WHEN RONAN O’GARA split the posts at the Millennium Stadium back in 2009, he could hardly have imagined the effect that Grand Slam success would have on the future of Irish Rugby.
Think of the audience watching on that day as Ireland secured a first Slam in 61 years. Garry Ringrose was 14. Hugo Keenan and James Ryan were 12. Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan were just 10.
Declan Kidney’s class of 2009 might have been the first real superstars of the professional era, but the knock-on effect was that the next generation would be the first to grow up associating Irish Rugby with success.
********
The one consistent theme of the 1990s for the Irish rugby team was inconsistency. On their day, Ireland could play brilliant rugby but they were also capable of being blown out of the water.
The two often occurred within the same 80-minute spell. Or, as former Ireland prop Nick Popplewell explained it to the The42 last month, “We were getting battered all the time. We were always brilliant in the first 40-50 minutes, and then the last 30, whether through fitness or self-belief, we just folded and that’s when we used to lose matches.”
Across the 1990s, Ireland never finished higher than fourth in the Five Nations table. On three occasions they didn’t win a single game. Their best return was two wins in the 1993 championship.
In that context, as Ireland stepped into the new millennium, successful campaigns were still measured against one-off wins rather than trophies.
In 2000 Warren Gatland led Ireland to a first win in Paris in 28 years and a first victory against Scotland for 12 years. A year later Ireland beat Les Bleus in Dublin for the first time since 1983. Small, significant steps towards a brighter future.
Those days are worth bearing in mind ahead of today’s Grand Slam decider in Dublin, which has the potential to be one of the greatest days Lansdowne Road has ever seen.
Joe Schmidt led Ireland to Grand Slam glory in 2018. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The vast majority of those inside the stadium won’t have been alive when Ireland last won a Grand Slam on home soil in 1948. However most will have been alive when Slam number two arrived in 2009 and when three was won in 2018. They’ll certainly remember the historic wins over the All Blacks that have piled up over recent years and only the youngest won’t recall the back-to-back Six Nations titles of 2014 and 2015.
Win or lose today, Irish rugby has never had it better.
********
How do you replace the greatest coach you’ve ever had? The IRFU’s strategy was to hand the job to the man one office down the hall. Andy Farrell’s appointment as Joe Schmidt’s successor was confirmed during the dizzy heights of 2018. Schmidt had just been named World Rugby coach of the year after a season in which Ireland claimed a brilliant Grand Slam and beat the All Blacks at home for the first time ever.
It was a sensible, if risky, appointment. The job was Farrell’s first as a head coach and while he was highly regarded within the Ireland camp, there was no guaranteeing he would successfully make the step up from inspirational assistant to leading man.
Farrell was part of the England coaching team badly burned by the 2015 World Cup experience and by the time his promotion with Ireland rolled around, he had another disappointing World Cup campaign on his CV – Ireland exiting the 2019 quarter-finals with a desperately deflating 32-point butchering by New Zealand, a result which still hangs over so much of the brilliant work done by Schmidt during his time here.
Those two World Cups left scars but also saw Farrell learning from two coaching greats in Stuart Lancaster and Schmidt – both of whom have been central to this golden era for Irish Rugby.
The first indication that Farrell wasn’t going to shy away from bold calls came during his first squad gathering. As the new boss called 45 players to Abbotstown for a ‘mid-season stocktake’ in December 2019, Rob Kearney was a shock omission, particularly with no clear alternative for the fullback position in place.
That first year in charge included first caps for Caelan Doris, Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park – who was second-choice scrum-half at Leinster at the time – and James Lowe.
Hugo Keenan has thrived under Farrell. Photosport / Andrew Cornaga/INPHO
Photosport / Andrew Cornaga/INPHO / Andrew Cornaga/INPHO
And while some pillars of the Schmidt glory years remain, Farrell has now built a team that has his imprint all over it. Seven of the 15 players that start against England this evening were handed their first caps by Farrell.
Yet it took time for it all to come together. The early stages of the pandemic-disrupted 2020 Six Nations – which included a bruising defeat to England – put some early pressure on Farrell and in particular, attack coach Mike Catt. The 2021 Six Nations saw Ireland lose to Wales on the opening weekend before a home loss to France in round two. A little over a year into his reign, Farrell and Catt were facing questions about whether they were the right men for the job.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround in the two years since.
********
Ireland are heavily fancied to get over the line against a battered and bruised England at Aviva Stadium today and if they do they will become just the fourth Ireland team to win a Grand Slam and the first to ever win one in Dublin.
This year may be all about the World Cup but regardless of how that tournament plays out this is an Ireland team which deserve to be celebrated. They don’t yet have the medals to match the Schmidt era but there has never been an Ireland side that have played such an exciting brand of rugby and crucially, it’s so far proved to be a winning one.
Much of that is down to the environment Farrell has created. It’s well documented the players enjoy coming into his Ireland camp but it’s worth remembering that those comments first began to emerge when results didn’t suggest all was rosy.
Farrell places a big emphasis on building strong personal relationships and the work he has put in in building a closely-knit squad, complimented by the significant influence of high performance coach Gary Keegan in the background, has proved highly effective. An Irish rugby team has never worn the tag of expectation so comfortably. It was a very different conversation this time four years ago.
Small changes have helped promote a happy camp. Media session days during match-weeks have been moved around at the players’ request to afford them more time off. Milestones such as winning a 50th Test cap are now celebrated, with Garry Ringrose presenting Josh van der Flier with his jersey earlier this week. For yesterday’s Captain’s Run at Aviva Stadium, Farrell invited all the players’ families in to watch the session.
The opening of the IRFU’s impressive high performance centre at the Sport Ireland campus has also been significant. While the squad still stay in Carton House during international windows, they have been training at the world class Abbotstown facility since 2020.
Ireland t Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
During the busiest times of the year the men’s and women’s 15s team, the men’s and women’s Sevens and the Ireland U20s all use the HPC – the U20s training with the senior side during Six Nations break-weeks, women’s coach Greg McWilliams popping in to allow some of his players observe how Farrell’s squad train.
There are further plans in place to use the campus as a central rehabilitation centre where players suffering from chronic or recurring injuries can be housed nearby and do all their rehab work with IRFU coaches on site.
It all allows the Irish coaches stay informed about every little detail right across the various layers of the Irish rugby system.
********
When things are going well, that system can be the envy of other unions. The central contract model has its flaws but overall it’s been a major success – keeping Ireland’s most influential players at home and under the control of the IRFU.
You only have to look back to last weekend’s Six Nations clash between Scotland and Ireland for evidence of that system working to Ireland’s benefit. While Johnny Sexton and the rest of his Ireland teammates had their feet up during mid-tournament break weekend, Scotland out-half Finn Russell boarded a plane to France and played 80 minutes for Racing 92 against Toulouse in the Top 14.
The system can be a frustrating one for season ticket holders across the four provinces – Sexton, for example, played just four URC games last season – but it allows the IRFU manage the minutes of key players with a level of control other international head coaches can only dream of.
Not that the IRFU get everything right. The relationship between the union and the women’s 15s squad was badly damaged as the ugly fallout around the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup spilled into public view. The introduction of the first professional contracts for womens 15s players in Ireland is a step in the right direction but there is still some way to go in closing the gap on the likes of England and France.
At club level, the men’s game also appears in good health. The URC has proved to be a more competitive league than the various incarnations that came and went before it. Leinster are one of the premier club sides in the world while Munster and Ulster continue to be regular participants at the business end of the Champions Cup – with Connacht reaching the knockout stages for the first time last season.
There is certainly still work to do across the provinces, with Munster and Ulster both holding the potential for significant growth in the years ahead, but a glance across the water at the crisis gripping Welsh rugby and the financial issues which have struck the Gallagher Premiership only serves to paint the structures in which Irish rugby operates as a more sustainable and sensible model, delivering impressive success from a sport which still trails GAA and soccer in terms of participation numbers.
The talent pool has never looked stronger and there is still potential to keep even more young talent involved in the game via further investment in the All-Ireland League and clubs system.
********
Most of those lucky enough to have a golden ticket for today’s Six Nations finale will recall the 2008 meeting between Ireland and England. A 33-10 defeat in Twickenham called time on Eddie O’Sullivan’s time in charge, the Ireland boss stepping away from his position almost to the day 15 years ago.
Ireland’s fourth-placed finish in that 2008 Six Nations was their worst campaign since 1999 and signalled a dismal end to what had been an exciting time for Irish rugby. Having last claimed a Triple Crown in 1985, O’Sullivan had guided Ireland to three of them between 2004 and 2007 as they soared to the lofty heights of third in the world rankings. As the most successful coach in Irish Rugby history, those achievements put O’Sullivan’s name firmly in the conversation around coaching the British and Irish Lions.
At the time, you could have been forgiven for fearing the peaks of the O’Sullivan years would be as good at it gets.
Turns out it was just the start.
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Win or lose, Irish rugby is enjoying another golden era
WHEN RONAN O’GARA split the posts at the Millennium Stadium back in 2009, he could hardly have imagined the effect that Grand Slam success would have on the future of Irish Rugby.
Think of the audience watching on that day as Ireland secured a first Slam in 61 years. Garry Ringrose was 14. Hugo Keenan and James Ryan were 12. Caelan Doris and Dan Sheehan were just 10.
Declan Kidney’s class of 2009 might have been the first real superstars of the professional era, but the knock-on effect was that the next generation would be the first to grow up associating Irish Rugby with success.
********
The one consistent theme of the 1990s for the Irish rugby team was inconsistency. On their day, Ireland could play brilliant rugby but they were also capable of being blown out of the water.
The two often occurred within the same 80-minute spell. Or, as former Ireland prop Nick Popplewell explained it to the The42 last month, “We were getting battered all the time. We were always brilliant in the first 40-50 minutes, and then the last 30, whether through fitness or self-belief, we just folded and that’s when we used to lose matches.”
Across the 1990s, Ireland never finished higher than fourth in the Five Nations table. On three occasions they didn’t win a single game. Their best return was two wins in the 1993 championship.
In that context, as Ireland stepped into the new millennium, successful campaigns were still measured against one-off wins rather than trophies.
In 2000 Warren Gatland led Ireland to a first win in Paris in 28 years and a first victory against Scotland for 12 years. A year later Ireland beat Les Bleus in Dublin for the first time since 1983. Small, significant steps towards a brighter future.
Those days are worth bearing in mind ahead of today’s Grand Slam decider in Dublin, which has the potential to be one of the greatest days Lansdowne Road has ever seen.
The vast majority of those inside the stadium won’t have been alive when Ireland last won a Grand Slam on home soil in 1948. However most will have been alive when Slam number two arrived in 2009 and when three was won in 2018. They’ll certainly remember the historic wins over the All Blacks that have piled up over recent years and only the youngest won’t recall the back-to-back Six Nations titles of 2014 and 2015.
Win or lose today, Irish rugby has never had it better.
********
How do you replace the greatest coach you’ve ever had? The IRFU’s strategy was to hand the job to the man one office down the hall. Andy Farrell’s appointment as Joe Schmidt’s successor was confirmed during the dizzy heights of 2018. Schmidt had just been named World Rugby coach of the year after a season in which Ireland claimed a brilliant Grand Slam and beat the All Blacks at home for the first time ever.
It was a sensible, if risky, appointment. The job was Farrell’s first as a head coach and while he was highly regarded within the Ireland camp, there was no guaranteeing he would successfully make the step up from inspirational assistant to leading man.
Farrell was part of the England coaching team badly burned by the 2015 World Cup experience and by the time his promotion with Ireland rolled around, he had another disappointing World Cup campaign on his CV – Ireland exiting the 2019 quarter-finals with a desperately deflating 32-point butchering by New Zealand, a result which still hangs over so much of the brilliant work done by Schmidt during his time here.
Those two World Cups left scars but also saw Farrell learning from two coaching greats in Stuart Lancaster and Schmidt – both of whom have been central to this golden era for Irish Rugby.
The first indication that Farrell wasn’t going to shy away from bold calls came during his first squad gathering. As the new boss called 45 players to Abbotstown for a ‘mid-season stocktake’ in December 2019, Rob Kearney was a shock omission, particularly with no clear alternative for the fullback position in place.
That first year in charge included first caps for Caelan Doris, Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park – who was second-choice scrum-half at Leinster at the time – and James Lowe.
And while some pillars of the Schmidt glory years remain, Farrell has now built a team that has his imprint all over it. Seven of the 15 players that start against England this evening were handed their first caps by Farrell.
Yet it took time for it all to come together. The early stages of the pandemic-disrupted 2020 Six Nations – which included a bruising defeat to England – put some early pressure on Farrell and in particular, attack coach Mike Catt. The 2021 Six Nations saw Ireland lose to Wales on the opening weekend before a home loss to France in round two. A little over a year into his reign, Farrell and Catt were facing questions about whether they were the right men for the job.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround in the two years since.
********
Ireland are heavily fancied to get over the line against a battered and bruised England at Aviva Stadium today and if they do they will become just the fourth Ireland team to win a Grand Slam and the first to ever win one in Dublin.
This year may be all about the World Cup but regardless of how that tournament plays out this is an Ireland team which deserve to be celebrated. They don’t yet have the medals to match the Schmidt era but there has never been an Ireland side that have played such an exciting brand of rugby and crucially, it’s so far proved to be a winning one.
Much of that is down to the environment Farrell has created. It’s well documented the players enjoy coming into his Ireland camp but it’s worth remembering that those comments first began to emerge when results didn’t suggest all was rosy.
Farrell places a big emphasis on building strong personal relationships and the work he has put in in building a closely-knit squad, complimented by the significant influence of high performance coach Gary Keegan in the background, has proved highly effective. An Irish rugby team has never worn the tag of expectation so comfortably. It was a very different conversation this time four years ago.
Small changes have helped promote a happy camp. Media session days during match-weeks have been moved around at the players’ request to afford them more time off. Milestones such as winning a 50th Test cap are now celebrated, with Garry Ringrose presenting Josh van der Flier with his jersey earlier this week. For yesterday’s Captain’s Run at Aviva Stadium, Farrell invited all the players’ families in to watch the session.
The opening of the IRFU’s impressive high performance centre at the Sport Ireland campus has also been significant. While the squad still stay in Carton House during international windows, they have been training at the world class Abbotstown facility since 2020.
During the busiest times of the year the men’s and women’s 15s team, the men’s and women’s Sevens and the Ireland U20s all use the HPC – the U20s training with the senior side during Six Nations break-weeks, women’s coach Greg McWilliams popping in to allow some of his players observe how Farrell’s squad train.
There are further plans in place to use the campus as a central rehabilitation centre where players suffering from chronic or recurring injuries can be housed nearby and do all their rehab work with IRFU coaches on site.
It all allows the Irish coaches stay informed about every little detail right across the various layers of the Irish rugby system.
********
When things are going well, that system can be the envy of other unions. The central contract model has its flaws but overall it’s been a major success – keeping Ireland’s most influential players at home and under the control of the IRFU.
You only have to look back to last weekend’s Six Nations clash between Scotland and Ireland for evidence of that system working to Ireland’s benefit. While Johnny Sexton and the rest of his Ireland teammates had their feet up during mid-tournament break weekend, Scotland out-half Finn Russell boarded a plane to France and played 80 minutes for Racing 92 against Toulouse in the Top 14.
The system can be a frustrating one for season ticket holders across the four provinces – Sexton, for example, played just four URC games last season – but it allows the IRFU manage the minutes of key players with a level of control other international head coaches can only dream of.
Not that the IRFU get everything right. The relationship between the union and the women’s 15s squad was badly damaged as the ugly fallout around the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup spilled into public view. The introduction of the first professional contracts for womens 15s players in Ireland is a step in the right direction but there is still some way to go in closing the gap on the likes of England and France.
At club level, the men’s game also appears in good health. The URC has proved to be a more competitive league than the various incarnations that came and went before it. Leinster are one of the premier club sides in the world while Munster and Ulster continue to be regular participants at the business end of the Champions Cup – with Connacht reaching the knockout stages for the first time last season.
There is certainly still work to do across the provinces, with Munster and Ulster both holding the potential for significant growth in the years ahead, but a glance across the water at the crisis gripping Welsh rugby and the financial issues which have struck the Gallagher Premiership only serves to paint the structures in which Irish rugby operates as a more sustainable and sensible model, delivering impressive success from a sport which still trails GAA and soccer in terms of participation numbers.
The talent pool has never looked stronger and there is still potential to keep even more young talent involved in the game via further investment in the All-Ireland League and clubs system.
********
Most of those lucky enough to have a golden ticket for today’s Six Nations finale will recall the 2008 meeting between Ireland and England. A 33-10 defeat in Twickenham called time on Eddie O’Sullivan’s time in charge, the Ireland boss stepping away from his position almost to the day 15 years ago.
Ireland’s fourth-placed finish in that 2008 Six Nations was their worst campaign since 1999 and signalled a dismal end to what had been an exciting time for Irish rugby. Having last claimed a Triple Crown in 1985, O’Sullivan had guided Ireland to three of them between 2004 and 2007 as they soared to the lofty heights of third in the world rankings. As the most successful coach in Irish Rugby history, those achievements put O’Sullivan’s name firmly in the conversation around coaching the British and Irish Lions.
At the time, you could have been forgiven for fearing the peaks of the O’Sullivan years would be as good at it gets.
Turns out it was just the start.
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