Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
CLASS OF 2023 HAVE MAGIC DUTCH
Can this year’s crop follow some famous footsteps?
War clouds had barely settled on Europe, leaving an entire continent scarred by hunger, homelessness and living hand-to-mouth when Ireland in 1948, captained by Karl Mullen, won their first Grand Slam.
The Oh-Nine Grand Slam was a close, close run thing with a one-point scrape against England and a two-point win over Wales, Brian O’Driscoll’s side looking unlikely winners for long periods in Cardiff.
The Rory Best-skippered 2018 Grand Slam came from the backdoor-disbelief of a 42-phase, 65m drive and 45m Johnny Sexton drop-goal in Paris in the opening game to wrap up the tournament in Week Four, completing the sweep in London.
This afternoon, the Sextonled 2023 side will look to carry all before them. They take the field as the world’s no.1-ranked side, a spot they gained following humbling the All Blacks in both Wellington and Dunedin last July.
Model-2023 opened with three exhilarating bonus-point victories and were unlucky not to pick up the extra against Scotland last week.
The explosive nature of the pack, slaloming backs and gritty bench has saved Ireland supporters’ too much angst.
Leading at half-time every time, they conceded just seven, three, three and no points in the four second-half periods.
Because if the boys of 1948 were embodied by a murderous, all-trampling wedge of a pack – led by hooker Mullen and epitomised by the winning tryscorer, an actual Cobh Pirate, prop JC Daly – 2009, as noted by O’Driscoll in Starsport this week, had a collection of topend gifted individuals.
While a workmanlike 2018 rode the ‘coaster of that firstup drop-goal win in Paris, they didn’t have wind in their sails in the aftermath, they had a hurricane.
Yet while the 2023 side is regularly praised for their cohesiveness, their unit, the selecao is packed with individuals happy to play supporting cast to each other, to leave the virtuous and humble Prince Hamlet Sexton out front.
Josh van der Flier is the World Player of the Year — and we may owe Johan Cryuff for that.
“My grandfather, who was born in Amsterdam, moved in the 1950s to Finglas; my Dad was born there, they lived for a few years there and then down to Wicklow,” explains JVDF.
“My dad played rugby with Wesley, Leinster Under-21s, Old Wesley and Wicklow RFC after that but Grandad and Granny kept me ‘Dutch’.
“I’ve a Johan Cruyff jersey at home, I got given it, every World Cup my Gran would get us a Dutch jersey to make sure we were supporting the Netherlands…”
It seems the most iconic no,14 shirt in sporting history, that of the three-time Ballon d’Or winner, has rubbed off on Ireland’s no.7 jersey-wearing World Player of the Year.
Hugo Keenan isn’t just the best full-back in the Six Nations — he hasn’t knocked a ball on in so long no-one can remember it — he is one of the finest backs worldwide.
When you make your starting Ireland debut after just a handful of club appearances and keep your place for 18 consecutive matches; when you run for almost 200 metres against France, you are truly a contributor.
Mainstay
Caelan Doris made his Irelands debut at 21, and three years later he is a mainstay.
And, it should be noted, he is still four years ahead of the time when no.8s — rugby key axial position — are expected to be coming into their prime.
National treasure Tadhg Furlong can not only pack down in rugby’s most difficult position at tight-head, he has also demonstrated the hands of an out-half when needed; were the yellowbelly not such a stalwart we would be hearing oh-so much more of Andrew Porter.
That Furlong cuts is as Everyman, his Ireland/ rugby view so openended, pointing north, east, south and west in terms of folk is a credit: “I understand that everyone is not rugby people and that’s fine if rugby is not your cup of tea.
“I hope that they can see through our actions that it means something to us. It means something to play for Ireland, no matter if you’re within the island of Ireland or if you’re Irish living abroad or whatever.
“Just to see that it means something to us and hopefully they can be proud of us.”
Is this a man you would follow over a hill?
“It means a lot. I don’t really like overly talking about it yet because we’ve won nothing yet. “That’s the dangers of complacency. We talk about it, we understand, and we hear about it from the public as well. “You just hope us wearing a green jersey and playing well, that people can be
proud to be Irish and can associate with us.”
James Ryan is playing sensational rugby after a precarious 2021/22 dip; ANZACs James Lowe, Mack Hansen, Jamison Gibson-Park have added a jackrabbit type of pace not normally associated with Irish rugby recipes.
Some might even say GibsonPark’s influence on this crew has been the most unexpected.
Left at home by Joe Schmidt for RWC2019, his worth has jumped from nought to 100 after being identified by Andy Farrell in early 2021 as the no.9 he wanted the most.
Leo Cullen/Schmidt reservations were cast aside by the international coach.
And, it is believed Sexton long-time used to Conor Murray with Ireland and Luke McGrath at Leinster - was called to one side and amid some heated exchanges told he better get used to JGP’s hurryhurry style or he was in danger of losing out.
Farrell was worried there was no evident back-up for a player who was going to be 38 years of age at RWC2023.
He wanted his Ireland scrumhalf to get every ounce out of the Sexton, not the other way around, have the out-half coast behind his scrum-half
“My brief was to lift the tempo, and in many ways we did that,” says Gibson-Park who really only been a bit player since signing in 2016 for Leinster.
“The tempo is a crucial thing for our game and we’ll try to implement it as best we can. “With that and with England here i nthe last game it is important we try to be as process-driven as we can and focus on the game rather than the occasion.
“England will be hurting after that record defeat to France, they obviously haven’t seen that happen in Twickenham before so they will be desperate to turn that round which will make them difficult to play against.”
Of course it is a few hours early to be valedictory about a squad yet to finish out the Grand Slam and, indeed, all points have been on message this week in the belief England can hardly be as ‘bad’ two weekends in a row.
Robbie Henshaw returns to start a player whom, incredibly but hearteningly, Ireland have been able to do without, injury having restricted him to just 15 minutes from the bench.
He is also wondering just how England will handle this task just seven days after humiliation at Twickenham.
“We know they’ll have their purple patches,” he says, probably a paraphrase for expecting a starting storm which may well see the Red Rose spark at least one mass brawl in the early exchanges.
Calm
“They have had their good bits in games so it is about being able to deal with what they throw at us and being calm.
“It’s important to be able to bounce back, that we are able to bring ourselves back to ground and bounce into the next thing.”
Certainly there is a hard-nosed dose of reality spreading over England rugby and as to whether it was a good thing to have jettisoned Eddie Jones so close to RWC2023.
His replacement Steve Borthwick was seen as a very methodical, a safe pair of hands, with hawk-like attention to certain details.
But then those are also attributes that can combine to produce
what could also be termed a ‘plodder’.
That the RFU may have bungled a changeover so close to RWC2023, effectively writing themselves out of that winner’s script is a good thing for Ireland - it lessens the potential winners in the competition.
Says Henshaw: “It’s our last game of the tournament so we want to finish on a high.
“And what better weekend with England coming to town on St Paddy’s weekend? It’s one of the best fixtures you can have.”
Adds the boss, Farrell: “All this stuff that you guys are going to be writing over the 48 hours leading to the moment of kickoff, it all becomes part of the circus, doesn’t it?
“But in reality anyone who’s ever played in a big game, when you get over that white line, all bets are off.
“It’s business time, all the emotion gets taken out after the first five minutes anyway and then you’ve got to be at your best.”
Ireland haven’t looked next-tonear faltering in this campaign, surely not now.