THE MORE THINGS change, the more they stay the same.
It was a new era for Ireland on Saturday, yet a familiar face took home the man-of-the-match award.
Josh Cullen forged a reputation as a reliable performer at the heart of central midfield under Stephen Kenny.
Only two players — Matt Doherty and James McClean — made more appearances under Kenny than Cullen.
And on Saturday, the 27-year-old provided a reminder of why he was such a favourite of the previous boss.
With help from the considerably less experienced Will Smallbone, Cullen performed unseen work rarely appreciated in football, protecting the backline with diligence, discipline and intelligent positional awareness while rarely giving the ball away.
It was the type of performance that the man now watching on from the sidelines — assistant coach Glenn Whelan — invariably produced in 91 appearances for his country.
Winning his 33rd cap on Saturday, Cullen still has some way to go to match Whelan’s tally but such a feat is not inconceivable if he can maintain his current level of performance in the years to come.
While they had occasional bright attacking moments, interim boss John O’Shea will have been most pleased at how defensively sound his team looked and Cullen was at the heart of their best work in that regard.
Their opponents were largely reduced to half-chances despite boasting the star power of Jeremy Doku, who Man City signed for €64 million in the summer, along with other top Premier League players, including Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans and Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard.
The Belgians looked short of ideas against an impressively set up Irish side.
O’Shea began with a 3-4-3 formation that essentially turned into a 5-4-1 when the visitors were on the attack, with Chiedozie Ogbene and Sammie Szmodics providing extra protection for Cullen and Smallbone in the centre, allowing Seamus Coleman and Robbie Brady to alternate between full-back and wing-back roles.
“First half we had the penalty miss and a couple of other good chances, I thought we were really good in the first half that led to them changing shape,” Cullen told reporters afterwards.
“Second half at times we had to suffer a bit but when you are playing against teams the calibre of Belgium you are going to have to expect that. Overall being in five days of work under the new management and building towards a game like this I think we can be pleased with a lot of what we did.”
Cullen praised not just O’Shea and his staff, but the previous regime under whom he established himself as a key figure.
“A lot of the work they did has stood us in good stead for this week. We have been in tight matches and come out on the wrong side of results. It’s a stepping stone tonight that the work we have done with the new management this week, if it was a competitive game we would have come away with a point. By the time the Nations League comes around, the qualifiers will be important, the next step is turning positive performances into winning games.”
On the influence of O’Shea and co, Cullen added: “We had some very clear ideas we started working on at the start of the week that we knew what our shape was going to look like, we knew the ideas as a team, how we wanted to hurt Belgium and I think we showed that. There were a lot of things we worked on this week that I think we can be pleased with from the game.”
It has similarly been a baptism of fire for Cullen in the Premier League — in his first season as a regular at that level — featuring for a Burnley side fighting to avoid relegation.
It’s been tough at times on a personal level too. Having been a virtual ever-present last season under Vincent Kompany when they won promotion from the Championship, the team’s poor form led to the midfielder being dropped from the starting XI earlier in the season.
However, he has still featured in 16 of their 29 top-flight matches. Moreover, he appears to have come out the right side of this rough patch, starting the Clarets’ last three successive Premier League games, having only played once from the outset before then since the turn of the year.
Cullen says the experience has made him a better footballer.
“Throughout your career, you always try to improve. I don’t think that will ever stop until the day you stop playing, trying to find ways to get better and there’s no better place to be doing it than the Premier League because you’re getting the toughest tests week in and week out. I feel like I’m still progressing, trying to develop as a player and enjoying my football.”
Cullen claims he is in the dark like the rest of us in terms of the identity of Ireland’s next permanent manager.
However, a cursory glance at the other midfielders in the squad emphasises how key he is likely to be to the new man’s plans.
Smallbone, Jason Knight, Jamie McGrath, Mark Sykes and Finn Azaz all tend to do their best work closer to the opposition’s goal.
Cullen is arguably the one quality out-and-out number six at Ireland’s disposal — young hopefuls like Joe Hodge and Conor Coventry are still learning and some way off the Burnley star’s level.
Didnt relaize he wss crippled, did they stop in lourdes on the way home , ffs 12 years later and still going on about it
@ger gavin: The Kiwi’s make a much bigger deal out of it than even the Irish do. It’s because they know they were in the wrong, but because they won’t apologise for it they just keep denying any wrongdoing.
@Dave Barry: the kiwis make a big deal out of it as it’s their national sport. They admit openly it was a bad tackle but to say it was intentional is hard to believe. As an ex rugby player, it’s very difficult to tackle someone nevermind intentionally hurt them.
Just another All Black ‘accident’. All respect done for these thugs who seem to not be able to win big games anymore without these ‘accidents’ After the Irish game where the last 3 ‘accidents’ happened, World Rugby came and strengthened the rules. Why? If they were just accidents.
@Range Rover: My reading of it at the time is the same as it is now. They went out to target O’Driscoll, not to injure him, but to “lay down a marker.” I know any kiwi will deny it, but he was the captain, it was two minutes in and he was barely involved in the ruck. We weren’t born yesterday. The thing that left a bad taste in my mouth wasn’t what happened on the pitch, it was the lack of response from the authorities. Accidental or deliberate, a spear tackle is illegal. The IRB were, as always, deaf, dumb and blind where their golden boys are concerned however.
Let’s stop calling these guys the all blacks. They are new Zealand. Calling them the all blacks puts them up on a pedestal. The Australians never defer to them like that. I’m no lover of the lions but Nz need to be beaten. When they put on that Jersey the kiwis think they are above the law. They spear tackle o Driscoll and it galvanised them! Piss off
@Paul K Murphy: not sure about that, whatever the scenario calling them New Zealand is a step down from the All Blacks. Which tells it own story about the deliberate mystique perpetuated over the ages about this team with supposed superhuman qualities.
Anything that eats into that illusion is a good thing for me. They get enough psychological advantage from the haka, what we call them then is our own choice and the more down to earth the better
@Paul K Murphy: the problem is that rugby at test level to use the old cliche is a game of incredibly fine margins. So any advantage no matter how small is worthy of serious consideration. Enough for Australia and the lions in 2005 to decide against calling them the All Blacks anyway.
How effective those bans were is debatable. The lions obviously got blown away but you would have to say Australia excelled against them in the 2015 WC final. And who knows in that moment in time in the build up to the final maybe that was of some psychological help for them
@Aaron Buckley: they’re a bunch off shameless cheats….let’s just turn them over first
It was wrong. But I think people should stop whinging about it now. If someone brought up a similar incident from the Heineken Cup from 12 years ago they would be told to stop being a little b*tch and move on.
@Ned Flanders:
It’s not the tackle or the players which concerns fans, it was the cover up afterwards.
This was never addressed and continues today. The all blacks in Dublin last should have got two red cards (tackles on Zebo and CJ) and a red/yellow for Henshaw.
An all black has not got a red card since 1967.
It is not just Ireland every team gets this, SA and Aus complain continually about this
@Jack Dermody: and the crucial point with the BOD tackle is no one was even cited for it afterwards. Two big men picking another man up without the ball and piledriving his neck and head into the ground from a height is the most dangerous thing you can do possibly in any sport. It was only BOD twisting himself to take most of the impact to his shoulder that saved him.
Shockingly illegally took out the lions skipper and the two boys played on the series not a bother
@Jack Dermody:
there is no doubt they are reffed differently. The refereeing of 2011 WC final was for me the biggest scandal in rugby.
@Jack Dermody: I think the simple act of NZ captain, Umaga, and Mealamu, going over to BOD while he was being stretchered off to say a straightforward “sorry, mate” might have partly defused the negative reaction afterwards. They didn’t have either the respect or the balls to do so, which immediately deleted my regard for them as persons, notwithstanding their status as players.
The only way to deal with that tackle was to wallop the bejasus out of mealemu and umaga on the pitch. They should never have walked off it. In this that lions team failed miserably. Similarly with nz in Dublin last November. If ref isnt going to take action then act yourself and fight fire with a firestorm. Lions & Ireland were too effin nice.
You got to love the All Blacks. Even after all this time there is no regret or even an admission of partial responsibility. The end justifies the means. This is why they are perennial winners and we only ever surpassed them once.
It was malicious, vindictive and almost criminal. Try to picture two men doing that to someone on the streets. It’s about the most dangerous thing you could do to someone and the fact that two were involved, not one, defeats any argument that it wasn’t deliberate. The All Blacks also wreaked havoc in Lansdowne Road and that was the last time I left a comment on the Journal. What disappoints me the most is that the management and players didn’t see it coming and didn’t know how to answer them. They’re a proud nation, the New Zealanders, but we’ve got to wise up to their pre-planned strategy of winning at all costs. I agree that the last two major tackle changes in World Rugby have come about because of New Zealand thuggery. The next time we play them, and the Lions, let’s not be naive and match them for physicality. Bob Dwyer still maintains that Duncan McCrae did nothing wrong in 2001. It’s not as if we can’t see it coming anymore. Oh, and an apology is what’s required from the All Blacks, not trying to justify the unjustifiable to this day. If they had done so, we wouldn’t still be talking about it. I won’t hold my breath.
Their tough, physical guys….other players will have to be tougher and tackle twice as hard….all them south Africans are massive men but they have to be willing to break their gut!!