HOME AND AWAY: MIKE ROSS:MIKE ROSS has been away, but now he is home. Well, Dublin isn't exactly what a Cork man would call home, but he is finally included within the loop that is Ireland's central contracting scheme.
Initially, Leinster’s new tighthead prop slipped through the net. In 2006, Declan Kidney had John Hayes and Tony Buckley so he was obliged to inform the Cork Constitution number three that there was no contract for him.
Ross got an agent, which turned out to be the same man that represents Harlequins’ coach Dean Richards. He got a trial. Then a three-month extension. Then, in the autumn of 2006, his career began proper.
“If ’Quins hadn’t picked me up after three months that would have been the end of the road I suppose. I didn’t really have any other options.
“After the initial trial, I made the bench for the first three Premiership games, which I don’t think they expected considering I came from an amateur background.
“Then I got my first start against Leicester, fourth game in, and I pretty much started every game since.”
At the end of last season he was named on an English Premiership XV, making it even more peculiar that he slipped through the IRFU net. Of all positions that Irish rugby have struggled with in the professional era, a prop had to finish his education in England while the provinces look overseas for stop gaps. There are many good things under the IRFU umbrella right now and, at 29, Mike Ross is finally one of them.
This may be irrelevant, but Ross did not come through the traditional rugby schools’ system that leads into the waiting Munster Academy. No, hailing from Ballyhooly, he was educated in the hurling establishment of St Colman’s College in Fermoy.
“Didn’t have the skill for that unfortunately. I played underage with Fermoy rugby club and when I went to UCC I played there.”
If this upward curve continues, Fermoy may take on the type of status afforded to little clubs like Bruff in Limerick and Boyne in Meath. Outposts that have given us men that are known nationwide by their nicknames, the Bull and Shaggy.
On arrival in UCC, to study Biotechnology and where he met his American wife of two years Kimberley, Ross was dropped into a ground-breaking team alongside Peter Stringer, Mick O’Driscoll and Jerry Flannery that became European Student champions, a trophy they paraded at Lansdowne Road the day Ulster captured the ultimate crown in Northern Hemisphere club rugby.
Ross had just begun his third level education, but was also starting out on the lonely path all props must travel.
“My propping education began with my first senior game, the Stephen’s Day fixture against Cork Con. I got my pilots wings that day courtesy of Ian Murray. He took me for a little training lesson.
“I spent most of my time being lifted up in the air, but every prop needs a few good goings over. It improves you. I remember a couple of months later coming up against Justin Fitzpatrick, who was in the Irish team at the time. It certainly improves you.”
This long apprenticeship means we listen when he explains what really happened to Phil Vickery in the first Test in Durban. Supposedly decimated at scrum-time by Springbok loosehead Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira, the man who binds for a living saw it differently.
“I was watching that and there should have been three or four penalties for Phil Vickery. He got caught in two scrums where you couldn’t say anything about it, but for the rest the Beast was swinging his hips out which other referees would penalise.
“(Lee Mears) wouldn’t be as heavy as Matthew Rees or Ross Ford. Simon Shaw being brought in (for the remaining Tests) as well made a huge difference. I’m speaking from personal experience. He brings serious weight to a pack.”
This summer Declan Kidney came back into his life. A first cap off the bench against Canada in Vancouver came before a first start against the US Eagles a week later.
After this brief taste of the ultimate honour, now all he has to do is see off World Cup winner and Springbok CJ van der Linde to anchor the Leinster scrum. It helps that he can also play loosehead, but he becomes animated by the opportunity Leinster have presented just as he reaches his propping peak.
“The Guinness Premiership is a really good breeding ground and place to test yourself. It’s just that you don’t get seen as much.
“Sure, there are European games (against Irish provinces), but you don’t get to play against competitors for the (Irish) shirt in England. Now I will get that opportunity three, four times a year.”
