Beirne banking special Twickenham moments as focus turns to Wales
Tadhg Beirne chats to the media this week. Pic: INPHO/Grace Halton
A week on and, with the Six Nations sauntering through the first and last of the rest weeks, the memories of Ireland’s famous win over England in Twickenham have been allowed the time and the space to seep even further into folklore.
What stands out now is that, while Andy Farrell’s side scored 42 points and five tries, the mind’s eye is drawn to other snapshots.
Robert Baloucoune’s covering tackle on Henry Arundell. Stu McCloskey’s chasing down a haunted Marcus Smith.
Tadhg Beirne provided at least two more with a huge turnover on Ireland’s doorstep and the contribution to a choke tackle on George Ford after the break. Both were perfected by the look of sheer joy when the man with the blue scrum cap looked up and let out a roar.
“Yeah, they're huge moments. It's like scoring mini-tries, isn't it? I know the feeling, especially when you're in a long defensive set, and Caelan [Doris] or Josh [van der Flier] or one of the boys come up with a turnover, just the buzz you get from it.
“You're working really hard for each other, and then getting a turnover like that... Ah, it's an incredible feeling, for sure.”
Less conspicuous with ball in hand, Beirne’s 17 tackles was only bettered on the day by Doris. He also took three lineouts, stole another and played a small but hugely significant role in the first Irish try scored by Jamison Gibson-Park.
It was the Munster forward who reached down to take the ball at the base of the ruck inside the English 22 when Andrea Piardi awarded Ireland a penalty. All he did at that point was hand it to Jamison Gibson-Park who quick-tapped it and scooted over.
Simple. But very effective.
“Just a little bit of 'feel' and understanding about it. I know what Jamo's like, Craig [Casey] is the same. They're always kind of looking for those opportunities. I don't even know if Jamo said anything to me. We just kind of locked eyes and it was just an instinct thing.
“The two of them [Gibson-Park and Casey] will always look for those opportunities to go quickly. If you have the ball in hand… We both kind of sensed it. I went straight to him and he took the opportunity.”
Peter O’Mahony was another good man for these ‘big moments’ in games. Beirne doesn’t claim there is any science, or even an art, to it. There was no plan to target specific areas or players or to conserve energy for targeted points.
Sometimes games fall for you, sometimes they don’t.
Coincidence or not, Beirne and Gibson-Park were up there as two of Ireland’s best players just seven days after experiencing the rare sensation of starting a Test match on the bench. Either way, their responses to those demotions against Italy could hardly have been better.
It’s not like either had all that much to prove.
Both have been routinely excellent for club and country and for the British and Irish Lions in recent years, and Beirne’s quality has been matched by a quantity of contributions that really doesn’t happen all that much in Irish rugby.
The unofficial word was that Irish players would not play anything north of 25 games in a season. A World Rugby agreement announced last October put a cap of 30 on players playing anywhere in the world from now on.
The Kildare man turned out a grand total of 33 times in the last campaign so it was hardly surprising that his imperious form had dipped slightly at times in recent months. Less should be more, after all, even if he doesn’t agree.
“Yeah, I'm great. I wanted to play. Obviously, towards the end of the season, when you do get your break, you probably feel it after the second week off, like, 'I feel like a new man’. You're just feeling normal, like.
“But when you're in it, you just want to play every week. You want to be out there, and then when you do get a week off and you're watching from home, it's like, 'Oh, I wish I was out there now’.
“And, you know, I'm 34 now, so I don't know how much longer I have. So any opportunity I do get to go out and play, I want to be able to play it. So, another 33 or 35 games this season if they let me!” Enthusiasm should be no surprise on this of all weeks.
For Beirne, the win in Twickenham ranks up there with some of his greatest days with Ireland. The defeat of the Springboks at the last World Cup would be another. So too the 2-1 Test series win down in New Zealand in the summer of 2022.
He’s not the first to point out that big wins on the road can feel extra special, so that makes next Friday’s visit of a struggling Wales to Dublin all the more interesting as Ireland look to back up the record win in London.
“You can't just pat yourselves on the back and think it's going to happen again. You have to focus on what went well, bank it, and then focus on what we need to improve on because there is no point in saying 'Oh it was a good performance, we will just do it again next week.'
“It doesn't work like that. You have to work incredibly hard to get those performances and it'll be no different next week. We’re going to have to work incredibly hard to put in a good performance, but we don't just want to put in a good performance, we want to get better, and that’s the challenge.”
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