Neville will battle to the end

IF your christian name is Paul and you live in Limerick, the chances are that you are closely connected to Garryowen.

When they last captured the All-Ireland League in 1994, they were captained by Paul Hogan. This afternoon, they will be led out on the Musgrave Park pitch by Paul Neville for the AIL final against age-old rivals Cork Constitution — and coached by Paul Cunningham.

The similarities go still further. Hogan and Neville could well have been hewn from the same rock for they are big, tough, honest back-row forwards who battle to the end no matter what the state of a match.

In many ways, Neville’s commitment to the cause typifies the way Garryowen have reached today’s final. Nobody would have given them a prayer of reaching the knock-out stages when they lost four games in-a-row in January, starting with a single point defeat to Constitution at Dooradoyle. Somehow they battled back, finishing the campaign with five wins on the bounce saw them into the top four by the skin of their teeth.

On the way they also captured the AIB All-Ireland Senior Cup as well as the Munster Junior Cup, and when they came from 15-3 behind to dispose of Clontarf 28-15 at Castle Avenue in the semi-final last Saturday, the club was really on a roll. In other words, many regarded them as good things for the clash with Con.

“Would you ever say such a thing about a Con-Garryowen game, would you ever bet against Con,” asked Hogan as he dismissed the notion.

“Help me out here,” interrupted Neville. “Who was it ran away with the league, it was Con wasn’t it?”

So no sign of false confidence there even if their recent run of great form sends Garryowen to Musgrave Park with confidence and self belief to burn. Neville, a former Ireland under- 19 and 21 international, was also contracted for two years by Munster and for four by Connacht before there came, what was largely a mutually happy parting of ways. As it so happens, he is now a salesman with Frank Hogan Motors where his boss happens to be a certain, er, Paul Hogan. “I began my rugby career at Ard Scoil Rís and won our first ever provincial trophy, the Bowen Shield,” he recalls. “I played on teams that reached two Munster Senior Cup semi-finals and a final which we lost to PBC. Peter Stringer and Mick O’Driscoll were members of that Pres side while Mossie Lawler was in our team. Paul O’Connell came along the following year but we lost in the semi-final.”

Neville was also a member of an Irish under 19 team that contained Brian O’Driscoll and looked to have a Triple Crown in the bag until Wales pipped them with a very late try. Now he accepts that his representative days are behind him and that’s not something his Garryowen clubmates are unduly upset about considering how magnificently he has performed in their light blue jersey.

“I have no regrets about finishing with the professional game except for missing the everyday training,” he says.

“The first six months were the worst but that’s all in the past and with things going so well with the club, I am very happy with the way it’s panned out. We’ve had a super season having already won the Munster Senior and Junior Cups and the AIB All-Ireland Cup and now I think we’re set for what should be a great AIL final. All I would wish for is that it would cool down a bit.

“We have met Con twice this year and the score stands at one-all. I think the final will be very close, just as those two games were. I remember Con beat us well in a semi-final in Cork four years or so ago but otherwise I can’t recall when games between the sides weren’t tight.

“We’ve been starved for silverware in Garryowen and although we’ve picked up some already this year, this would definitely be the icing on the cake. It would also be a fitting farewell for our coach, Paul Cunningham, a true, straight up clubman, and for Peter Malone, who for me, epitomises a team without stars but one that’s full of honesty and heart.”