Rugby 'quieter and duller without Mick'
Aged 63, the Castleisland, Co Kerry-born and Kildare-based veterinary surgeon will be best remembered for coaching Ireland to Triple Crown glory in 1985 with his famous 'give it a lash' philosophy.
"Doyler" earned 20 caps as a flanker between 1965-68 and was selected for the Lions tour to South Africa in 1968. His coaching achievements also contained a little more breadth than a Triple Crown victory, as he led his adopted province, Leinster, to five interprovincial titles on the trot between 1979 and 1983.
After his management career ended, Doyle emerged as one of the first true pundits of the television era, a trait he later transferred to radio and the print media.
He suffered from a number of serious illnesses during his lifetime, including a heart attack during the 1987 World Cup which eventually forced him to quit as Irish coach, and a near fatal brain haemorrhage in 1996.
Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue TD said that his fellow county man had "earned iconic status in Irish sporting circles."
IRFU President John Quilligan also expressed sympathy to Mr Doyle's family.
"On my own behalf and that of the IRFU, I would like to express my heartfelt sympathy to Mandy and all of the Doyle family on their tragic loss. He gave the game great service in his associations with Ireland, the Lions, UCD, Blackrock College, Cambridge University and Edinburgh Wanderers as a player, and then with Leinster and Ireland as a selector and coach.
"More than that, Mick was also a larger than life character of great popularity, who will be sorely missed in all rugby circles."
FAI President, Fran Rooney, also paid a tribute: "Mick Doyle was a wonderful player with 20 caps for Ireland to his credit and his many achievements as a coach peaked with the Triple Crown victory in 1985. He was of course an immense character and is a great loss to rugby and Irish life as a whole."
As a player, Doyle initially plied his club trade as a student with UCD, and was selected for his first international cap against France in January, 1965. From then, until he made himself unavailable after the '68 season, Doyle was never dropped for an Irish fixture. Team-mate Tom Kiernan recalled yesterday it was Doyle's focus and commitment that made him such an integral part of the international scene during that era. "He came on the scene as a young guy but he was a very focused player and it was easy to see from early on that he had a great understanding of the game," said the former Irish captain and coach.
"It was said at times that he was too small to play international rugby, but the truth was, and he applied it himself when he was a coach, that it didn't matter how small you were as long as you could do the job.
"He had a very good career for three or four years, he played in nearly all our games during that period and it all culminated with him getting picked for the Lions in '68. After that, I think he could well have gone on playing international rugby for another few years, but the time commitment became too much for him. He went over to Cambridge, got his qualifications to be a vet and joined his father's surgery in Naas. Off the pitch, he was a gregarious type of fellow. It came across in his punditry later on in his life; he was always abrasive and up-front."
While he coached Leinster to their golden era in the early 80's, Doyle began a successful career as a rugby analyst on RTÉ television.
"He was one of the first rugby analysts on RTÉ television," said former rugby commentator Fred Cogley.
"His comments and his insight were always educational, informative, and always put over with a sense of humour which sometimes made them more acceptable to players than they might have been otherwise."
This view was echoed by Irish captain, Brian O'Driscoll.
"A huge number of people respected what he had to say. Anyone who stayed in the game as long he did had to have a huge knowledge of the game and I'm sure that right up until his death, people would have listened to everything he had to say because you knew he was talking sense when he talked rugby."
The Leinster centre also credits Doyle's Triple Crown winning team as being the first to interest him in the sport as a youngster.
"My first memory of rugby was as a six-year-old watching Mick's Triple Crown winning side. It was the first time I'd really known anything about the game of rugby and he had a big input into that. I remember at the time there were question marks about him bringing in so many young players, blooding them and getting a Triple Crown out of them. You have to take your hat off to people like that.
"It's frightening to think that a legend like that can be gone in the blink of an eye. All you can really say about Mick is to talk about his immeasurable contribution to Irish and Lions rugby. He'll be sorely missed."
That Triple Crown winning side of 1985 was almost entirely moulded by Doyle's vision. He introduced Brendan Mullin, Michael Bradley and Philip Matthews into the Irish set-up; Willie Anderson was successfully converted from number eight to second-row, while Paul Dean was chosen ahead of Tony Ward at out-half, principally, as Doyle has always admitted, because he couldn't kick the ball and Ireland, in turn, would be forced to run it.
Trevor Ringland, right winger on the 1985 team, yesterday recalled Doyle's team-talk before his first championship match as coach.
"I always remember him turning to us before our first match in 1985 against Scotland saying: 'Boys, I want you to run the ball, and if that doesn't work, I want you to still run it'. That was the kind of coach he was, Mick was a motivator. He freed players up. He was inspirational. He motivated a group of young players to go out and do their best and we produced some of the best rugby an Irish team has ever produced.
"He was a great character and a great friend. Irish rugby will be a lot quieter and duller without Mick Doyle."
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