No bull, just pure effort from key man Hayes
Hopefully, that will serve as a happy omen for the big man and his Irish colleagues when they face Georgia in their second game of the World Cup tonight (8pm, TV3, Setanta and ITV).
It’s in matches like these that the 33-year-old giant from Cappamore, Co Limerick, is invaluable to the Irish cause. If he stands up to the challenge in the tight — then his team will thrive. But if he and those around him succumb to the pressure, then even as talented a back line as Ireland’s will struggle to accumulate the tries and points so crucial to involvement in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Niall O’Donovan, the Irish assistant and forward coach, has had a huge influence on Hayes, transforming him from a second-row forward to a tight-head prop of Lions quality.
Hayes has huge admiration for his mentor and the feeling is reciprocated.
“He has been under huge pressure ever since he moved to the front row,” says O’Donovan.
“People claimed from the start that he’d never make a prop, that he was too tall, that his back was too long, that he’d never acquire the technique. They fired anything they could think of at John.
“I admire him for all the effort he has put in to get where he is.
“The fact he is winning his 77th Irish cap against Georgia says it all.”
Continued O’Donovan: “I honestly believe him to be the cornerstone of the Irish pack. Apart at all from his scrummaging, which is a hell of a lot better than people understand, he does fantastic work in the line outs, he puts in a fantastic number of tackles for a prop and above all, he is honest.
“On top of all that, he is genuinely nice guy. I’ve sat down with him time and time again and he listens and takes it all in and never complains and never has an excuse. A top drawer guy all round.”
Hayes has been a constant in Ireland’s number three jersey since playing Scotland in 2000. He has been dubbed “The Bull” because of his massive frame — 19 stone 9 lbs and stands 6 ft 4 inches — but in truth he lives up to that old cliché about gentle giants. Off the pitch, of course!
He is one of three or four players in the Irish squad without whom the chances of an extended World Cup run would be out of the question should, heaven forbid, injury intervene.
Interestingly, he first played the game at the age of 18 as a flanker with Bruff before joining Shannon and then he went off to Invercargill in the southernmost part of New Zealand for a couple of years.
He moved to the second row while “down under” and on his return to Ireland, switched to tight-head prop on the advice of O’Donovan, the then Shannon coach.
Successive Munster and Ireland selectors have deemed him an essential cog in their respective machines, to the extent that he pulls on the green jersey for the 77th time tonight.
“We’re still only the first week into the World Cup and I can assure you we are all rarin’ to go,” says Hayes.
“It’s not disappointment we’re feeling after Namibia, more a case of frustration. We know we can do better. We did so much so good only for stupid mistakes to let us down. We have to get rid of all that. We did start well but it’s hard to explain what went wrong after that.
“We wanted to do it but it just didn’t happen. It definitely wasn’t a case of complacency. There would be no reason for anything like that. We just didn’t get the performance we wanted and that’s what was so annoying. I was reasonably happy with my own game but that doesn’t really come into it. I looked at the video and saw there were 10 different things I should have done. There were gaps where if I had run on to someone’s shoulder, I could have got a pop and made things easier for someone else.
“Once the game opens up after two or three phases, you’re spread all over the field and you have to be able to do those jobs as well. Namibia were big boys, a lot of them play in South Africa, they got stuck in and they weren’t going to roll over.
“Now we’re expecting much of the same at the weekend. Georgia have a big, heavy pack and a lot of them play in France and that means it’s going to be hard up front once again. I think I played against one of them last year, either for Castres or Bourgoin, and if they can make it there, they have to be good players.
“It’s great to be involved in such a huge tournament,” he enthuses. “It was good to see so many Irish people at Sunday’s game although that’s no surprise. We know they’re willing to travel — as we saw in Rome last season — and we appreciate it and understand why they were disappointed. But we have to do it for ourselves and if we play up to our standards, everything else will fall into place. We know we can do that and must prove it to ourselves this time round.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
