It’s a sure sign that Irish rugby is getting something right when the South Africans are looking in our direction for help. Earlier this year, it was the Springboks asking former Kerry footballer Mickey Ned O’Sullivan for advice on catching skills; more recently a delegation from the Blue Bulls have been in Dublin on a fact-finding mission, as Bruce Cooke, development manager with the International Rugby Board, explains.
‘I met with people from the Blue Bulls 12 months ago when I was doing some training with them in Pretoria. I told them that if they wanted some forward thinking, or an insight on how things are done somewhere else, they should go to Ireland. They got in contact with the IRFU and it went from there.’
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Wallabies don’t like it dry . . .
Last Sunday wasn’t a great evening for the Wallabies in Dublin, and we understand it got worse for them when they were told by team management not to drink any alcohol at the post-match banquet in the Berkeley Court Hotel.
This was clearly a reaction to the kerfuffle over the four Wallabies — including skipper Stirling Mortlock, who’s now officially in the ‘embattled’ category — who had broken curfew in Rome the previous weekend. We hate to tell tales, but the three tourists we spotted slipping away early from the banquet didn’t look as though they had 7 Up on their minds.
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. . . and the wet stuff doesn’t appeal
Just to enjoy some more Wallaby whinge, we logged back on to Alistair Baxter’s column on www.rupa.com.au and Big Bad Al didn’t disappoint.
Here’s the entry from last Sunday: ‘It’s game day and unfortunately the weather is getting worse and worse by the minute with gale force winds and rain. We can’t even escape the weather in the rooms with the wind howling through the cracks between the windows and walls. By the time we reach kick-off the wind has been officially classed as gale force and sheets of rain are being driven horizontally across the ground.’ Boohoo.
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Ireland get sticky fingers
You may have spotted Donncha O’Callaghan rushing to the sideline during a break in play last Sunday and receiving a cold spray on his fingers.
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Except it wasn’t cold spray, it was an adhesive wax used to counteract a slippery ball. Hooker Rory Best, below, prefers a wax sold in France and used especially by pelota players. His lineout jumpers smear it on their thighs to help their lifters, while Best smears some on the front of his jersey in wet conditions, so he can daub his fingertips before throwing at the lineout.
Are Ireland getting an unfair advantage? No. Apparently just about every pro side is on the case. Except perhaps those, like Australia, who apparently never play in the wet.
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Lansdowne remembered
With impeccable timing, Edward Newman’s impressive Lansdowne Through the Years (Hodder Headline) will be launched by Ollie Campbell tomorrow evening at Lansdowne RFC. The book has coffee-table visual appeal but Newman also gets the testimony of such venerables as Jack Kyle, Keith Wood, Gareth Edwards, Colin Meads and Michael Lynagh. Martin Johnson’s in there too, describing his first visit in 1995 and the infamous red carpet incident in 2003, when President Mary McAleese got mud on her Manolos. ‘We had our heads on that day,’ he explains. ‘We weren’t taking any rubbish.’ Johnson also insists he wasn’t informed beforehand about Lansdowne Road protocol — though the IRFU insist he was.
Ref wants clean game
Our best wishes to Christophe Berdos, who referees this afternoon’s game at Lansdowne Road. Berdos failed to finish his previous game at the old stadium (Leinster’s Heineken Cup game against Gloucester) when he unsurprisingly came off worse in a collision with Owen Finegan. Having suffered another injury in a more recent game, the 36-year-old Frenchman is now due some luck. Bonne chance!