Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
REACHING FOR THE CROWN
Wallace was the hero of last Dublin trophy
David Wallace knows what it is like to notch a crucial try for Ireland in a trophy victory on home soil.
His was the key score in the taking of the 2004 Triple Crown.
With the game poised at 16-16 following a surprise Scotland resurgence and with doubts creeping into a home side that had all too often been bridesmaids in recent seasons, the crowd had more or less fallen silent.
Ronan O’Gara kicked to the corner and while Ireland won the l ine-out b oth P aul O’Connell and Axel Foley had been repelled leaving the home side, having lost ground, with a stationary ruck some 15 metres from the line.
Flanker Wallace, standing to left of the pile, called for the ball and ran straight at outhalf Dan Park, whose tackling had at times been criticised.
“I wasn’t actually aware it was Parks,” admits Wallace.
“In the heat of that kind of battle it is not such much you were looking for a particular player, you are just looking for the path of least resistance.
“But I had a feeling that particular defender was slightly isolated so I went at him and when he tackled me I kinda felt there was no pressure coming in behind to support him.
Decided
“So I just thought I’d give it another push, twist him, try and catch him off guard — that worked, I’d opened up a bit a gap and decided to go for the line”.
Cue a massive pile-up as the players celebrated and O’Gara’s conversion broke the Scots as Ireland would score another two tries before the close.
As it was in 2004, Ireland hadn’t started the Six Nations with any kind of a ‘bounce’; rather they lost 35-17 in Paris, albeit against a team that would go on to claim their second Grand Slam in three years.
“We couldn’t beat France under Eddie (O’Sullivan),” recalls O’Gara. “Or at any rate after beating them in the Six Nations in 2003, we lost to them seven times in-a-row, including two World Cup defeats.”
There was a s olid performance next up against Wales, a 36-15 win at Lansdowne Road, set-off by a Shane Byrne try within 60 seconds.
“That was an incredible experience,” says Byrne of his first Six Nations try following which he produced a dancing celebration.
“It was a sweet catch in the line-out by Simon Easterby, some textbook mauling and the space just opened up. Anthony Foley who was beside me spotted it before I did. He was screaming at me ‘Go, Go…’”
The build-up to the England game wavered between silliness and oneupmanship.
World champions England were playing at home for the first time since having won the little golden trophy in 2003.
They were also on a 22-match unbeaten run at Twickenham and had nailed 22 plaques to the surrounds of the away dressing room door.
O’Sullivan decided to borrow a play from Young Munster’s book.
Opponents
The Cookies would traditionally clap their opponents onto the pitch in Limerick before attempting to physically dominate them for 80 minutes.
Meanwhile, BOD, in a ghostwritten BBC column, had infuriated England coach Clive Woodward.
“Hopefully we can give the prawn sandwich brigade at Twickenham something to choke on,” said the Irish captain’s column.
“I don’t like prawn sandwiches,” snapped Woodward in reply.
“It’s best to keep quiet. I’m surprised teams haven’t learned that when they come to play England. We do out talking on the pitch.”
Paul O’Connell, talking of that second Triple Crown leg, added: “We beat England at Twickenham by playing one of Eddie O’Sullivan’s wide-wide game plans.
“The tactics worked but the big factor was all the linebreaks that Gordon D’Arcy made, he put them under savage pressure — when you can do what Darce did to England that day, any game plan works.”
Sure enough O’Connell was acknowledging D’Arcy’s greatest ever game in an Ireland shirt — the centre was subsequently voted 2004 Six Nations Player of the Year.
O’Gara had kicked four penalties to get Ireland in 12-10 ahead at half-time before Girvan Dempsey crossed for a training ground try, with the game finishing 19-13 to the visitors.
Defeated
A fortnight later Ireland defeated Italy 19-3 in a gale that had the old question of ‘what on earth are we doing playing Six Nations at this time of year?’ back in vogue.
Which, in turn, which left the
Triple Crown game with Scotland as the last question — a Scots team, it would transpire, who were about to register the first of their three Six Nations whitewashes.
Former Leinster coach Matt Williams’ side were still in with a fair shout as the secondhalf progressed at Lansdowne Road.
O’Gara had had his first kick blocked down while O’Driscoll was being closely watched.
Ireland were getting more anxious as the game was poised at 16-16 early in the second-half — and might have been even more so if they had known some of s oon-to-be-the-hero Wallace’s concerns.
“I’d been worried all week in camp about my fitness and how
long I would last and remain effective in the game,” reveals Wallace.
“I hadn’t been involved in the Six Nations in the four games to that point as Simon Easterby, Keith Gleeson, Axel Foley has started in the back-row each time with Victor Costello as the reserve.
Hectic
“Now, I hadn’t let on to Eddie but the previous weekend I’d had a hectic 10-year reunion with my Schools Cup-winning Crescent team, somewhere out around Killaloe I think.”
Signs on Wallace and his former teammates were watching Ireland and Italy on the Saturday beforehand.
“Close to the end of the game
Keith Gleeson, a specialist no7, goes off with a serious injury and is replaced by Victor who is a specialist no8.
“I remember somebody said ‘what about next week, who’s next in line?’ and we were scratching our heads and naming names.
“After a while it kinda agreed by the group, who would have known their rugby, it was most likely…me.
“And there I am thinking I am in no state but I better put this pint down and start thinking about looking the part on Monday morning if Eddie does get on the phone!”
All’s well that ends well — Wallace’s score remaining one of the finest solo efforts in Ireland’s Six Nations canon and, sometime just before a quarter to six that evening, Brian O’Driscoll ‘lifts’ the imaginary Triple Crown trophy skyward, with his team having on 37-16.
History
At that point, he is only the fifth Ireland captain in history to do so following in the footsteps of Edmund Forrest (1894), Louis Magee (1899), Karl Mullen (1948, 1949) and Ciaran Fitzgerald (1982, 1985).
The number remained at five for a while as BOD added three more (2006, 2007 and 2009) with Rory Best ( 2018) becoming a sixth member of a very select club.
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