Time to envision World Cup glory

MAN for man there isn’t a rugby team in the Northern Hemisphere to touch Ireland; man for man, there isn’t a club rugby team in the Northern Hemisphere to touch Munster.

Despite all the ill-informed criticism to the contrary, there isn’t a better pack than what we have in Munster, in Ireland; there certainly isn’t a better second-row combination than Paul O’Connell/Donncha O’Callaghan; nor would I trade a back-row chosen from any of Denis Leamy, Paul Wallace, Alan Quinlan, Keith Gleeson, Anthony Foley, Neil Best, etc, for any combination chosen from any other club or nation.

There isn’t a better half-back combination than Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara, a better centre partnership than Gordon d’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll, nor would the following selection of wingers look out of place in any team north of the equator — Shane Horgan, Andrew Trimble, John Kelly, Denis Hickie. Then you have our full-backs, for club and country — Geordan Murphy, Girvan Dempsey, and a man who really, really impresses me, Shaun Payne.

I’m leaving out a few big names here (Mal O’Kelly, Mick O’Driscoll, Barry Murphy, Trevor Halstead, Bob Casey, to name but a few more), but ye begin to get my drift.

Dammit, there isn’t even an international rugby coach to touch Eddie O’Sullivan now that the leopard has in fact changed its spots, nor are there any better club coaches than Declan Kidney and Michael Bradley, or better backroom guys than the likes of Niall O’Donovan, Jim Williams, Jerry Holland.

Here, on the second day of January 2007, I make the above declarations with absolute confidence. Over the Christmas period I saw two Magner’s League games between Irish provinces, Munster-Leinster on December 27, Leinster-Ulster on New Year’s Eve, the Last Stand. The intensity of the rugby was immense, the hitting bordering on the reckless, the skills on view sublime.

On a couple of wild and windy days it was enough to warm the cockles of the coldest heart.

In Thomond Park we saw a Munster side that had tried to mix it in the open in the first half against probably the best broken-field club team in rugby, and found themselves marginally behind at the break. What did they do? Change tactics, play a more selective game that leaned more towards the superiority of that pack, the superiority especially of their half-backs, and slowly, gradually, just crushed the life out of the visitors.

So what do Leinster do? Come back just four days later and do unto Ulster what Munster had done unto them, but using their own strength. In the first half Leinster were in trouble as their pack came under pressure in the tight and conceded penalties that were brilliantly converted in a swirling gale by young Paddy Wallace. Second half? Using that vaunted back-line, Leinster just cranked it up to a level most sides can only fantasise about.

At one stage, Brian O’Driscoll took out the last two Ulster defenders on the right side of the line with a breathtaking bit of skill: he looked like he was going to pass to the in-cutting Denis Hickie, on whom both defenders were locked, but instead threw a last-second little lob pass over the heads of all three — to himself. He came around the back as the three collided, headed for open country up the left wing.

“Myself and Denis do that in training, we’ve spoken about it, said if we’re not going to try it in games why bother practicing it? It worked a treat, except that five years ago I might have been able to gas them!”

Didn’t matter, it was still enough to have the sell-out Lansdowne Road crowd on its feet — not the first time that happened in what was an exhilarating end-to-end game, despite some fantastic defence from both sides.

Let’s make a New Year’s resolution right now; let’s stop being so damned nervous about enjoying these days, and open ourselves up to them. Let’s anticipate another Heineken Cup triumph, be it for Munster or Leinster; let’s look forward to a Grand Slam; let’s even think about winning this year’s World Cup. Why not?

In the recent magnificent Munster DVD, Ronan O’Gara spoke of adjusting his goals now that the Heineken Cup has been won. Retain, definitely, Grand Slam for sure, but the World Cup — that’s his new horizon.

We should be with him, every one of us.

Happy new year to us all.

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