Not there yet

 
A delightfully cynical view of Dublin's public transport system - but alas there is truth in every second of it :-( Anybody from or living in London or Sydney should be able to relate to some of it too!


 

Feeling grand (slam!)

 
Wales vs. Ireland in Cardiff with the Grand Slam at stake... again. Well it's nice to see I wasn't too far off with my pre-tournament predictions given how things turned out. Italy were awful (Sergio Parisse aside) while France and Scotland were pretty much as expected (Scotland with their token win over the Italians and France up & down but clearly building for the future). I honestly didn't see Wales losing to France and but for ill discipline England may have surprisingly found themselves in the championship hunt.

It hasn't been the most spectacular Six Nations - not by a long way - but for the destiny of the Grand Slam, Championship and Triple Crown all to come down to the last kick of the last game, well Hollywood couldn't really have scripted it better, could it?

I thought it might be gone when Jones slotted that drop goal with 5 minutes left but once Munster (yes Munster... read on) got camped inside the Welsh 22 you just got the feeling a drop of our own was on the cards. O'Connell takes the line-out once again to get us on the move... maul... ruck... O'Connell picks... ruck... Horan to Wallace... I'll let RTE commentator Ryle Nugent's words tell the rest: "Horan... Wallace... Ireland in position... this MUST be it... this MUST be it for Ronan O’Gara... drop at goal... Grand Slam at stake... HE’S GOOOOOOT IIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!!!"

Two minutes remaining. In the grand scheme of things 120 seconds isn't much, but when your country is on knife edge between winning and losing major honours and the heart is pounding, well, it's a hellish eternity. Please lads don't blow it all by conceding a silly penalty...

Sixty seconds later: "No penalties," pleaded the RTE commentators, voices trembling about half an octave higher then about an hour ago. Seconds later: "Penalty to Wales."

Paddy Wallace might have had thoughts of emigration while Stephen Jones' kick - on target - and the last action of the game remember - looked like it had the legs to get over. "I just felt the game lacked a bit of excitement," Wallace joked back in Dublin at the public reception in response to O'Gara (at the time) being "ready to kill" him. Form a orderly queue...

But joyfully for a country starved of national (team) sporting success, it fell short. CHAMPIONS AS LAST!!! :-)

I woke at 4am Sydney time hoping to catch the game online. Thank you whoever you are, that piped the TV coverage live (well almost live) back across the 'Net. Despite the early morning drowsiness and sleep in my eyes at the time, I'm feeling pretty "grand" now.


 

It's Six Nations time again

 
France and England at home, away to Italy, Scotland and Wales. I've always looked at every second campaign as the more realistic opportunity for Ireland to win the championship - it's a big ask to beat both England and France on their home turf in the reverse season.

I'm finding that 2009 is no different. England are a shambles while France seem to be doing the entirely sensible thing of blooding new players early into the second year of the World Cup cycle and building some depth & experience into the squad for 2011, weakening them (I use the term loosely) in the short term. Italy are, well, Italy. My concerns are Wales & Scotland.

Wales have, by the proverbial country mile, been playing the best rugby in the northern hemisphere during the past year or so with a superb blend of skill & style - of course there is also the memory of what happened in 2005 (the last time Ireland went to Cardiff in 2005 for a Grand Slam showdown) when Irish arses were well and truly spanked. Scotland have too many average days at the office but every so often, like last season against England, spring a quality win. In my mind though, again, is the 2003 season Ireland were competing for the Slam only to self destruct in Murrayfield - so make no mistake Scotland are a slapstick comedy sized banana skin and you need look no further than Leinster's results in Edinburgh for evidence of that.

And so we come to Ireland. It's hard to know what to expect - will we get more apathetic toothless displays of recent memory or a return to some of the most exciting rugby we've ever seen? Irish sporting mentality for the longest time has us content to be the plucky lads just happy to participate and anything else is a bonus (I'd wager you can remember where you where and how you completely lost your mind when David O'Leary slotted home that penalty in 1990). It's argued that such a mentality no longer applied when it came to Irish rugby's "golden generation". While I do think this was true initially and we demanded success, we remained unsurprised and accepting when defeated (2007 World Cup excepted). Prior to this Ireland won three Triple Crowns in four seasons - the first was an achievement to be rightly celebrated, but subsequent ones became acceptable consolation viewed as a successful campaign even though we couldn't get over France, at least we "won something".

This is where I start to take exception. The competition is for the SIX Nations Championship, not four. We shouldn't be content with the Triple Crown anymore but kicking on to win the whole damn thing, not accepting anything less than the Championship. As a nation we've shown we have what it takes to be European Champions with Munster winning the Heineken Cup last season and Leinster claiming the Magners League not to mention both provinces being in the mix for both competitions this season - and I have genuine hope this year we will finally get the formula right and translate that success to the national team.

So come on lads, get stuck in and HAVE A GO. Answer Ireland's call - show us all what you're capable of and bring home that elusive Slam.