This time no one can blame Dave Pearson
I only recall being in that situation once in my career and the circumstances bear no comparison whatsoever to the frustration felt by the Irish players at the Stade de France. It happened in the late 1970’s when I was about to take the field for UCC in a Munster Senior Cup game against Young Munster at Musgrave Park. At least in those good old amateur days we were able to take out our frustrations in the Dolphin clubhouse bar.
It has been a difficult week for English referee Dave Pearson with his recommendation of a yellow card for Bradley Davies for an appalling tip tackle on Donnacha Ryan manifestly wrong. Yet for Pearson to be blamed and ridiculed for his decision to postpone Saturday’s game at the eleventh hour is completely misplaced. It should never have come to that. We are now in a professional era with full time administrators running the game yet at times I think we were better served in the days of the amateur committees.
I experienced the disappointment of having two Five Nations games cancelled with another hanging in the balance right up to the eve of the game. My first exposure to Five Nations rugby came against Wales when they were Ireland’s first opponent in the 1982 campaign in Lansdowne Road.
Due to heavy snow that game was called off a full week in advance, much to the relief of my Cork colleague Moss Finn. He was very doubtful with a hamstring strain and would have been forced to pull out. The additional week was sufficient for him to declare fit and he went on to score two tries in a memorable win that was the launchpad for Triple Crown and championship success. That was a particularly vicious winter, with the end of tour Barbarians game against Australia in Cardiff also cancelled on the eve of their traditional finale.
Three years later we had assembled — as was the norm in those days at the Shelburne Hotel at lunchtime — on the Thursday prior to the opening game of the 1985 championship against England when another heavy snowfall brought Dublin to a standstill. Factoring in a forecast that showed no improvement over the coming days, the authorities took the immediate decision to cancel the game in the interest of the travelling English party and supporters, in addition to concerns for the Irish fans who would be travelling by road and also over safety issues at the ground itself, which had a lot of terraced areas.
It was a particularly nervous time for six of the team who were either winning their first caps or making their championship debut. Our coach, the late Mick Doyle, sensed the frustration within the group and immediately ordered a team meeting in the famous Dubliners haunt, O’Donohue’s pub, just down the road.
That English game was postponed until the end of the tournament and we ended up clinching another Triple Crown and championship in that re-scheduled clash. I am not so sure we would have beaten England when the game was supposed to have been played, but we had built up a magnificent team spirit and understanding over the course of that championship, beating Scotland and Wales away from home before scraping across the line against the English with that famous drop goal from Michael Kiernan. In fact we were within a whisker of a Grand Slam but drew 15-15 against France in a dogged battle in Dublin. The foundation for that great season was set in the team-building session in O’Donohue’s. Yes, the amateur days had its compensations. Mercifully, there was no Twitter or mobile phones.
That said, there was nothing amateur about the swift decision-making of those in authority. Had such an influence been in place last week the French game could have been postponed by Wednesday.
Before undersoil heating we used have straw on the pitch for days in advance of the game under threat of freezing. In fact Munster employed this old technique as recently as December 2010 to protect the surface at Thomond Park against the forecasted freezing conditions in the build-up to their Magners League against Cardiff Blues that went ahead while all around them were forced to cancel.
In 1986 at Twickenham, I vividly recall straw being removed from the pitch only an hour before kick off in a game best remembered for the two pushover tries scored by England’s Dean Richards on his debut. We were in serious trouble in the scrum that day, not helped by the fact that the pitch was frozen in parts. Once you were on the retreat in the scrum it was impossible to arrest the slide.
It was the one and only time in my international career we were allowed decamp to the sanctuary of the dressing room at half time as the authorities did not want us to freeze to death standing around on the pitch. Irish team doctor Mick Molloy had pots of tea ready for us at the break. Typical of the RFU and Twickenham at the time — all very civilised. Sadly, that courtesy didn’t extend to their pack.
In those circumstances for referee Pearson to be in the dock after Saturday is a cop out. French federation president Pierre Camou was far too quick to point the blame in the direction of the match official when he really should have been assessing the role his own federation played in the shambles.
The Six Nations committee have been swift to point out it is the responsibility of the host union in the first instance to decide whether a match is to be postponed or abandoned for safety reasons. The French federation clearly abdicated on its duty in the lead-up and what followed in the stadium did not reflect well on the Six Nations committee either and by extension, this great tournament.
