'O team' regenerates a tottering tournament

14 April 2012

Malcolm O'Kelly had wondered if he might be over-egging it a bit to suggest before the game that should Ireland become the first team to beat England's new world champs at Twickenham for four-and-a-half years, it would represent "our greatest victory of all-time".

Now this wonder had actually came to pass, he grinned that he felt no inclination to change his opinion. Quite right too. At 6ft8in, O'Kelly is a big old warrior but he and his teammates have never walked as tall as this, elevated to the status of emerald immortals. England had 1966 and 2003; Irish sport will always have 19-13.

Let England get on with their inquest into their calamitous first post-Oz wobble but don't let it deflect one jot from the magnificence of the green wall which did most to prompt it.

A nation will never forget the O team. (Eddie) O'Sullivan, the coach-architect; (Ronan) O'Gara, the orchestrater; (Paul) O'Connell and O'Kelly, the lineout destroyers; even the blessed leader, (Brian) O'Driscoll, accident-prone in deed for once but still an inspirational voice to his men. It will always cherish those defining moments of defiance from the dashing Mr Gordon D'Arcy forcing Ben Cohen's double movement on the try line to O'Kelly himself summoning a frantic late charge from nowhere to bundle out Mark Regan. This was epic combat.

"We did the people of Ireland a good turn," mused the 14-point hero O'Gara with lovely understatement. Actually, they'd done the grand old tournament an even better service by reaffirming rugby's immutable law - that the Six Nations remains a priceless sporting treasure so don't take liberties with it.

Once again, just as we were suspecting the event lacked real depth of competitiveness and might be becoming an Anglo-French procession, a performance of skill dredged up from Irish heart reminded us why the BBC's meddling with the timetable to ensure a supposed last-match Grand Slam France-England decider was both arrogant and ill-conceived.

Italy's win over Scotland and Wales's narrow loss to France showed that, gloriously, it is still an event in which nothing can be taken for granted. Reggie Corrigan grinned about the pleasure of "throwing a spanner in the works" since Ireland could effectively seal the title with a triple crown victory over Scotland even before the kick-off in Paris on Saturday 27 March.

The sport needed this. I don't believe England bowed to complacency - if anything, they have appeared to be striving perhaps almost too hard to live up to their world champion billing - but beyond the camp, a predictable air of smug triumphalism had begun to attach itself to the chariot.

Take Saturday's match programme in which a two-page Nike advert, masquerading as a five-course menu, offered Italy as the starter and France as dessert. In between, England were supposed to tuck into "Ireland: a rich mixture of seasoned pros and raw hungry colts". Cue a case of severe indigestion.

It may be timely. England, as Lawrence Dallaglio noted, always return stronger from a setback and this may have been the off-day they needed to get out of their system early.

While O'Gara reckoned England had missed Jonny Wilkinson's creativity "most" and O'Kelly conceded Martin Johnson's "heavyweight" presence was absent in both line-out and leadership, it was a jolting reminder that you cannot lose two great players without some forfeit.

When Scotland became the first to beat Sir Alf 's football boys at Wembley a year after their 1966 triumph, a nation cheekily claimed the men in blue had won the World Cup. Same again then?

"No, England did it, they won in Australia because they strung 10 wins together and they deserved it," said O'Kelly before adding with a grin that perhaps they could just allow themselves briefly to imagine they were the 'virtual' world champions. For a day, no team deserved the daydream more.

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