Ronan O'Gara: Gareth Edwards and the try that started this crazy kind of love

I wasn’t born but that moment shaped so much of what I later became.

INSPIRATIONAL: Gareth Edwards of the Barbarians passes the ball during a clash with New Zealand. Picture: Allsport UK /Allsport

IN THE team meeting room, there is no escape. The air is thinner when the debate is in another language. Nuance is lost. Humour or wit doesn’t carry, neither the cadence. Expletives are freighted differently. In Cork, you’d tell a lad to shut the f*ck up and stop acting the ghoul but saying that to someone in France is an altogether different thing, far more damning.

Things can escalate rapidly in that scenario, and no one needs that. Far more acceptable to tell someone ‘Tais-toi’, which is basically pipe down or be quiet.