The Welsh are the soul of rugby union
Damian Stack looks at some of the stories making backpage news over the past seven days
THE Welsh have a way of just getting under our skin don’t they? It’s not a one way thing either. There’s a sort of a mutual antipathy that can’t be explained away by the fact the two nations are neighbours and rivals. No, there’s definitely more to it than that. It’s an animus born largely of misunderstanding. Incomprehension would probably be a better way of putting it. We look across the Irish Sea and wonder how the hell do they keep besting us, and they look back across and wonder where the hell we get these notions of grandeur. A lot of it probably has to do with how well the Irish provinces have taken to the professional game. In the Celtic League / Pro 12 / Pro 14 era the Irish provinces have held the whip hand more often than not. Between Munster, Leinster and Ulster Irish sides have won the European Cup / Champions Cup seven times. The Welsh haven’t won it once. In fact only one Welsh side has reached the final. The first one. A Welsh side hasn’t been seen in the final since 1996. That’s quarter of a century ago now.
With a record like that is it any wonder Irish sides travel to Cardiff with a little bit of a swagger? Used to besting them in nearly every other arena, why wouldn’t Irish fans (and subconsciously even players) expect to win? Maybe there’s even a little bit of that attitude that trips us up, because, for all that club success, when it comes down to it, the Welsh are the superior rugby nation. They do better at what we aspire to do ourselves – punch above our weight.
Pound for pound the Welsh have to be the most successful rugby nation on the planet. According to World Rugby statistics, the Welsh only have the 12th highest number of registered players with around 20,000 fewer than Ireland. Even accounting for a pretty successful decade or so more recently, Ireland’s record in the Six Nations pales in comparison to theirs. The less said about how Ireland’s World Cup record stacks up the better. The Welsh have this amazing ability to pull together with one goal in mind. Fair enough you might say they’ve been a little bit lucky so far this year. Peter O’Mahony’s red card likely cost Ireland a win in Cardiff and, yet, can you honestly say that Ireland would have been able to do what Wales have done in this year’s championship had the tables been turned? Even on the weekend with a pair of dubious tries to bolster them, they found the inner strength to resist Albion’s backlash. The Welsh might be an uncomfortable mirror for us to gaze into, but they’ve damned impressive. In fact they’re what rugby is all about.
IT is said time is a great healer, but over 30 years after Cork GAA’s annus mirabilis – the All-Ireland double in 1990 – one of the members of Billy Morgan’s football panel remains aggrieved at not getting his Celtic cross medal.
Newly elected Macroom GAA club chairman Noel ‘Scobie’ Twomey is disappointed to this day at never receiving a medal as part of the extended Cork football squad that won the Sam Maguire Cup in 1990.
At the time and under GAA guidelines, just 21 medals were made available for distribution, corresponding to the maximum number allowed on an inter-county panel for Championship purposes. But as was and remains the norm, the Cork panel in 1990 surpassed that number over their All-Ireland winning championship campaign.
“A presentation night took place where twenty-one medals were given out and the forgotten players received a timber plaque,” Twomey says now. “It left a sour taste. The County Board could have looked after us, just to show appreciation after putting in effort and time.”
Twomey was no stranger to inter-county involvement. In 1986 he played on a Cork Minor football team that beat Kerry in a Munster Final but the concession of two penalties in the subsequent All-Ireland Final saw Cork lose to Galway.
“Macroom won the County Minor championship [and] that allowed me captain the Cork minors in 1987. Again Cork overcame Kerry in a replay only to come up short to Down in the All-Ireland (final),” he said.
Matters turned around in 1989 when Twomey won two All-Ireland medals as part of Cork teams to overcome Warwickshire and Galway in the Junior and Under-21 Football Finals respectively.
“During late 1989 I was amongst a number of players to be called into the senior panel, a fantastic setting, and given the opportunity to play my way into teams for the National Football League. I was taking every chance, putting in huge hours and mileage, but thirty years on it remains disappointing not to be showed appreciation,” he said.
As a club man, Twomey was part of a Macroom team to overcome Castletownbere in the 1990 County IFC, and twenty years on he coached Macroom to see off Killavullen in the Premier IFC.
“To win the 1990 county was superb, it put Macroom back into senior ranks. The same applied to the 2010 success, looking after 30 lads as manager and coach was much different to playing but again hugely satisfying,” Twomey said.
Now Twomey is club chairman, a position he had no hesitation in accepting.
“My goal is to get the club up to play senior football again. A new development committee are looking at new dressing rooms with a state of the art gymnasium. We have a fantastic pitch and lighting. Everybody loves playing in Macroom with the natural hill in the background it generates a fantastic atmosphere. Add in Tom Creedon Park, it offers excellent facilities for Macroom
GAA,” he said.