RUGBY ANALYST:Winds of change even reach Irish rugby as Declan Kidney rings the changes for first match
CHANGE IS in the air, you can almost touch it! Sitting here in Omaha, Nebraska, on a course, I've experienced first hand a seismic shift in the world. The reaction to the US election has been extraordinary, with seven-hour queues for the polling booth replaced with queues for the daily papers, seeking a memento from November 4th, 2008, when history was made.
It's hard to take in when we speak of change in Irish rugby that simultaneously the world is changing. But Declan Kidney has managed it, and Brian O'Driscoll agrees - "it seems like it's like a little bit of a rebirth". That change has manifested itself in many ways but most obviously in team selection. Clearly the fixture has allowed Kidney to reward form players who might be squeezed out for a "bigger" Test. But they are in and deserve to be. One inclusion has forced me to reminisce.
My first senior rugby match for Old Crescent was against Thomond RFC in the first round of the Munster Junior Cup. I have to say I was a little apprehensive, not out of school that long and facing "real men". I don't recall the name of my direct opponent that day, a blond-haired, uncompromising openside wing forward, but his team-mates addressed him as "Russian".
It was a fantastic experience of no-questions-asked rugby and "Russian" taught me some serious lessons.
His predecessor in Thomond was now plying his trade in Greenfields, Young Munster's home. In the '70s there was the famous Pontypool frontrow of Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor and Graham Price but in Young Munster there was the infamous backrow of the three Gers; Earls, Copely and Clohessy. For one reason or another Old Crescent played Munsters about four times a year between the Munster League, Munster Cup and Kelly Cup, where I had the pleasure of facing the three Gers. It was very much men against schoolboys, where survival was a bonus.
In that time I had the pleasure of marking Ger Earls on countless occasions. He was an uncompromising, tough and seriously-talented openside. Earls could certainly mix it but he had much more to offer - he had pace, power and a brilliant understanding of lines and angles. Most times I would just follow him about the pitch knowing that was where the action would be.
I'll never forget sitting in the Cadet School in 1993 watching Young Munster defeat St Mary's in an historic AIL League victory to match the Bateman Cup win of 1928. The irony of the encounter was lost on many watching as the uncapped Earls left the most talented school boy to come from Limerick, Nicky Barry, and capped against Namibia 1991, in his wake on the way to the try that sank St Mary's.
I could never quite understand the relationship Earls had with the Munster five-man selection committee. To be honest I didn't quite understand it myself!
On one particular pre-season session with Munster I asked a Munster selector who was in the shake up for openside - he told me Eddie Halvey, David Corkery and myself were the three they were going with. I couldn't believe it and asked what about Ger Earls? His reply was even more surreal. "He's not up to it".
This was after his contribution for Young Munster in 1993 and of course the famous victory over Australia in Musgrave Park in 1992. From that moment on he rarely figured in Munster where at one stage he was fifth choice. So perversely, it was his relationship with Munster that cost him dearly at national level.
If Halvey was the most talented backrow forward I've played with, then Earls was the most talented openside. He certainly did more than enough to have been rewarded as his son will be this Saturday. Many legends have evolved over the recent years of professional rugby and it's such a pity Ger's career didn't coincide with it where the obvious bias within Munster stunted him.
For his son it is truly a remarkable story. He is a class player, full of rugby confidence, and leaving him on the wings this weekend would have been spiteful. The timing of the match couldn't have been better, Canada in Limerick.
My only concern for him is the "Jack-of-all-trades" feel to his time with Munster. At the level he now occupies it is almost impossible to bounce around the numbers as has been the case in his short career to date. I would hope he will settle on one position, ideally centre.
So to the big match in Limerick where the very interesting selections will be providing a window into Kidney's take on the ELVs - and on international rugby for that matter. How will he employ the backrow without Wallace and Leamy? Will he play an off-the-ground game, forcing forwards to interact with backs? Will he allow Eoin Reddan to run hard at defences? What will Ireland's take be on the breakdown? Will O'Driscoll and co continue to force turn-overs at ruck time or will Kidney banish them into the back line?
The last time I saw Canada play was in the RWC 2007 and what a match it turned out to be. Japan, my team of the tournament, played out a marvellous 80 minutes that pushed Canada to the limit. I'm afraid, as underdogs, I backed them to the hilt then but as underdogs today I wish Canada the very best in what will be an enormous challenge.
Can Ireland beat Canada and go on to qualify for the top eight by playing a game that reflects all this change? . . . Well in the words of Barack Obama on an historic week here in the States: "Yes we can, yes we can".
