A chara, - For those of us who have followed Irish rugby over the past 30 years the brilliant success of Ulster at Ravenhill against Stade Francais came as no surprise. The only surprise was that we had to wait so long for such a result. But we must learn the lesson of success, and we must also reward success. It is not evident that we have learned to do so if we are to judge from the Irish squad announced last week.
There still seems to be a naive belief in the superiority of foreign-based players to those playing regularly in the All-Ireland League. The presence of 12 foreign-based players in the squad seems to me to be disproportionately high. Goal-kickers win or lose matches as often as not, and in this respect I note once again that the difference between Shannon and Young Munster on January 10th was the goal-kicking of Andrew Thompson. Ulster could not possibly have beaten Stade Francais without the accurate goal-kicking under pressure of Simon Mason, and yet he failed to win a place in the Irish squad. Why is this?
Munster are the interprovincial champions, and yet they have only one player in the squad. I lament in particular the absence of so inspirational a player as Mick Galwey (I would play him in the back row if necessary, and make him captain). If Leinster are so well endowed with international players, why has their interprovincial record been so poor and inconsistent? There is no point in building Irish rugby around the provinces if one is then to ignore the results of interprovincial matches. The best players are the players who win matches (e.g. Shannon players, as exemplified in the rout of Lansdowne in Tipperary).
I see no reason why we should not set our sights on winning the Grand Slam this year, especially as France and England have to come to Lansdowne Road. The first internationals I ever saw were the corresponding fixtures of 1969. We expected to win them, and we did win them (beating France convincingly and rather more easily than England). Our new professional players have a great tradition to live up to. I can put up with defeat, but I cannot regard success as winning two matches or beating Scotland and Wales. Perhaps the successes of Ulster will show us that we can (and indeed must) look forward to the Five Nations Championship (the last of its kind) with hope and confidence. - Is mise, Gerald Morgan, FTCD,
Trinity College, Dublin 2.