YESTERDAY MORNING’S 6AM flight was supposed to take us to Bristol but instead this writer ended up in Ballymun.
Stormy weather caused the cancellation an hour after the planned departure time and after the toing and froing that followed, it was clear that the next-best option was a different flight to Bristol nearly 12 hours later.
Home is usually only a 25-minute spin from Dublin Airport but after 40 minutes in gridlock on the M50, we turned around again. At this stage, lids were about to be flipped so we sought a park to run around and blow off the steam.
This meant a first-ever visit to the lovely Poppintree Park with its wetlands, tree trail, and pond. One local young fella had cast his fishing rod rather hopefully into the body of water. “Hake,” he replied when quizzed about what he hoped to haul out. He gave up and made tracks pretty soon.
The neighbourhood of Poppintree in Ballymun gets its name from the Pappan’s Tree, which was named in honour of a sixth-century abbot, Saint Pappan, builder of a small chapel in Santry.
There’s a big pitch with GAA posts in the park but it turns out that local club Unidare RFC used to play rugby here, as well as in the nearby Balcurris Park.
These days, the club is known as the BGF Ravens, the acronym taking in the areas of Ballymun, Glasnevin and Finglas. The original name came from the now-defunct Unidare Works factory in Finglas.
Founded in 1958, the club has seemingly always been on the search for pitches to play on. Blackrock College, Suttonians RFC, and Malahide RFC helped out at different stages, while the club rented facilities at Dublin City University during the early 2000s. The BGF Ravens team have more recently played games in Mount Temple.
Leinster Rugby have had development officers in these areas for some time including Colm Finnegan, now the IRFU’s national rugby development manager, and Jack Hanratty, who coached Canada women’s 7s to bronze medals at the Olympics last year.
Community rugby officer Kevin McCleery now leads the work in the north-west area of Dublin and there are promising signs of progress.
The young players of the Poppintree Youth Project have been training every week for the past two years and recently played their second-ever game against Coolmine RFC.
The Ballymun Youth Block are in their first year of after-school rugby and numbers are growing. Their next aim is to play a full game.
And the Finglas Youth Resource Centre also had a term of rugby this season.
Several Leinster sub-academy players have been getting involved in training sessions and sharing some training gear in a big boost for the local hopefuls.
McCleery and others are also busy introducing rugby to schools all over the area, looking to get young people into the sport. And already teams from schools in Ballymun and Finglas have played in lower-level Leinster competitions.
Who knows where it will all lead but the hope is that sometime soon, players will begin emerging from Ballymun, Glasnevin and Finglas to play for Leinster and Ireland.
After that calming interlude in Poppintree, we eventually got to Bristol last night and it’s onwards to Cardiff today to watch Simon Easterby’s Ireland try to make it three wins from three in the Six Nations as they face Wales [KO 2.15pm, Virgin Media/BBC].
Easterby has picked an exciting Ireland 23 that ensures a good degree of continuity and plenty of experience, but also a series of exciting milestones for younger players as the head coach makes seven changes from the win over Scotland two weekends ago.
23-year-old Jamie Osborne rotates in for Hugo Keenan to make his Six Nations debut at fullback, 25-year-old Thomas Clarkson gets his first Ireland start at tighthead prop, 22-year-old loosehead Jack Boyle will make his debut off the bench, 21-year-old replacement hooker Gus McCarthy will get his first taste of Six Nations action.
24-year-old sub back row Cian Prendergast is another who will make his championship debut, while also lining up in an Ireland squad along with younger brother Sam for the second time.
There’s a return from injury for 23-year-old lock Joe McCarthy, who is relatively established, Mack Hansen is back from a hamstring issue on the right wing, and Garry Ringrose swaps into the starting XV for Bundee Aki. The other two fresh faces in the starting side are number eight Jack Conan and hooker Dan Sheehan, who have impressed off the bench recently.
The injured Caelan Doris and Rónan Kelleher will be missed because they’ve been playing so well but Conan and Sheehan would make most teams better.
Around those seven tweaks, the likes of left wing James Lowe, scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, flankers Peter O’Mahony and Josh van der Flier, lineout leader Tadhg Beirne, and tireless prop Andrew Porter ensure there’s lots of nous and stability.
Still only 22, out-half Prendergast will look to build on his player-of-the-match outing against Scotland having been preferred to Jack Crowley again. Ireland have great faith in the classy Prendergast and clearly believe that allowing him to maintain his starting momentum is important.
There’s also the fact that Sheehan becomes the 111th men’s player to captain Ireland.
He’s fairly new to being a captain but Sheehan’s younger brother, Bobby, is the skipper of UCD in the AIL. He’s also a hooker and is set to play for the Ireland Clubs XV again this year, with their game against Portugal A in Lisbon taking place the night before Ireland face Italy on the final day of the Six Nations.
Sheehan got texts of congratulations from former Ireland captains and hookers Keith Wood and Rory Best, among many others. He has vowed to eventually get back to everyone when time allows but he’s got plenty on his hands this afternoon.
This Ireland group make a big deal about occasions like Sheehan being named captain, Boyle getting a debut, and so on. Those factors are one reason they should be tuned in today.
Ireland are aiming to continue their Grand Slam hunt but also secure the Triple Crown following their wins over England and Scotland. Triple Crowns have become more common for Ireland in the 2000s but they have still only won 13 of them before.
“It’s a hugely special trophy,” said Ireland skipper Sheehan.
“I remember being a kid and it came into school one day and thinking that was the best thing ever. We need to make sure we don’t take it for granted at all. That it is a massive trophy to the Irish people, something that we are hugely proud of having won in the past.
“So that’s something that’s on the line and we want to make sure that we come away with a win by the performance and not getting ahead of ourselves and making sure it is an 80-minute performance and they don’t get an inch.”
Looking to grab a few inches for Wales will be captain Jac Morgan and his fellow back row fetcher Tommy Reffell, one of the best breakdown operators around. Their combination is one of a few reasons Wales’ starting side looks better, with interim head coach Matt Sherratt making a sensible selection.
The Scarlets back three of Blair Murray, Tom Rogers, and new cap Ellis Mee know each other well, centres Ben Thomas and Max Llewellyn have played together in Cardiff, while halfbacks Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe are Gloucester team-mates.
Just picking a genuine out-half at number 10 in the experienced Anscombe should help Wales after Thomas did his best in that position but understandably couldn’t exert much control.
In the front row, Nicky Smith and Elliot Dee bring Test experience alongside WillGriff John, while Dafydd Jenkins and Will Rowlands are a solid second-row pairing, and Taulupe Faletau will aim to roll back the years at number eight.
And yet, the sad reality is that many of these same players, including this exact 9-10-12-13 combination, were in situ when Wales lost at home to Fiji in November before getting well beaten by Australia. Many of them were also involved in another heavy loss at home to South Africa.
Wales have also been very, very poor in their defeats to France and Italy. They will need one hell of a bounce from Sherratt’s arrival to end their 14-game losing streak.
These are miserable times for Welsh rugby. Ireland have more proven quality in their ranks and the home bench looks underpowered. In truth, the Irish 23 is considerably better on paper while these sides’ form is difficult to compare because they’ve been on such different trajectories.
There may be a couple of sticky patches for Ireland as Wales rally with pride at home, but Easterby’s men should have the quality to claim a Triple Crown and march on in pursuit of the Grand Slam.
WALES: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Ellis Mee; Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, WillGriff John; Will Rowlands, Dafydd Jenkins; Jac Morgan (captain), Tommy Reffell, Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Gareth Thomas, Henry Thomas, Teddy Williams, Aaron Wainwright, Rhodri Williams, Jarrod Evans, Joe Roberts.
IRELAND: Jamie Osborne; Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan (captain), Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Jack Boyle, Finlay Bealham, James Ryan, Cian Prendergast, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, Bundee Aki.
Referee: Christophe Ridley [England].
All things considered, I think Kerry football is in the healthiest position it has been in years. And with our hurlers in the senior championship next year – Roll on 2016!!
Jack o Connor must go down as one of the best managers the gaa has seen. All Ireland’s at minor, 21 and senior. Still has a big say in future of Kerry football by the sound of things
He has been involved in 21 All Ireland finals, all the above + schools.
He has 18 All Ireland wins – that is just amazing
Great manager but got it all wrong Sunday.
Ruth Dublin are just a better team than kerry 3 wins from 3
Kerry have a knack of pulling out a few new stars when it looks like change is needed. adding one or two of those minors and a retirement or two and you’ve a fresh and very talented squad
Lets be honest but for some terrible refreeing decisions last yr Kerry would not have been in the Final last yr.And again this yr in Killarney poor refreeing decisions put them on the good side of the draw avoiding Dublin and Mayo in the process which meant they would have been knocked out of this yrs championship at the quarter or semi final stage. This had nothing to do with Eamon fitzs “genius” as a manager.
correct John the first top team they faced beat them quiet easily all over the pitch.
I wouldn’t be writing off Kerry yet ! they have a history of getting it right and coming back and winning Sam ! However this Dublin team Definitely have their measure !
agreed lorcan kerry are definitely the second best team.
There’ll be plenty of retirements now I’d say.
Donaghy and The Gooch certainly don’t instill the same fear as they used too !