O’Connell first among equals
When Clare McNamara, RTÉ’s excellent post-match interviewer, suggested that this latest Six Nations Championship could not have been achieved without Joe Schmidt’s coaching expertise, he paused ever so slightly and pondered the question. Ordinary men, in the aftermath of such a nerve-wracking game, would have gone with the flow. But O’Connell gathered his thoughts before stressing that this hadn’t happened overnight.
“There was an excellent squad there and it was a case of putting it together and that was done on the back of other people like Deccie,” he pointed out.
The comment probably passed many by but for me it underlined the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the man, how even in a moment of absolute personal gratification and near hysteria in the massive Stade de France, he had the presence of mind to recall the long and difficult journey that had brought this day to realisation and why a man of Declan Kidney’s enormous contribution to the modern-day success of Irish rugby should not be forgotten.
And to think that one of yesterday’s newspapers categorised O’Connell as a plodder! You suspect that Devin Toner would hardly agree with that.
The celebrations will go on for another day or two but the players will be returning to their provinces this week and will quickly resume their preparations for the massive Heineken and RaboDirect games in the weeks ahead. There is no doubt Schmidt has continued where Kidney left off in the area of man management and it was interesting to hear him single out Andrew Trimble for special mention.
Sure, the Ulsterman had a superb campaign but there are more colourful and greater headline makers in the squad. In Schmidt’s book, however, all of his players are equal and that’s one reason why we are champions of Europe today.
He also referred to Connacht’s Robbie Henshaw and Ulster’s Darren Cave as potential replacements for Brian O’Driscoll and given the circumstances, could be forgiven for overlooking Keith Earls.
The Munster flyer has a stated preference for the second centre position but he is just one of several players, both backs and forwards, who didn’t spend a single minute on the pitch in the Six Nations but who could very well displace some of those who etched their names into the history books over the past couple of months.
Injury kept Earls, Tommy Bowe, Simon Zebo, Luke Fitzgerald, Sean O’Brien and Stephen Ferris out of the action. Heroes though they may be at present, there is no way that Trimble, Dave Kearney, Chris Henry and Peter O’Mahony will be resting on their laurels with that sextet yapping at their heels.
And then you have a huge crop of younger, less recognised players intent on making their mark in time for the 2015 World Cup.
With the Six Nations title at stake in his first year at the helm, it must have taken a considerable degree of courage on Schmidt’s part to give a generous amount of game time to forwards like Jack McGrath and Martin Moore and to also blood Jordi Murphy, Rhys Ruddock, Tommy O’Donnell and Ian Madigan at the highest level.
Even then, however, he failed to please everyone, especially in the southern end of the country where there was disappointment that the likes of Zebo, Donnacha Ryan, David Kilcoyne, Dave Cronin, Stephen Archer and James Coughlan never got a look-in. Injury was a factor in some but not all of these cases.
We will never go back again to the days of a final Irish Trial but if we did, just look at the squad — if everyone was fit — that could be put out against the 23 who did us so proud in Paris: Felix Jones; Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley, Kieran Marmion; David Kilcoyne, Richardt Strauss, Stephen Archer, Donnacha Ryan, Dan Tuohy, Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien, Rhys Ruddock; with replacements Mike Sherry, Dave Cronin, Declan Fitzpatrick, Dave Foley, Tommy O’Donnell, Luke Marshall, JJ Hanrahan, Luke Fitzgerald.
Along with Saturday’s 23, that makes for 46 names that Schmidt can juggle with between now and the World Cup. Even then, several significant players are not included. Yes, indeed, we are on the cusp of a new golden generation — and with a great captain at the helm.
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