after unluckily missing out on last year’s final and then dramatically coming through their semi-final with Clontarf two weeks ago.
Old Belvedere finished second in Division 1A, and Walsh, citing the experience provided by Andy Dunne, Simon Keogh, Chris Keane, Danny Riordan and his counterpart Phil Werahiko, reckons “it’s probably the fitting final”.
Con expect to have Simon Zebo back along with fellow pros Denis Fogarty and Billy Holland, along with scrumhalf Gerry Hurley and backrowers Frank Hogan and Brendan Cuttriss.
The latter have been “the fulcrum of our side” and, unbeaten in six league games dating to February, Walsh is grateful for a settled team at this stage of the campaign. “There’s a lot of talent and good experience on both sides and I really don’t think there will be much in it,” says Walsh, a part-time coach who works in the private banking department of Bank of Ireland.
A cerebral, attack-minded coach, he is a fan of the Leinster team. “A real tonic. For once we’re not relying on following everybody else. They have a flair about them. They have a technical ability and a mental toughness about them which is impressive.
“Great to watch. I’d love to see Toulouse with their A game and Leinster with their A game. I think it could be the match of the season.”
To a degree, the European games overshadows the domestic blue riband, but such is the AIL’s lot. However, the league could adopt the formula of the Magners League, Super 14 and other competitions, whereby, come the play-offs, the higher ranked teams have “home” advantage, in which case Con could have chosen Musgrave Park.
Walsh, while welcoming the play-offs being televised, is unhappy about the venue, Donnybrook – not because it is a few hundred metres up the road from Old Belvedere, but because of the pitch.
“To be honest we don’t really mind where we play. But players put in a huge amount of work and effort all season and I believe that the pitch in Donnybrook is not the best. The club game finds it difficult enough, and when the final used to be played in Lansdowne Road it was as much a carrot for a lot of guys.
“It’s also a decent surface for two sides that want to play rugby, and what’s wrong with the RDS or even Tallaght, or anywhere? Or Musgrave Park or Thomond Park. Why not? It’s hard enough to get sponsorship, attract people into the ground, keep people involved, and on the day the league gets a day out and it’s being televised, at least give it decent facilities?”
