Might and MayneIf you were watching the History Channel last Friday night you may have heard a voice you recognised but could not quite place. The documentary was about an international rugby player called Paddy Mayne - again, a name you may not have readily recognised.
Mayne attended Regent House Grammar School and played for Ards. He then went to Queen's, took up boxing and became the Irish Universities heavyweight champion in August 1936.
Mayne's first international rugby cap arrived a year later in a match against the Welsh. After gaining five more caps for Ireland in the second row, he was selected for the 1938 Lions tour of South Africa.
After the outbreak of war, he was recruited as one of the founder members of the Special Air Services (SAS) and in 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commanding officer of the first SAS regiment. He led the SAS with distinction and became one of the British army's most decorated soldiers, receiving the Distinguished Service Order four times (only six other servicemen received that award four times during the second World War). Additionally, the post-war French government awarded him the Légion d'honneur (also recently bestowed on another Ulsterman, the outgoing IRB chairman, Syd Millar) and the Croix de guerre. He was the first foreigner to receive both French honours.
A life full of colour ended prematurely for the cavalier soldier in a car crash near Newtownards when he was in his 40s.
The voice reading young Mayne's letters from his war days was none other than that of the F1 bad boy Eddie Irvine. A kindred spirit perhaps?
Reality for Checks
There is an Aussie in charge of Leinster and another brother from Down Under has been given the task of leading Ulster out of their trough. But Michael Cheika and Matt Williams have crossed paths before. Williams was in charge of New South Wales when they toured in Europe in 1997 and went looking for Cheika, then 30 years old, to fill a gap at number eight.
"Matt called me up because he must have run out of players," recalls Cheika. "I was in Miami, I think. I was on a bit of a holiday. I ended up on a tour over here with him and (Alan) Gaffney coaching.
"I said I'd come over if I could go to Paris for a bit of a holiday."
We are confident Cheika won't have quite such a cavalier attitude to the game when the two men meet again on a rugby pitch in the near future, probably in the Magners League.
Situation vacant
The Irish Rugby Union Players Association (Irupa), the body representing professional players' needs in Ireland, are looking for an office administrator. The job is a part-time one and entails working alongside the chief executive and former international, Niall Woods, looking after the association's sponsor accounts, designing the player newsletter, keeping the website up to date, organising the annual Irupa Awards and the Irupa Players Golf Day and generally running the office.
The role could be perfect for someone living in or near the metropolis and aiming to get into the sports industry; the office is in Dublin city and the hours are flexible.
For what it's worth, however, it's unlikely the successful candidate will have to deal with any reaction from Irupa to the recent Genesis report on the World Cup debacle.
Irupa, unlike the IRFU, don't wish to make comments on the findings until they first talk to all of their members canvassed by Genesis. And such talks won't take place until the international squad get together two weeks before the Six Nations championship begins, which makes any reaction unlikely until after the championship is over.
Concern for Connacht
On the face of it, the postponement of the game between Ulster and Munster in Ravenhill on Friday was a disappointment for Ulster fans mainly. But depending on the date that the Magners Celtic League decide to refix the game, it could actually be a bigger blow to Connacht.
Connacht beat Llanelli 20-18 on Friday to move four points clear of Ulster at the bottom of the league table. The Connacht head coach, Michael Bradley, is of course chasing the third Irish place for qualification into next year's Heineken European Cup, and Ulster will be the big losers if he succeeds.
But if the snowed-off game is refixed for the blank weekend at the end of January or during the Six Nations Championship, Munster are likely to be missing significantly more front-line players than Ulster. If Munster cough up the points in that game with a weakened team, coach Declan Kidney won't be very happy. But Bradley will be positively fuming, as it will mean Ulster collect priceless points for the vital bottom-of-the-table struggle.
Given the IRFU's traditional negativity toward Connacht, that might suit just fine.
