Captain Corrigan copes with clash of rugby cultures
The crowds are sprinkled across the grassy banks of the Teufavia Stadium in Nuku’alofa. Few seem interested as the teams emerge from the tunnel. Corrigan introduces his team to a dignitary no more than 16 years old, a Tongan spiritual leader.
Ireland’s Call cackles over the PA system. And the only voices singing along are those of his team-mates.
“It’s not how you imagine it if you do get the chance to captain your country,” admits Corrigan.
“International rugby doesn’t need a lot to motivate you because it’s a big stage. You go out and you play matches and you know what’s at stake and there’s usually a good crowd and a great atmosphere.
“There’s a whole build up and that gets the adrenaline flowing.In Tonga, you run out to the pitch and if a kicker missed a shot at goal they laughed. It’s just a totally different thing. There was nobody singing our anthem obviously, but theirs was even worse. It was tough because it’s hard to get into the mind frame you need to be in a for a hard, tough difficult challenge. That’s the things about being a professional, you have to overcome little things like that the whole time.”
It’s been a strange year for Corrigan, a year filled with more than enough dramas. After the retirement of Peter Clohessy, the Greystones’ man made the Irish No 1 jersey his own during the World Cup qualifiers and autumn internationals but then broke his arm against Italy in the second Six Nations game.
“I’d love to have been around for all the Six Nations, but it just wasn’t to be. It would have been great to have been part of the final game against England, but unless you’re on the pitch and playing the game, you don’t feel you’re fully a part of it.”
And then his Leinster problems began. Corrigan missed the quarter-final victory against Castres but was back in the line-up for the defeat to Perpignan in the semi-final. After that, the whole house fell down.
“It’s very disappointing Matt’s (Williams) gone,” says Corrigan. “We’d already had a meeting about next season, about where we were going, what we were going to do and it was already decided we would be having a go again next year, that we’d learn from the mistakes of this year and get it right next year. Now, it’s going to be an interesting year this year trying to rebuild with a new coach.
“The papers ran articles that there were guys unhappy. The way I look at it is, because of the nature of the game we need to have support and we need to have players who can slot in and back-up.
“You can only pick 15 players and have another seven on the bench, so of course there’s going to be guys who are disappointed.”
Corrigan had the fortune, or the misfortune as it turned out, to be a member of Ireland’s last World Cup squad in 1999 and, understandably, it holds mixed memories for him.
“It was pretty embarrassing to lose the Argentinean game the way we did. We came home with a cloud around us. But I hope that this one will be a more enjoyable experience, and with the set-up we’ve got, the squad of players that are likely to be involved, it seems to be a very enjoyable place to be and that’s why I’m so looking forward to it.”
Corrigan gets a second chance to captain his country against Samoa tomorrow (3.30am Irish time) and while the experience will probably be the same, the player is expecting a much tougher game. “The crowd will be a little bit more passionate in Samoa, they know a little bit more about their rugby out there. I’m expecting the atmosphere to be a little better, but then again I don’t really know, I’ve never played there before.”
Last week, the Islander’s scored 41 unanswered points in a stunning comeback against the New South Wales Waratahs and their play was a combination of their usual sideline to sideline running mixed with a sharp dose of rugby pragmatism that has been instilled by their New Zealand coaching team of John Boe and Michael Jones.
The Samoans named their side yesterday and there is plenty of talent in the mix along with two new caps, Dale Rasmussen and fullback Fa’atonu Fili.
SAMOA: F Fili, L Fa’atau, D Rasmussen, B Lima, R Fanuatanu, E Va’a, D Tyrell; K Lealamanua, T Leota, J Tomuli, O Palepoi, L Lafaialii, K Viliamu, M Fa’asavalu, S Sititi (c) Replacements: J Meredith, T Leupolu, D Tuiavi’i, P Tapelu, S So’oialo, G Elisara, D Feaunati.
IRELAND: G Dempsey, J Kelly, M Mullins, J Bell, A Horgan, R O’Gara, G Easterby; M Horan, S Byrne, R Corrigan (c), L Cullen, P O’Connell, S Easterby, E Miller, A Quinlan. Replacements: P Shields, E Byrne, D O’Callaghan, A McCullen, B O’Meara, P Burke, G D’arcy.
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