The man with a few scores to settle on Sunday

FROM his office in the Hogan Stand, Ciaran Havelin’s reach extends all around Croke Park.

The Dubliner is managing director of a company called Haveco, which is contracted by Croke Park to develop all commercial aspects of the stadium.

“That includes advertising signage, rotational signage at pitchside, as well as installation and operation of the two big screens in the stadium.”

Sunday is a challenge to everyone working in Croke Park, but the work Havelin and his colleagues do is more visible than most. After all, no matter what game you’re at, one of the first things you check is the score.

“The scoreboard is on the big screen and we’ll operate the scoreboard as normal. We’ll have an IRFU referee’s assistant in the screen room and we’ll be linked to the television station — we’ll take our cues from both of those sources to tell us when to stop the clock, when the ball goes out of play.”

The clock, incidentally, has produced one of the few disagreements between the IRFU and the GAA, but Havelin points out it’s a matter of practicality, not ethos.

“The clock issue will be determined at a meeting today,” he says. “If you watch on television at home, you’ll see the score and the time on-screen, and ours will be the same because we’ll be taking a feed from the outside broadcast unit.

“We were going to put the clock and score on a sponsored part of the big screen, which is what we normally do for GAA games, but the IRFU would prefer to take the feed live from the OB unit for the big screen. The only problem is that a lot of people in the stadium won’t be able to read that because it’s very small — they won’t know whether the clock’s stopped or not. But we’re having a look at that in today’s meeting.”

Havelin says the big challenge at his end is “getting used to how the IRFU did things in Lansdowne compared to the way things are done in Croke Park.

“I wouldn’t say there have been clashes so much as both sides have been getting used to each other — compromises have been struck. The basics are much the same, a few small details are different.

“The clock on the big screen is probably the biggest issue that’s come up, but that’s a practical issue rather than a matter of ethos. By and large the commercial operation on Sunday will be quite similar to a GAA game, but there are a few small things.”

Some of those small things are determined by the simplest differences. Realigning the field for rugby has removed a traditional issue at hurling and football games.

“We’re careful with GAA matches, for example, that photographers don’t come on the field to block signage, and that those signs are clear for television. We offered our services to the IRFU but they decided to do it themselves, and they have different challenges — the rotating machines which show the advertisements at pitchside, for instance, are much further infield from the crowd because the pitch is so much smaller. Because of that there isn’t any reason for anyone to walk between those advertisements and the pitch itself compared to a GAA game. Again, it’s a logistical difference, not one of ethos.”

ONE similarity will be seen with big-screen replays of incidents in the game. Last year there was a noisy crowd reaction when a big-screen replay showed Wexford player Mattie Forde appearing to stamp on an Offaly player. Havelin says the screen operator will have some help on Sunday.

“For GAA games we have a GAA referee on hand to decide whether or not something should be replayed, and last year there was controversy at the Wexford game, but that was just down to human error. It didn’t look significant at first compared to when the close-up was shown, but it was simply an error. You’re always going to have the odd one that slips through. The rugby referee in the screen room on Sunday will play the same role, he’ll say ‘don’t replay that’; he’ll be working according to the same rules.”

Havelin’s as excited as everyone else in Croke Park about the arrival of France, and England in a fortnight — “there’s a lot that needs to go right, you’re depending on machinery working properly, but we’re looking forward to it.” But then again, his family goes back a long way with the stadium.

“My father was on Hill 16 with a friend of his when the British Army attacked Croke Park in 1920. He died at 91, a couple of years before I started working in Croke Park. He would have been thrilled at that.”