On Friday of last week, Tom Kiernan retired as a member of the IRFU committee and as one of Ireland's representatives on the International Board (IRB). That decision has brought to an end a direct involvement in the game that spanned in excess of half a century, initially as a player, subsequently as coach and then as an administrator.
His career has been without parallel in the history of the game in this country. What he has given to the game - not just here but globally - most certainly deserves to be recognised and more widely appreciated than, I believe, it is. It could be said that, in every facet of the game that he embraced he made a profound impact.
Rugby officials very often come in for criticism and sometimes it is justified. Likewise, there are occasions when credit is not given were it is due. Kiernan knows well what it is to be the recipient of severe criticism, particularly when he was chairman of ERC (European Rugby Cup). Some of the criticism he took, from across the water, was a subjective tirade from those whose agenda was prompted by self-interest and those who wanted to fashion the competition to suit themselves.
He stood firm and by doing so was a key figure in saving the Heineken European Cup, which he had been at the forefront of inaugurating. He was centre stage too when the bully boys of the English Rugby Union did their clandestine television deal with Sky.
Kiernan, Syd Millar and Vernon Pugh, with the help of other decent men, effectively countered that, and it may well have to be done again.
He was chairman of the Five Nations and ERC at what was probably the most difficult period in the history of the game. Millar, an old Ireland team-mate and IRFU and IRB colleague, says of Kiernan: "What he contributed on and off the field, and the circumstances in which he achieved what he did at administrative level, marks him down as arguably the greatest figure in the history of the game in his country.
"Most people do not know, and in many respects that is understandable, what he contributed and the manner in which he handled the most critical situations. Some of the happenings could have led to the demise of the Five Nations and the European Cup. Tom Kiernan held European rugby together in those troubled times."
A MEMBER of a renowned rugby family, he was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork and won schools' junior and senior cup medals with the college and played for Munster schools.
These were the foothills of a career that was to see him captain his country a record 24 times, have an international career that spanned 14 seasons from his debut against England in 1960 until he played the last of his 54 matches for Ireland against Scotland at Murrayfield in 1973.
When he played that final match, in which he scored a try, he was just one cap short of the then world record held by Colin Meads of New Zealand. He captained Ireland on the tour to Australia in May 1967 and led Ireland to victory in the Test match.
That was the first win by one of the "home countries" in a Test in the southern hemisphere. He was on the first - indeed only - Ireland team to beat South Africa, 9-6 at Lansdowne Road in April 1965.
He was on the Munster team that beat Australia at Musgrave Park in 1967, the first Irish provincial side to beat a major touring team. He was on the Lions tour in 1962 and captained the Lions in South Africa in 1968.
At club level he won 13 Munster Senior League medals, three with UCC and 10 with Cork Constitution and that collection includes 12 in a row. He won seven Munster Senior Cup medals. His playing career over, he turned to coaching and, yet again, he had unprecedented success. He coached the Munster team that beat the All Blacks in 1978, the only Irish team to achieve this. Then he coached the Ireland team that won the Triple Crown - the first in 33 years - and championship in 1982. He led Ireland to the top of the championship table again in 1983.
Those feats alone set him apart in the annals of Irish rugby. But they are but part of the story. He was president of the Munster Branch in 1977-'78, the youngest to occupy that office in modern times and, remember, that was a year before he masterminded that win over the All Blacks.
He was the centenary president of Cork Constitution in 1991-92, was on the IRFU committee from 1983-84 until last Friday; he was president of the Union in 1988-89; he has at various times during his tenure on the union been chairman of the commercial committee, the grounds committee, the game development committee and the sub-committee that elected the national selectors. He was the person responsible for the co-ordination of Irish players in Britain in tandem with the exiles committee.
He has been one of Ireland's two IRB representatives since 1994; he has been chairman of the Five Nations committee; chairman of ERC from 1995-'99; chairman of the IRB's policy committee and honorary treasurer of the IRB since 1997. He was a director of Rugby World Cup 1999. He has been a trustee of the IRFU since 1992.
Kiernan's place at the pinnacle of Irish rugby will not depend on tradition, legend, hearsay or deceptive and exaggerated claims. The facts speak for themselves, for his has been a career without equal in the history of Irish rugby.
