MANY AN Irish rugby player, even legends such as Mike Gibson, Willie John McBride, Keith Wood and countless more besides, never won one Triple Crown. Thus, to win a fifth in a seven-year timespan on Saturday would underlines that this truly is a golden era, and it’s not to be sniffed at. Not that this squad would be so inclined.
There have been plenty of barren periods in Ireland’s not always illustrious history, not least in that period between 1949 and 1982, and then again between 1985 and 2004. Ireland have only won 10 Crowns in total, the same as the Scots, nine less than Wales and 13 less than England.
For some, such as Cian Healy and Keith Earls, it would be a first. For others, such as Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Ronan O’Gara, John Hayes, Paul O’Connell and David Wallace, it will be a fifth. (Technically, Geordan Murphy has played in all of the previous four, though only as a sub in the first game against Wales in 2007).
It’s hardly any wonder then that Declan Kidney felt compelled to announce an unchanged side yesterday for the third of these Triple Crown legs in succession, provided D’Arcy’s heavy dead leg holds up. Sticking with form players, while giving some the chance for redemption after Paris, has been vindicated. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
D’Arcy was running yesterday, albeit in straight lines, and should be okay. Were he ruled out, unsurprisingly Paddy Wallace would come in as a direct replacement, thereby minimising the disruption to the threequarter-line, with the world’s best defensive outside centre, O’Driscoll, remaining in that key defensive position.
O’Driscoll agreed that belittling another Triple Crown would, amongst other things, be disrespectful to previous Irish players, be they ex-team-mates of his or hundreds beforehand. “I realised the enormity of it when we managed to win the first one in 2004; it had been a long, long time since we, as a country, had won one,” he said, accepting it came third in priority behind the Grand Slam or championship, but post-Paris that was the target.
“So when you look at it that way I know the squad is far from blase. Yeah, I think you’re right probably too, it would be little bit disrespectful to those people who spilled lot of blood on different pitches, whether it be in Murrayfield, in Twickenham, in Dublin or in Cardiff, in failing to do so. It’s certainly as big a deal to us as players as ever.”
Winning silverware would also, he said, breed a winning mentality amongst the younger players who would one day become senior players. As an aside, Wales having won the Slam in 2005 and 2008, it would also be the seventh year in succession that the Celts have won a Crown.
“I’ve seen teams just spill their guts out and not get what they wanted out of it” added Kidney. “Just coming into the job itself, there were some people saying that the team was supposedly getting old and stuff like this and I thought ‘God if I could be involved in winning anything like a Triple Crown it would be brilliant.’ It’s wrong for me to put it on the players but to me it’s huge.”
Kidney doubted that the “genuine sports supporter” would be blase about it, adding: “I think we’ve learned in this country too that the minute we start taking something for granted or are blase – like the economy took a hit in a day – and maybe we were taking things for granted there. And this could be gone. We mightn’t be in a situation to win a Triple Crown like this (again). Who’s to say?”
Nor was Kidney under any illusions that the Scots, who have deferred their team announcement until today, will be remotely inclined to roll over and have their bellies tickled. Bottom with one point, it’s not too fanciful to say they could be coming to Croke Park on the back of three successive wins and Kidney stressed that they have only conceded six tries compared to five leaked by Ireland, two of which were when the Scots were reduced to 13 men and 14 men against Wales.
That this opportunity coincides with Ireland’s last match at Croke Park after their four-season sojourn to Jones’s Road (where Ireland have won eight, drawn one and lost three, but are unbeaten there in their last seven) adds to the romance of the occasion, according to the Irish coach.
“I was fortunate enough to be in the stands for the English one,” said Kidney in reference to Ireland’s 43-13 win three seasons ago. “I think it means a huge amount to the players to be able to play in Croke Park. Most of our lads played all the different codes under-age; they’d have played rugby, football, hurling, a bit of soccer. You see final days at Croke Park in September; I’m sure there’s none of us growing up without taking a good look at those.”
“It’s not going to happen again in an international sphere,” said Kidney, who paid tribute to the GAA’s ability to build the stadium and their generosity and hard work in sharing it. “It’s an excellent stadium. We’ve played in some of the best around the world and it’s as good if not better than a lot of them. The playing surface is exceptional, it’s probably the best we’ve played on all year and it’s a genuine privilege to play there.”
