High intensity game takes heavy toll rugby players

We used to have a call amongst the forwards long ago, in the heat of an international battle, when we needed to slow the pace down a bit, says Donal Lenihan.

While it took a while for some of the fancy dans behind the scrum to cop on to what was happening, it eventually clicked what the phrase “ar an talamh” meant.

That was the signal for someone to hit the deck and go down ‘injured’ in order to take the sting and momentum out of the opposition.