Saturday, March 13, 2010
THE long-running war of words between Warren Gatland and the Irish rugby team looks over.
Granted, Gatland is engaged in a controversial spat with some journalists, but he started the week apologising for some verbal grenades he has tossed this way in recent years.
Yesterday Ireland coach Declan Kidney, the butt of one of the New Zealander’s sallies 12 months ago — and skipper Brian O’Driscoll were keen to draw a line in the sand.
"Warren is an excellent coach," said Kidney. "Through all the different teams he has had, he brought out the strengths of his players. Wales play a different style to the way Wasps played when he was there so he’s always had a great knack of finding players strengths and making the most of them. His record as a coach speaks for itself."
Kidney insisted that he hasn’t been reading any of the comments that have been flying in recent days, suggesting that "you have so many things on your mind, you only see something in passing if somebody has left a paper open". Be that as it may, O’Driscoll wasn’t for disagreeing with his coach.
"I always got on with Warren when he was coaching Ireland and there certainly weren’t any issues when we went on Lions tours," he declared.
"He’s a very different coach as I am a very different player from 10 years back. You park things and you move on and this week he apologised for any upset he might have caused. That’s all now water under the bridge."
One can only imagine the reception O’Driscoll will receive when he leads his team out this afternoon to win his 100th cap for Ireland. Not for the first time, he attempted to play down the significance of the occasion while not entirely capable of concealing the deep satisfaction he has to be feeling.
"It’s just a case of looking forward to another game, anything else is for thinking back in a few years time when you’re sitting on your couch after retirement. I’m just enjoying it, just having a laugh, nothing very exciting.
"It’s nice, getting texts from past players and legends, from England, from coaches, all that makes it a bit different from another Test match. But I don’t see any reason to get caught up in the hype.
"Someone said 101 is more impressive than 100 so maybe John Hayes should be up here."
Although there are some these days who will cast a jaundiced eye at winning a Triple Crown — a reliable yardstick of how far the game has progressed here in recent years — it still counts for plenty where O’Driscoll and his players are concerned.
A victory today would certainly put them in pole position facing another home game against lowly Scotland on Saturday. And when it was pointed out that after Ireland completed their last Grand Slam in 1948, they won the Triple Crown in 1949, O’Driscoll’s face lit up.
"I wasn’t aware of that but sure, we’d take it," he said. "We have two games left, the first against opposition we played here two years ago and lost. There’s still the hell of a lot of work to do but we strive for silverware every year and while there’s something attainable, it is the common goal of the squad."
Ireland’s task today and next week is made a lot easier by the fact that they are at home in both games but as Declan Kidney was at pains to point out, the team still has to perform or otherwise that will count for nothing.
"Of course it is great to be at home but to take advantage, it is up to us to give the supporters something to come in behind," he pointed out. "It’s our second last match at Croke Park and we are now more familiar with the surroundings and it would be nice to finish on a high. It’s a 2.30pm kick-off whereas 5pm seems to suit us better. The Irish are usually better warmed up by then so hopefully they’ll get an early start. We need that 16th person."
And even though he claims to be "useless" at the game, Kidney indulged in another of his little golfing analogies to demonstrate that today’s opponents haven’t enjoyed the rub of the green so far this season.
"In golfing parlance," he said, "there are a few balls that rimmed out of the hole but some days they could all drop and they could have a very tidy round. We hope that won’t be against us."
© Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 73385.