Ireland’s call
Rugby legend Donal Lenihan’s passion for the game remains undimmed, as someone who has always seen the bigger picture. He talks to Donal O’donoghue about a life in rugby
“On the evidence of the opening two games in the Six Nations, Ireland looks a step ahead of everybody else,” says Donal Lenihan, a man whose thoughts on rugby are always worth heeding. “Following the disappointment of the World Cup, Ireland seem to have moved on to another level. ey were outstanding in the way they dispatched France in Marseille. But the most impressive thing for me is that while we have just played two games in the Six Nations, 30 players have seen game time, which is almost unheard of. We made six changes from the team that beat France for the game against Italy and they were almost seamless. at speaks volumes for the Irish management and their side.”
Donal Lenihan is a busy man these days: TV and radio commentator, analyst ( Against the Head) and columnist with the Irish Examiner. e night a er Marseille, where he did radio commentary for France v Ireland, he was in Cork to watch Munster squeeze out Crusaders at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. When we spoke, he was back in Cork (“always a good thing”) a er lming Against the Head in RTÉ the previous day. “I’m up and down that Cork-dublin road like a yo-yo, but I’m not complaining,” he says. “When you’ve nished your stint as a player and management, the next place for me was the commentary box. It’s the best seat in the house, allowing you to be the link to what’s happening on the pitch for the audience at home.”
is weekend, with Ireland hosting Wales, Lenihan will once more be in the thick of it as a match commentator on RTÉ TV. Wales are in the throes of a major rebuild, but with Warren Gatland at the helm, they will not lack for motivation. “I have no doubt that Wales will show up on the day, but I still expect Ireland to beat them,” he says. “I would have great time for Warren, dating back to that time we worked together (Gatland was Ireland coach when Lenihan was team manager from 1998 to 2000), but Wales have lost a serious number of topquality players over the last 12 months. Plus, the state of the domestic game in Wales is poor. For a young team, they have made good strides, but this will be a huge test for them in Dublin, with Andy Farrell most likely re-introducing many of the players who didn’t start against Italy.”
Lenihan has lived a life in rugby, as his 2016 biography ( Donal Lenihan: My Life in Rugby Rugby) described. He was capped 52 times for Ireland, did three tours as a player with the British and Irish Lions, was manager of Ireland and the Lions and was named at the end of the 1980s as ‘Player of the Decade’ by the Irish Times. Rugby is in his DNA, but in the beginning, rooted in a lineage of GAA, his dream was to play football for Cork and maybe one day li the Sam Maguire. Fate determined otherwise, as his parents decided on the Christian Brothers College, an alma mater with a strong history of the oval ball game, simply because it had a six-year school cycle. Young Donal Lenihan, who spent his city childhood whacking sliotars o the gable end of houses, ended up captaining CBC’S Junior Cup team. “Somebody told my father that this was a big deal, to which he said: ‘I’d better start going to a few matches so.’”
Later in life, Donal’s father, Gerald (a champion boxer and footballer) said that one of his proudest sporting days was when his son rst pulled on the green shirt of Ireland’s Schools. But Lenihan’s own stand-out moments are too many for this paragraph. “I was part of a pack that was known as ‘Dad’s Army’. We won the Five Nations championships, the Triple Crown and should have won the Grand Slam, but for all the celebrations before the nal game against France.” e late, legendary Mick Doyle was the coach then. “Oh, he was mad,” says Donal, recalling how the biggest party on tour was most likely to be in Doyler’s room. “Probably my biggest regret is the 1991 World Cup quarter- nal, when we lost by a point to Australia scored in the nal minutes. I’ll never forget that for all the wrong reasons.”
In his biography, Donal also chronicled two of the darkest moments in his life. In 1984, his daughter, Sarah, born with a heart condition, died at 8½ months. Six years later, his son John, died shortly a er being born prematurely. It was on the night of that famous World Cup ’90 penalty shootout. Donal (who is married to Louise and has a son, David) remembers driving to the hospital as all about him the city celebrated Ireland’s victory over Romania. “Every time I see Packie Bonner making that save now, I remember it for all the wrong reasons.” ose personal tragedies inevitably changed him, not least in how he would come to manage players. “Having gone through that myself, I’d always look at the broader picture and life outside of rugby and the pressures on players and their private lives, that you know nothing about.”
He played with Ireland from 1982 to 1991, before the game turned professional and when football was top of the heap. “I was playing with Ireland when we had Euro ’88 and Italia ’90 and I looked on with envy, wondering if rugby would ever attract that level of fanatical support and following that soccer had then. But we are at that stage in rugby now. It was emotional at last year’s World Cup moving up through the south of France
as the pool stages progressed, the thousands and thousands of supporters and the atmosphere they brought to the stadia. e South Africa night and the Scotland night at the Stade de France with ‘Zombie’ ringing out in the background; the fervour and colour of the Irish fans was special.” France was special until Ireland was knocked out by the All Blacks. “We have won 19 of our last 20 internationals. Unfortunately, the one we lost was the World Cup quarter- nal against New Zealand. But any time you play the All Blacks, it’s a 50-50 game and that went against us.” Writing in the Irish Examiner in the wake of that Irish loss, Ronan O’gara argued that Johnny Sexton should have been taken o as he was out on his feet. A valid point? “I think so, but to be fair, Johnny Sexton was outstanding throughout the World Cup and he wasn’t the only player out on his feet in that game. With the bene t of hindsight and when you see how Jack Crowley has tted in so seamlessly, you wonder what might have been. Of course, we’re all wiser a er the event, aren’t we?”
And on it goes, Donal Lenihan’s passion for the game is undimmed (he also remains a fervent Cork GAA fan) even if he also knows that ultimately, it’s only a game. “In one way or another, I’ve been involved for a long time with rugby, so I have never had that separation from the game that a lot of people had,” he says. “I love it, but it certainly makes the job easier when you have an Irish team that is winning and performing well and are a joy to watch.” He believes that the championship is there for Ireland. “ ey have the massive carrot that no team has won a back-to-back Grand Slam since the Six Nations came into being in 2000. I believe that they will win the championship, but whether it will be a Grand Slam, it might all come down to that game against England in Twickenham.”
I’d always look at the broader picture and life outside of rugby