O'Driscoll isolated

Planet Rugby: "Rock Boys are we. Our title is our glory. Fearless and bold whatever danger be."

Planet Rugby:"Rock Boys are we. Our title is our glory. Fearless and bold whatever danger be."

Heavens to Murgatroyd ! Was it not a sight in Croke Park on Saturday that Clongowes Wood boys actually outnumbered Rock fellows on the Irish team. Gordon D'Arcy and Rob Kearney, both from Clongowes, clearly outnumbered the Dublin southside school's sole representative on the team, captain Brian O'Driscoll.

What we want to know is can this be the first time? Have Clongowes players ever outnumbered Blackrock players on the national team before? The blue and white forever? Maybe Newbridge would have a view there. Geordan Murphy, Tony Buckley, Jamie Heaslip and Bernard Jackman, all of whom played yesterday, came from that relatively unheralded rugby nursery, echoing the days of Mick Quinn and the one-time Ireland captain Tom Grace.

Exiles losing touch

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The beloved Exiles have always been close to Irish hearts. But in these days of professionalism, the distance between the Madejski Stadium and Lansdowne Road appears to be increasing. While the Irish under-20 side for this season's Six Nations has no London Irish players represented, the English under-20 side has quite a handful of talented Exiles.

Prop Alex Corbisiero, hooker James Clarke, flanker Jon Fischer, lock Nick Kennedy, hooker David Pace, winger Delon Armitage, the Irish qualified outhalf Shane Geraghty and scrumhalf Paul Hodgson all hope to progress up the English ladder.

Interestingly, in the Ireland A and under-20 sides for this year, there is not one London Irish player involved.

Academic comfort

In heated disputes on rugby coaching, the final put-down often amounts to, "He's never played at a high level so what would he know about it?" In a new book called Pure Sport, written by Queen's University psychologist John Kremer and Professor Aidan Moran of UCD and Lansdowne Tennis Club, that type of argument seems to have little merit.

As Eddie O'Sullivan faces constant "incoming flak" these days and has frequently been criticised for not having "played at the highest level", he may take some comfort from Pure Sport.

It seems that playing prowess has little to do with successful coaching. Liverpool's Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly as well as Manchester United's Alex Ferguson, arguably the best managers of their generation, didn't play international level football.

Arrigo Sacchi, who won the Italian League and two European Championships with AC Milan, didn't even play professional football. To be a good jockey, it isn't necessary to have been a horse, was Sacchi's original view. Experience of rugby, it seems, should be seen as desirable more than an indispensable prerequisite.

Technical difficulties

There were many wide-eyed kids around the suburbs of south Dublin on Saturday before the match in Croke Park. Sadly, many of them were on Dart platforms stretching from Blackrock to town.

From that station onward the Dart was packed to beyond capacity during the "go forward" time for Ireland's game against Italy. Nobody could get on, and literally hundreds of rugby fans were left scampering toward the road to search for buses or taxis.

Had they decided to listen to the match on radio rather than travel to town, that too was less than satisfactory, as late in the second half an electrical fault at Croke Park knocked out all the press monitors as well as Michael Corcoran's commentary on RTÉ radio.

Helpfully, the television commentary from Ryle Nugent was piped into the radio to keep things going for those whose day in Croker had evaporated.

Well out of Orde

As we waited in the parking bays under the stands at Croke Park, the chief constable of the PSNI, Hugh Orde, merrily arrived and climbed into his car with minders, friends and gardaí, etc. As his Northern-registered car drove off, it was hard not to notice that the good constable had parked for the duration of the match in the space of President McAleese. "That doesn't matter," quipped a security guard. "The President parked in Bertie's space."