Marvin Hagler and the Irish rugby connection

The Ireland squad’s audience with Hagler was arranged by Limerick’s very own Brian O’Brien

END GAME: 'Marvellous; Marvin Hagler, left, moves in on Sugar Ray Leonard during the third round of their 1987 world title fight. Leonard won with a split decision.

Marvin Hagler never fought in Australia, but he once made a promise to be ringside in Sydney at the 2003 Rugby World Cup final wearing a green scarf. 

All Ireland had to do was avoid being knocked out before then and The Marvellous One would be there.

The squad’s audience with Hagler, days before their departure, had been arranged by Limerick’s very own Brian O’Brien, the former Shannon centre, in his role as national team manager. He flew the boxer in unannounced from his then home in Milan and back again unseen — well almost.

The players, then captained by Keith Wood, almost fell off their seats in the team room of their hotel when Hagler strode in to give them an insight into what makes a world-beater tick. He had clearly taken the trouble to watch a few videos.

“Gee, it takes some guts to play rugby because that’s one helluva sport,” he said from beneath a black fedora when I bumped into him later that day at Dublin Airport.

“It’s a lot tougher than boxing. In my game, you’ve got one guy trying to punch you. In rugby you’ve got a whole lot of them coming at you from all angles and at the same time. 

“I told them straight: ‘If you make the final, I promise you I’ll be there and I’ll pay my own way’.” 

True to form, Ireland failed to keep their part of the bargain, falling at the quarter-final hurdle — 43-21 to France in Melbourne — as they had done at just about every other World Cup before or since.

Hagler didn’t get to see Ireland in action and now he never will.

The great middleweight champion, probably the greatest since Sugar Ray Robinson, died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 66. His knock-out of Thomas ‘The Hit Man’ Hearns in 1985 at the height of his seven-year reign will forever remain among the best world title fights of all time.