The Mick Byrne CV demands perusal. Archival work even. Not Jack Charlton’s silver-haired watchdog. Nah, the Aussie version, the wandering ruckman who carved a groove into the All Black marble.
Matt Williams brought in ‘Mick the Kick’ on a part-time basis with Leinster up to 2004 when they fell short at the European semi-final stage.
“They had a great backline, the forward pack worked really hard,” Byrne remembered this week. “They were unfortunate that year, they got beat by Perpignan, but all those young players, you knew they were destined to have success eventually because the province and Leinster and all the people around the club were so passionate about rugby.”
Williams recently wrote: “When the Scottish Rugby Union refused to recontract Mick Byrne, the former Australian Rules player and wonderful skills coach, who I employed at the SRU, the New Zealand Rugby Union swooped. Mick spent the next decade working on every skill, including passing, catching and kicking with players at every province in all ages. He upskilled other coaches and mentored all-time greats like Dan Carter.”
Masterful
Byrne was employed by the SRU over a year before Williams but the point holds. Seemingly, he also contributed to the masterful fielding of Girvan Dempsey which feeds into the unparalleled (on this island anyway) high rising of Rob Kearney. That’s a decent legacy. Williams also wrote about how Byrne re-styled Chris Paterson place-kicking technique which led to world-class conversion rates.
Michael Cheika has been accused of control-freak management practices in the past, but as Wallaby chief the appointment of assistant coaches moves far beyond astuteness. Watch the mesmeric running lines this Saturday, off clean second-phase set-piece possession, if any is given, and see the mark of Stephen Larkham, the former majestic outhalf, now Australia’s attack coach.
In just five months the Byrne contribution now flows into many tributaries of this Wallaby river – after losing the June Test series to England three to zero and suffering the same return versus New Zealand, they are homing in on a northern hemisphere grand slam (with Twickenham to come next week).
“I worked on all the catch-pass, running passes, running lines, tackle techniques,” Byrne has said of his All Black brief, even after the brilliant mind that is Wayne Smith rejoined the black armada. Even tweaking Steve Hansen’s lineout. All from an Aussie Rules bloke, who won an AFL flag with Hawthorn in 1983 and placed fifth in Brownlow Medal voting in 1985.
Specialist roles
He parted amicably from New Zealand when they retained the William Webb Ellis last year. After the England hidings, Cheika was not long ensuring the Sydney native returned to Australia for a second stint (the previous being 1998-99 before a long line of specialist roles around the globe).
Byrne gets around. He revisits the Aviva Stadium on Saturday in a similar role to November 2013, with green and gold colours replacing black.
“I was here when they nearly beat the All Blacks a couple of years ago so it’s been coming. That was an itch for Ireland that needed to be scratched and they scratched it pretty well. I know how disappointed they were a couple of years ago when Aaron Cruden converted a try in time-on, they did really well that day.
“Under Joe [Schmidt] they’re playing a really great brand of rugby, they’re challenging every team they play. You’ve got to make your tackles against them, they work very hard.
“I think it was great for Irish rugby and for Joe because I called Joe after that game a couple of years ago and he was a devastated man. I’m glad he’s been able to get that monkey off his back.”
Typical Wallabies to weigh Ireland down instead.
