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Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Released Tuesday, 25th July 2023
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Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Ireland vs. Canada preview LIVE from Australia & Tommy's All-Star XV | OTBAM

Tuesday, 25th July 2023
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AM The sports breakfast show

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from Off the Ball.

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Off the Ball

0:34

Alright, you're very welcome along. It's Tuesday morning,

0:36

we've got a full house for you here. Shane's here. Shane, how are

0:38

you? Good morning. How are things? Colm is here. Colm, good morning

0:40

to you. Glad to say hello. If anybody wants to get in

0:42

touch this morning, 0879 180 180 is the WhatsApp number. Or

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slash off the ball. Make sure you're subscribed, otherwise you won't be able

0:50

to leave a comment. And plenty

0:52

to get our teeth stuck into this morning. The

0:55

build up to the Ireland football final started in

0:58

the papers. Jack O'Connor and Desi

1:00

Farrell

1:01

both doing press today. Desi Farrell saying

1:03

Clifford's the greatest he's ever seen. Jack O'Connor

1:05

saying the lads haven't come back for the crack. Which

1:08

was the same line he used in the immediate aftermath of the semi-final. So

1:11

only to be expected that everybody's saying

1:13

they're an amazing team. We'll do well

1:15

to keep the ball kicked out to them. Mind

1:17

games. The Hurling Pod lads were

1:20

asking could Paul Connor at 37 be

1:22

GAA's first legendary coach? Better

1:25

than a manager.

1:27

I'd say 37. I'd

1:29

say Eamonn O'Shea when he stopped the five in a row

1:32

and created all that space for a

1:34

hat-trick in an all-Ireland final to stop the

1:36

five in a row. That was, that's

1:38

the start of it.

1:40

I'm sure if you go back. Yeah,

1:43

there have to be others as well. I'm sure there's some

1:45

Hurling historians watching this morning who'll be able to go. There

1:49

are others. I guess it's what he's achieved with his

1:51

young age. I think the level of

1:54

praise that he gets all

1:57

the time. I think because.

1:59

probably because we saw it in action, right? When

2:02

COVID happened,

2:03

we saw the breaking play, we saw the board come out and

2:06

we saw a

2:06

supercharged performance over the next

2:09

quarter. And it was like, oh, they

2:11

seem to be doing exactly what the man with the

2:13

whiteboard told them to do. And that seems to have won

2:15

them the game here in this like second quarter or

2:17

after the water break. So I suspect that

2:19

that's one of the reasons why it's, you

2:22

know, there was a camera on, we watched what happened

2:24

and then we saw the impact of it. Like, obviously

2:27

you can see the impact and anybody you

2:29

speak to talks about the impact

2:31

he had. And then

2:32

obviously one, not Adam O'Claire and

2:35

who were essentially a team of kids at that stage.

2:37

So, I mean, the CV is pretty, pretty impressive, right?

2:39

People in Kilkenny, certainly last week would

2:42

scream about father Tommy Marr, the great

2:45

legendary seven all-yrlands in 18 seasons.

2:47

So you're not the manager, no? Like he was, he

2:49

was, you see, he was very much a coach,

2:52

hands-on coach, but he was the number one. So

2:54

I don't know how you, I don't know how we're differentiating

2:56

here.

2:58

Are we just talking about someone who's hands-on or someone

3:00

who's number two? The number two is

3:02

the thing, is it? Yeah, it's the legendary

3:04

coach. And now there's two reasons, like,

3:07

definitely the age, like most people starting off their coaching

3:09

career at that point in their lives. And then also

3:11

if you look at the speech afterwards, Kean Lynch was,

3:14

he described this person before naming

3:16

them. And for all intents and purposes he taught, he's gonna say

3:18

John Kylie. And then he says Paul Kenerk's

3:21

genius, you know. But no, that's the,

3:23

he described the impact that a genius

3:25

manager would have. Obviously Kylie is

3:27

the brains behind the whole thing as well. Like, I'm

3:29

definitely gonna leave Kylie to last though. Oh, totally, but I'm

3:31

just saying that that's the influence that this guy's having. Like,

3:33

Kylie would also say that about him, I'm sure. No, he does,

3:36

yeah. You know,

3:37

I'm not like intimating

3:39

a jealousy thing or anything, but it was just the esteem

3:42

at which the players hold Kenerk, like to go

3:44

first and to be so effusive

3:46

in his praise, like, you know, using every adjective

3:48

under the sun to describe this brilliance. He's even

3:50

more mythical because I don't know what he sounds like.

3:53

Like, I don't know. He has

3:55

done interviews, I'm sure, but I just haven't. A few YouTube

3:57

seminars which are like an hour long, coaching.

3:59

And yeah,

4:02

like that's the type of stuff

4:05

that you see as opposed to any of

4:08

the big sit downs. Or I'm sure, well, I

4:11

don't know, maybe when they've made

4:13

their,

4:14

when they've stopped making history, there'll

4:16

be a bit more. They'll talk more. Yeah,

4:19

but it just adds to the mystique and the grandeur around him. He's

4:21

like, but they all

4:23

speak of himself so highly that they can't all be wrong.

4:25

And he's just, you

4:28

get the sense very much that the halftime team talk that they

4:30

all spoke about, I'm sure, Canarko's heavily involved there.

4:35

Maybe he is the man that does the team talk. Kylie's more

4:37

of a manager, a man manager. I'm

4:40

sure it's a combined effort, but Jesus,

4:43

he's unbelievable. Like

4:46

everything he touches turns to gold. And it's

4:48

just the fact that this limerick team can react

4:51

to absolutely anything thrown at them.

4:53

And you always feel like going

4:55

into halftime three points, you're like, that's not enough. That

4:57

is not enough for Kenny to lead Kenny,

5:00

the slight breeze in the first half of it. I'm saying, Oh

5:03

yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't that slight either.

5:05

Right.

5:06

So even at that, you're thinking now

5:08

this lead needed to be a six at least.

5:11

So that little key and Lynch kind of mini period where they drive

5:13

them back into the game was, was all the more important,

5:15

but just the performance was just,

5:18

it won't be an Ireland final. I don't know. Will it be an Ireland

5:20

final that we look back on? Oh, I

5:22

think so. For years. Well, maybe sorry, because

5:24

of the foreign foreign, but, but I think because

5:27

of the quality of the opposition, I think look any played really well. Yeah.

5:29

Like that's the, you know, it's like the, the

5:32

Kalkene tip rivalry was

5:37

amazing.

5:38

And I think it was only amazing in the end because

5:40

Tipperary got them.

5:42

And that was an all time great team. A

5:45

lot of people are saying it's the clear rivalry that is the one that we're

5:47

going to remember the most from

5:49

the Claire from this era, that Claire

5:52

and the team who were putting up to Limerick the most, but

5:55

I don't think the story is fully written yet. If you'd said

5:57

before the game that the Kene would score

5:59

two goals in Limerick.

5:59

What's going on and yet then record win

6:02

by nine points you like that's limerick like

6:04

yeah You just don't need them and hence

6:06

the little fist pumps of 30 points that mark between

6:09

Kylie and kinetic They're

6:11

just a very kpi Again,

6:13

yeah, you just finding a raw I

6:16

guess they just ended on 29 points You get the sense

6:18

there be a sense of disappointment. Maybe a little

6:20

tiny modicum of ah we did

6:22

we didn't quite get to our level but um We're

6:24

just so many leaders and that could any or a limerick

6:26

team and the chat you'll

6:29

have a lot of people watching

6:29

this morning will have seen achine's chat with

6:32

them darren donovan and

6:34

David Reedy yesterday at the homecoming

6:37

Dara in very very very

6:39

good form. I love the setting of that you know just

6:42

on a bench on a park bench Just hang it

6:44

out. That's amazing

6:45

Hose darren's

6:48

line at the end. We're gonna go full Jack Riddish That's

6:50

I mean like kind of a bunch of Jack Reedish's

6:53

in their celebration. Yeah,

6:55

they were a well They they kind of

6:57

the hat backwards seems to be unofficial clothing

7:00

range. Yeah, I remember I saw someone posting that the

7:02

way that the limerick team's Clothes

7:04

have changed the homecomings over the years 2018. It

7:07

was very formal. They all were the same and the

7:09

Navy stuff last year I think it was

7:11

a less formal, but but still

7:13

sharp short sleeve shirt They're the same everybody

7:16

around same everyone for him and then yesterday It

7:18

was like we're in limerick and we're all wearing the most

7:20

comfortable clothes We have darren's and a Gucci top

7:22

like they're all just wearing whatever they want more

7:25

successfully You are like the more freedom

7:27

you have to wear what you want like Eric Antonin United

7:30

He was allowed where runners with a suit ahead

7:32

of time I would say that's another thing now But

7:35

everybody else used to be lambasted out of this if

7:37

they didn't wear exactly what Alex Ferguson told

7:39

him to except Cantona Yeah, you know you weren't

7:41

the right to be a fashionista. Yeah It

7:44

is interesting though that they've decided that there's not gonna

7:46

be like so

7:47

Everybody has to get fitted for that stuff during the week.

7:50

There's like a you're just adding on

7:52

an extra layer of Formality

7:55

tilting is like no you just wear whatever you want. You know

7:57

don't worry about it. We're we're not sweating the small

7:59

stuff here

7:59

Yeah, exactly it adds to them. Yeah, exactly

8:02

I was also thinking yesterday, they're not gonna get

8:04

to the Children's Hospital But they of course were at the Children's

8:07

Ark in UHL

8:08

Yesterday or the morning after the game as well. So It's

8:12

nice that they're doing everything I think in Limerick They're probably gonna

8:14

set a new trend here in some ways. They are

8:16

missing out in the boars head As you know, that there is that

8:18

I'm like I'm against I'm for it

8:20

for every other aspect apart from the missing out in the boars

8:22

head Maybe they did the boars head in a few days come back maybe

8:25

maybe but waking up the morning after at

8:27

the All-Ireland in Limerick I think just

8:29

so we couldn't get them. I'm well. Yeah. Yeah,

8:31

they seem so much happier though being in Limerick Oh,

8:33

they said it didn't they? Yeah to Ashling was

8:36

so much better so much more crack back home

8:38

And that was it, you know It was just a relaxed nature

8:40

of the whole thing and they can actually be themselves It's that culture

8:42

of family as well did I was a David really said with Ashling

8:44

is like literally most of my best friends

8:46

are

8:47

on this team like a lot

8:50

of the lads are just So so

8:52

unbelievably close and I know that that culture

8:54

and that family is words that John kind of

8:56

used in The in the wake of the game

8:58

and other coaches used as well. Like it's just

9:01

Not that other teams and counties like

9:03

the Kenny I'm sure have the same sort of culture and embedded

9:05

in their squad but Limerick's just seems

9:07

to be so special and they keep that team together

9:10

and even Darrow was talking yesterday that Park bench with

9:12

Ashling There was a few young lads on

9:14

the panel sitting in the background that we maybe didn't see much of this

9:16

year But he said these lads are common like no any names of all

9:19

often tell out where they were It's amazing. I'm

9:21

really looking forward to see what the bull does the

9:23

ball no pressure. No pressure on the ball It's 740

9:26

here's what's coming up between now and 10 o'clock

9:28

for you Tommy Walsh is going to join us at 8 o'clock and

9:30

pick his

9:31

team of the championship Sue Rowland

9:33

is going to preview the Canada game and reflect on

9:35

the opening Australia Game Force Sports

9:38

News at 8 45 Alan

9:40

Quinlan's top five tries of his career Of

9:42

matches he played in rather as opposed to his own tries and

9:44

type for along Speak machine

9:47

and that's coming your way at half nine. We have

9:49

Tommy Welch's team of the year as you said there and

9:52

we have some of the names

9:54

Start to fight guaranteed, but he's leaving

9:56

room for a bit of debate

9:58

That's the excitement that is gonna be after

9:59

the first ad break because he just can't

10:02

pick because it's been pretty competitive. It

10:04

has been competitive. I saw people

10:07

saying, oh no, no, Clare, hang on there, Clare,

10:10

be a limerick.

10:11

Yeah. Do we remember this? Do we remember actually, like,

10:15

short memories? Yeah, and put

10:17

them to the pin of their collar. The Sunday Game team, the

10:19

Sunday Game didn't pick Tony Kelly, which caused

10:21

a little bit of

10:23

controversy maybe in some quarters. The

10:26

controversy then is who do you take out for Tony Kelly,

10:29

but like... They picked Shane O'Donnell, didn't they? They did, yeah.

10:32

See, I don't know. It's hard to

10:34

leave kind of Kelly out as well, really. Yes, Lucas.

10:37

Yeah. Well, we'll see. We'll see if Tommy does. He

10:39

knows a bit more about this than

10:41

I do. Come here. I know we're going to go to Kathleen. They're

10:43

imminently in parts this time, the other side of Australia,

10:46

but before that, I think it's important to say, because

10:48

we don't have any other soccer on the show today, Killian Mbappe

10:50

of Saudi Arabia. I was

10:52

reading the math about this, right? So the

10:55

weekly Saturday, if he does go to Al-Hilal,

10:57

who have made a world record 300 million dollar bid, 260 million pounds,

11:01

would be 11.63 million

11:03

pounds a week

11:05

that Mbappe would earn, which

11:06

is precisely 9.6 million pounds more

11:10

than he earns a PSG at the moment, every

11:12

week. He's only on 2 million a week at the moment. Perdad.

11:14

Yeah. So, and with all the creative freedom

11:16

that you want. So if he

11:18

does this for a year

11:19

and then gets his dream move to Real Madrid, happy

11:22

days Killian, isn't it? But sad days for football.

11:24

They're giving him 500 million, is that what

11:27

they're doing? Yeah. For

11:29

the year. It does seem like

11:31

quite a bit. It's not into them. Well

11:34

you could buy a Premier League team for less than that. So.

11:36

I don't think they want to though. I think they want to do their thing over there.

11:38

I understand that. I do. I like, I

11:41

know what they're doing, but at the same time, it doesn't

11:43

seem like they're getting good value.

11:46

You know, that, oh, this will be the moment where they catapult into

11:49

everybody's in rooms. Really? Are

11:51

we all going to sit and watch Saudi Arabian football on TV?

11:54

The lads at the, well, that's the best. Maybe we are. Maybe the

11:56

two big leagues in the world in 10 years time are going to be America.

11:59

and Saudi Arabia and they've

12:02

long been allies, haven't they? Yeah,

12:04

the lads had a similar conversation recently

12:06

on the show. It's

12:08

almost like an episode of Black Mirror, but at what point will

12:11

we be watching match of the day

12:13

Saudi Arabia and watching highlights and kids

12:15

going around in the Al-Al-Al shirts? You can

12:18

watch

12:19

the local football in

12:21

your neighborhood if you choose to. If

12:23

you get sucked into watching Black

12:26

Mirror style, if you don't have the brain

12:28

power to not do it, then

12:30

fair play. Congratulations on being on the common

12:32

ground. But if they sign enough of these unbelievable players,

12:34

then the Western world and kids are going to want

12:37

to watch them. Who cares? The MLS signed

12:39

a lot of washed up has-beens, right? And, OK,

12:41

so this is not washed up has-beens. No, it's not. This is

12:44

some of the best players in the world. But they're playing a low standard

12:46

of football. Do you watch pre-season friendlies

12:48

that don't involve your team?

12:50

Ever? No.

12:53

Why would you? Yeah, but... Yeah,

12:55

but... Killing a Bapi and his prime doesn't take

12:58

part in a lot of... But hold on a second. Are you telling

13:00

me you care about the outcome of one team versus

13:02

another in Saudi Arabia? You've literally no connection with it. No,

13:04

but it's more the players, isn't

13:06

it? I couldn't care less about the team. And

13:09

I'm not saying I'd watch them. I'm saying I think

13:11

a large cohort of people will.

13:12

Like, if Killing Bapi, Jordan Henderson, all these lads are heading

13:14

off. OK, they're... Not

13:17

to put Henderson the same in the same sense. Like,

13:19

come on. No, you

13:21

don't have to watch us.

13:23

They could sign the 25 best players in the

13:25

world, but

13:26

I'll still be far more interested, because I follow

13:28

Aston Villa in Aston

13:31

Villa's fortunes, and that is also in

13:33

itself ridiculous. I'll

13:35

still be

13:36

trying to get more interested in my domestic

13:38

league and more likely to bring my

13:40

kids to my domestic league than... It's up

13:42

to us to... We

13:45

have incredible power when it comes to what's

13:47

going on here by not watching

13:50

and not caring about it. Killing a Bapi could score 600 goals.

13:54

Remember the gold Zlatan scores

13:56

where he drills around like 12 people in a pre-season friendly? It

13:59

was IX.

14:00

In the preseason friendly off Riley Galaxy. Yeah. No,

14:02

no, it was IACs. It was back in the day. Yeah, but like It

14:07

it's just it's just it's meaningless um

14:11

But

14:11

what about the young people who don't support

14:14

clubs and they support players to go wherever

14:16

in bat big goes You know you're saying Aston Villa, but that's

14:18

your thing You know and you come from a time

14:20

where you'd support the club over the player But oftentimes

14:22

now it's like the players marketed so

14:25

much that

14:25

they're the new club for people

14:28

So like if they sign in off at those type of players

14:30

of the

14:31

Types of in bat being and get them in longer

14:33

term contracts Why wouldn't the new generation

14:35

of football fans watch their football in Saudi Arabia? Why

14:38

would they care about the political aspect of it or the morality

14:40

aspect?

14:41

Well, then they're not good people if you

14:43

don't care about Morality

14:46

if you're making a choice to go. Oh, I don't really care

14:48

about this thing like fast But

14:50

kids don't kids don't care about Saudi but

14:52

Saudi Rights issues well their

14:55

heroes are going to play right for these leagues They're

14:57

gonna follow their heroes there are repercussions for that. I think

14:59

if there's enough that go

15:01

the people will follow If

15:03

the product is better eventually follow though enough

15:05

enough to a point where I know friends enough people are watching

15:08

all they want is people Watching it. But hang on that's

15:10

a different you're saying we're all going to be watching

15:13

the change But we change question was when

15:15

will we be watching that was his question and

15:17

I'm saying I'm never gonna be watching it Yeah,

15:19

but rather when I was already asked when were the TV

15:22

Can't put it yeah, when are the TV companies be showing us

15:24

highlights regardless of artists individual decisions

15:26

to watch? Well, we'll be thrown this well You

15:29

can get it now if you want what TV companies

15:31

talk about when will sky show us? Well,

15:33

when will it when will they prior to that over the Premier League?

15:35

Yeah, I never gonna prioritize it over the Premier League because the

15:37

Premier League like has a domestic market

15:40

of 60 million people and so short

15:43

the the rights for the Premier League are

15:45

six billion Richard Masters in the papers today and I it's

15:48

slightly greater international rights than

15:51

local rights, but the still local rights will be two billion

15:53

and For two billion you'll still get

15:55

a really good league a really competitive league where

15:58

the storied history of Manchester United

15:59

and Liverpool and Arsenal and Chelsea

16:02

and everybody else

16:03

actually matters. That's why this stuff matters.

16:05

You can't just... So the reason

16:07

that the the Saudis and Qatar

16:10

and the UAE are trying to buy

16:13

football is because it has a history that they don't

16:15

have. That's the cache that they're trying to get.

16:17

It's not just about the geopolitical power, why that's

16:19

very important. It's also about the

16:22

kudos from owning something

16:24

that has history and a tradition.

16:27

And the Saudi League will never have that. So no matter

16:29

how good the quality of football gets,

16:32

it's gonna be like one of those Champions League games that you watch

16:34

where it's like, oh the quality football is very good

16:36

here but I actually don't care about what happens here.

16:39

And so sure there will be a critical

16:41

mass of people around the world who are watching this

16:43

but it won't matter. Abu Dhabi bought Manchester

16:46

City in 2008 and it's basically a new club now.

16:48

It's

16:48

nothing to do with the previous club. And they

16:50

have a whole new generation of fans. There's Man City fans

16:53

walking around the street now that would never have supported City. The

16:55

fact about Dhabi didn't buy them. Are they Abu Dhabi fans?

16:57

They're fans of what they're seeing in front of them. They're

17:00

fans of the Holland and the Broyna. They don't care about

17:02

where the money's coming from. That's my point. If

17:04

the players go, people will follow. People

17:06

just want to watch a good product. People want escapism. They're not

17:08

gonna look into what's happening here. Your point

17:10

is that...

17:12

Their senses would be dulled. In Manchester,

17:15

a club exists

17:17

that has a lot of money that has come from the

17:19

Gulf, right? Yeah. But you

17:23

could build that same team in Saudi Arabia

17:26

and

17:27

you're not gonna have kids in Manchester wandering around

17:30

in shirts for one of those teams.

17:33

Well, Manchester, no, because City are

17:36

doing that in England. Yeah, so... But another

17:38

City in England... Shane's questions, which was the

17:40

basis of this, is when are we gonna be watching this? When is it gonna

17:42

be our TVs? And my point

17:44

is that it's never gonna supplant

17:46

the Premier League in the hearts and minds of the people who are

17:48

Premier League fans, genuine Premier League fans as opposed

17:50

to the casual fans who you're talking about who are like

17:53

Instagram fans. And like, I don't really actually

17:55

know. I mean, you

17:57

could basically just buy the Kardashian brand.

17:59

and access a similar sized

18:02

audience and that's the conversation I think

18:05

you're like oh this doesn't matter because the audience is gonna

18:07

be so big. That wouldn't achieve sports washing though. This

18:11

is feel the dream stuff, build it and they will come and

18:13

I feel like a lot of people are gonna

18:15

head towards the study league because it is not

18:18

like the MLS whatsoever. It's players in the prime of their

18:20

life and kids, the

18:22

generation of kids nowadays as you say call

18:24

them, only care about players.

18:26

They do not care about teams. They're in bat-blade fans

18:28

and they're highland fans. Some of them support teams of course. Yeah I

18:30

mean come on, kids, you're saying kids like

18:32

you know every single kid right? No. They're

18:35

the individual players that become big brands that's true.

18:37

At some point everybody

18:40

starts to think about stuff.

18:42

Like oh they will never think about it.

18:44

You can never reach a moment where you tip over

18:46

from and they

18:49

just execute another 200 people there. Oh with

18:51

the football? No

18:52

with the 200 people. No but you see

18:55

you and me would have the same preference. I'd never

18:57

leave the Premier League for Saudi League. No I'm

19:00

sorry for the record. But I'm not talking

19:02

about us. That's my point here.

19:04

There is a market for this

19:05

if prime players go over. Sure.

19:08

That's the thing. I'm not gonna say it's gonna overtake

19:10

the Premier League completely but in 5 to 10 years time you

19:12

could see kids walking around with Saudi Arabian

19:14

club jerseys.

19:15

I'd be so unsurprised. I'd be so unsurprised.

19:18

How many of them though right? Because there's always gonna be one or

19:20

two. Yeah totally. Because

19:22

we thought that was gonna happen in China and it didn't. And MLS

19:24

as well.

19:25

And it hasn't really. It hasn't taken over the

19:27

Premier League. This is probably the biggest threat to it. There's

19:29

obviously way more money here than there is

19:32

in either of those two leagues. Like

19:35

in raw terms the money that's being talked about by Mbappe.

19:38

I just don't think they're getting good value for money. I think that Mbappe

19:40

could go and be like oh this is a...we'll

19:42

see. Well the one sorry because it's only a one year contract so

19:44

you're just gonna leave after 12 months of how much

19:46

positive impact

19:47

will that have for the league. I don't know. The only

19:50

thing with Mbappe is that he doesn't get

19:52

challenged as it is enough with

19:55

Paris Saint-Germain. He doesn't play

19:57

enough high quality games in Mbappe. The world doesn't really

19:59

see him. Like so many of those games

20:01

in France. He's breezing through them even

20:03

when they lose whatever like even if they win

20:05

the league It's like Grant or in the PSG ultras,

20:08

whatever them. They're anything the Champions League. We

20:10

don't see him that often We don't see the best of them happy

20:14

Let's go to Australia

20:17

Kathleen McNamee. Good morning to you. How are you?

20:19

Morning guys doing good doing good. How

20:22

is the World Cup? Yeah,

20:24

it's gone well and sitting in Perth

20:26

a very very rainy and cold Perth

20:28

arrived in late last night So just spent

20:30

the morning kind of wandering around exploring.

20:33

I was just watching the Canada press conference

20:35

there so their

20:36

coach bev priestsman was saying that Ireland

20:38

are horrible team to play against and Jesse

20:42

Fleming will be fit. So that's probably the big news That's

20:44

just happened in the last 10 or so

20:46

minutes from over here There's

20:48

another Ireland press conference today at around

20:50

about half past nine, but Vera is in the all

20:52

the papers this morning So obviously there was something yesterday as

20:54

well

20:56

That's actually from the weekend So

20:58

Vera was chatting and to

21:00

the newspapers and she was saying that a

21:03

be lark and did she didn't say

21:05

specifically that she's going to start but that

21:08

she Kind of hinted

21:10

that it could be a possibility and if that is the case

21:12

the likelihood is that Marissa Shiva and may

21:15

come out of the

21:16

squad which would be tough one for

21:18

her to take considering the performance the other

21:20

night and being substituted so quickly after

21:23

the Penalty but

21:25

the big question mark is kind of is

21:27

Abby She was absolutely brilliant when she came on

21:29

is she ready to have that

21:32

starting position and to play as

21:34

well as she did from the get-go and So

21:36

yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what Vera says

21:38

She's as you say she's up for media around half

21:40

night your time the last time we did one

21:42

of these press these are like The FIFA press conferences

21:45

and normally a lot of the time the Irish media

21:47

gets to chat to Vera kind of you know Sure,

21:50

the Irish. Yeah, so it's a lot easier and The

21:53

last one only lasted for 11 minutes. So

21:56

yeah, the big ones will be chances of a

21:58

b-lark and starting and up to

21:59

on Louise Quinn. She flew to

22:02

Perth in a protective boot but did play

22:04

in the training session they have. They have another training session

22:06

later today and then also how is Katie

22:09

McCabe's hand because

22:11

her fingers were fairly heavily bandaged

22:13

after the last game. It's not Katie

22:16

up for media today, it's Keira Carissa so

22:18

it'd be interesting to see. That kind

22:20

of implies that there won't be any changes up front

22:22

for Ireland in terms of who's going

22:25

to start in that solo position.

22:27

So the team Kathleen went back to the base in Brisbane

22:30

after the Australia game and then what

22:32

four and a half five hours west

22:34

to Perth. Turns out Australia's pretty big. Yeah

22:37

turns out it is. I had the good fortune

22:40

of having a screaming baby behind me for the five

22:42

hours yesterday which is very fun although I felt

22:44

a lot worse for the parents than I did myself but yeah

22:47

five hours it's a long trip. There was a lot of people kind

22:49

of questioning why the team didn't maybe stay on in Sydney

22:52

for a day or two and then

22:53

go straight to Perth and kind of get because there's

22:55

also a jet lag so like there's a two-hour time

22:58

difference and so in Brisbane

23:00

and Sydney we were nine hours ahead of Ireland

23:02

here we're only seven but

23:04

it was FIFA mandated that they go back to Brisbane because that

23:06

is technically their base. So

23:08

the team had a bit of media on Saturday

23:11

morning and then they had a day off,

23:13

a training session Friday, a bit of media on Saturday

23:15

morning they had the rest of the day off on Saturday

23:18

which was quite funny because I think

23:20

a lot of people took that as an opportunity to

23:22

recharge their batteries so you know I was wandering

23:24

around South Brisbane going into the fan

23:26

zones and you just kept running into the players and

23:29

I got to the point where I felt like saying to them I swear

23:31

I'm not trying to stalk you this part is just

23:33

very very small and it's

23:35

kind of the nice part of Brisbane and

23:37

so yeah a lot of them went to the fan zone in

23:39

Brisbane which was really really good vibe and

23:42

I watched the England game there and then they flew

23:44

out on Sunday morning and they've had a

23:46

training session here since and then yeah another one

23:48

today and also a familiarization with

23:51

the stadium later just where the team get to

23:53

kind of walk

23:53

out and around the field and then game

23:55

day tomorrow.

23:56

Should be a lot more Irish fans what is it 20 I think 20,500

23:58

capacity

23:59

the Perth Retangular Stadium so that the shape

24:02

of the stadium was surprised no one.

24:04

Yeah, yeah, I don't know if there will be

24:06

more Irish here. I definitely, Perth's because

24:09

it's so off the beaten track,

24:11

it's kind of harder to get to for

24:13

a lot of Irish fans. I

24:15

went to a couple of Irish pubs this morning because what else

24:17

do you do at 11 o'clock on a, what day is it,

24:20

Tuesday? And

24:22

I was chatting to just some of the owners there

24:24

and stuff and they say there's a nice Irish crowd

24:26

in Perth but they don't really expect too

24:28

many people to be flying in. I've

24:31

heard of a couple of groups but a lot of people are staying

24:33

over

24:33

on the other coast just because of that five

24:35

hour flight

24:36

there and five hours back. It's not particularly

24:39

pleasant and also just

24:41

it's not as regular as some of the other internal

24:43

flights but there should be a good Irish crowd.

24:46

There's a couple of the pubs here that are throwing events

24:48

so we'll pop along to those and see

24:51

who has come out for the big

24:53

game. Does

24:54

it get much coverage in the local

24:56

papers? I'm just keeping an eye on the score here from

24:58

the New Zealand Philippines game and Philippines on

25:01

course for a massive shock won the lead

25:03

there after just over an hour but I'd

25:05

imagine that the papers in both countries Australia and

25:07

New Zealand are

25:08

fairly heavily weighted towards this.

25:11

Yeah, I was actually just watching that game before I came

25:13

on with you guys and if New Zealand

25:15

had won that would have been them true so that would have been massive

25:18

considering like the last game was the first one they've

25:20

ever won at a World Cup. The papers are definitely

25:22

going heavy on it. It's just actually getting to watch the

25:24

games. It's really difficult because apart from the Matildas

25:26

games all the group

25:29

stage games are all behind the paywall so

25:32

you can get up to sports which is basically the equivalent

25:35

of Sky Sports here which a lot of homes will

25:37

have anyways but even if you go

25:39

into like most hotel rooms like a lot of the

25:41

Irish press

25:41

pack hasn't been watching the games. I bought

25:44

a subscription because it was like $20 for

25:46

the month that I was here and I was like it's going to be worth it in

25:48

terms of actually seeing what's happening

25:51

in the World Cup but a lot of places

25:53

you go into either don't have a subscription

25:55

or just aren't showing it so there's

25:57

definitely in the traditional media there's a lot of people.

26:00

buzz but it's kind of hard unless

26:02

you're going to very specific places

26:04

to catch the games, which is

26:06

a shame because I think that's the way that

26:08

you get people the most is you

26:10

know those people casually flicking around

26:12

on their TV and see a game pops

26:14

up and decide to pay attention to it. And

26:17

there's a lot of anger on the ground here from Australians

26:19

that if Optus was allowed by

26:21

the rights to it, I think it was a good few years and go

26:24

now because they see it as a barrier

26:26

to grow in the game here. I mean

26:28

if you look at the viewing figures from most

26:29

other countries, I think Brazil's last

26:32

game was watched by like 11.5

26:34

million people, which is the biggest viewership

26:36

they've had since

26:39

the Beijing Olympics or something on women's

26:41

football. So like stuff like that's great to see

26:43

and it's definitely happening.

26:46

I think there's 54% more attendance so

26:49

far at this stage of the tournament. So all

26:51

those figures

26:52

across the board are really positive. It's just annoying

26:54

if you're in Australia to try and watch it. Ireland

26:56

are playing the reigning Olympic champions here

26:58

in Canada, but

27:00

Canada only won one of the last seven games. They

27:02

haven't scored four of their last six matches. They can see

27:04

the 10 in their last eight.

27:06

So you're saying we have a chance?

27:08

Possibly. I thought another

27:11

interesting fact about Canada, the 32 teams

27:13

that are in the World Cup, 30 of them have domestic

27:15

leagues. Canada are one of the ones that do

27:17

not have a domestic league. They have the eighth highest

27:20

income in the world and the other team who doesn't

27:23

have a league is Haiti, which is one of the poorest

27:25

countries in the world. So it says a lot about the

27:27

setup for them there. If you

27:29

watch the game they played against Nigeria,

27:32

I think it summed it up very well to say they're really

27:34

good defenders, but you don't know where their goal

27:37

is going to come from, which makes

27:38

me think that tomorrow could be a little bit of a trudge

27:40

because that's kind of how people look at

27:43

us. Now, Jesse Fleming going into the

27:45

setup does change things massively because

27:47

she's a really high-impact player and

27:49

there was massive worry on the Canadian side

27:51

that she wasn't going to be available. Likelihood

27:54

from what I've seen in the Canadian papers and

27:56

stuff is that they think Christine Sinclair is going to be

27:58

taken out.

27:59

Yeah, it is.

28:01

But also, yes, you remember what, Christine

28:03

Sinclair is like 40 odd. So like,

28:06

you probably don't expect her to play a full match

28:08

anyways, whereas Jesse Fleming is competing at

28:10

the highest level with

28:12

Chelsea and the WSL.

28:14

So that's going to be really interesting. And

28:17

then, I mean, I have expected

28:20

there. I was like 50-50 on whether

28:22

there'd be any changes. And

28:23

I thought the only change on the Irish side would probably

28:25

be Abby Larkin or Lucy

28:27

Quinn coming in. So

28:29

that kind of midfield role and also providing a little

28:31

bit of cover for Katie. And

28:33

so really interested to see what Vera says about that

28:35

in a couple of hours time. What kind of shape

28:37

to kind of have? How do they match up against R-shape?

28:41

Actually very similar. That's the

28:42

thing. The two teams set up pretty much the same

28:44

way, or at least have in their

28:47

last couple of games.

28:48

They like to go heavy on the defence. And then

28:51

like Fleming is really good at breaking behind the

28:53

lines. So utilizing her in

28:55

the best way possible would be really important. We also have Ashley

28:57

Lawrence, who is like one of the best

29:00

players out there at the moment. And

29:03

she has just signed for Chelsea. So we've seen a lot more

29:05

of her this season in the WSL. She

29:07

was up for media today as well.

29:10

And again, I feel like herself and Beth Priestman

29:12

were kind of egging Ireland

29:14

on and putting

29:15

us up a little bit. But yeah, tomorrow's

29:17

crucial. I mean, we lose tomorrow. We're out of the tournament.

29:20

So a result of some kind is absolutely

29:22

essential. I think I probably felt a lot

29:24

more optimistic coming out of the Australia

29:27

game

29:28

than I do now having had like a couple

29:30

of days. I just I really don't know where

29:33

our goals are going to come from unless it is a set

29:36

piece or something, especially if Vera was

29:38

like so reticent to use Amber Barrett

29:40

on the night in Sydney. So yeah,

29:44

the team is going to be interesting tomorrow,

29:46

especially I feel like after the first hour, if

29:49

it looks like we're not going to score a goal, I just wonder

29:51

will Vera have the confidence to stick on

29:53

someone like Amber?

29:54

Part, what's

29:55

it like?

29:57

It's a strange city. I have.

29:59

I only had a proper chance to look around at this

30:02

morning because I got in late last night.

30:04

It's kind of hard to work out what its vibe

30:06

is. Sydney was very

30:09

hoppin', happening central

30:11

city. Brisbane's very chill. Whereas

30:14

here, you definitely notice it's

30:16

a little bit more rough around the edges than the

30:18

other cities that I've been to so far. It's

30:21

also been the worst weather since I've been here. So that

30:23

could be adding to it a little bit, but

30:25

you kind of go very quickly to slightly

30:28

rundown areas into big bustling

30:30

districts. So yeah, I'm

30:33

curious to have a proper look around, maybe a little bit

30:35

today and then tomorrow morning as well, to see

30:38

if I can find some of the nice places. Yeah,

30:42

good Irish book called Dirty Nellies who is showing all the World

30:44

Cup games. So that has been my main recommendation

30:46

so far. It's also a great name for a pub.

30:48

Not bad. Can we expect

30:51

Vera Power play a Kitty McCabe higher up the pitch? Does

30:53

that seem to be something coming out of the papers as well this morning

30:55

that she maybe feels a

30:57

little less reluctant to do that?

30:59

Yeah, I don't think I've ever actually heard Vera so

31:03

open about the fact that Kitty needs to get higher up

31:05

the pitch normally. She's like, no, no, no, she wants to

31:07

sit deep. But you can see you're doing that, like

31:10

the places that Shiva was getting herself into

31:12

on the pitch, it was obvious that that was something that they'd

31:14

talked about. I think

31:16

because she was talking about it so much, I really do

31:18

wonder if there is gonna be a tactical

31:21

switch to allow that for Kitty because realistically,

31:24

I don't know if we should be having someone who is five

31:26

foot one in our back five,

31:28

especially if that's a

31:29

target area for teams to put

31:32

in high balls. So

31:34

yeah, Kitty getting higher up to both teams, so Vera

31:36

thinks that she was the only one likely to score,

31:39

which again, I have to question a little

31:41

bit when you look at where a lot of our goals

31:44

have come from recent times. We all know Kitty

31:46

playing higher up the pitch is a good thing, but we also

31:48

need to make sure that we're not leaving

31:50

ourselves open to things that

31:53

happened with the penalty where someone who isn't

31:55

used to playing in defensive positions does

31:58

something silly and that's the decide.

31:59

later in what was an incredibly, incredibly close

32:02

game. I don't feel as sick about this one, which is

32:04

maybe a bonus

32:05

or else it's a sign of resignation. I haven't quite decided

32:07

yet. I know, it's hope. They're the same thing.

32:09

Flip sides of the same coin. Good stuff, Kathleen. We'll let you

32:11

go and get ready for the press conference. Cheers. Thanks,

32:14

guys. Kathleen McAuley, me in Perth

32:17

in Australia. We'll talk with Sue Ronan

32:19

about the tactical breakdown of the game in

32:21

about 20 minutes time. If you want to get in touch 087 9180

32:23

180 is the WhatsApp number. Braeburn

32:26

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32:28

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32:40

After the break, Tommy Walsh first. Here's Kathleen speaking

32:42

with Áine O'Gorman.

32:44

A couple of days after the game, I had a bit of

32:46

time to relax. What was

32:48

it like sitting there watching

32:50

everything happen? Yeah,

32:52

it was amazing. Obviously, I think before the girls came

32:54

out of the tunnel, Ole, Ole, Ole kicked

32:56

off and kind of gave me goosebumps. And I turned

32:58

around and I was just like, something,

33:01

huh? Yeah,

33:04

so it was pretty special. And obviously the national anthem

33:06

was some really loud and proud. And

33:09

yeah, it was just a really special moment. And everyone's keep saying,

33:11

like, take it in, try and enjoy it. So that

33:13

was my moment. And then it was obviously, focus on the

33:15

game. Can you take it in at the moment? Like,

33:18

I feel like even from outside, it's

33:20

really hard to actually look at the game

33:23

and take it all in, soak it in. It was

33:25

brilliant in the moment, but now it almost

33:27

feels like a little bit of a dream where you're kind of questioning, did

33:29

that actually happen? Yeah,

33:32

I think that's sports people as well. Anytime you play

33:34

a match, you kind of just park it, take what you have to out

33:36

of it and then look forward to the next game

33:38

as well. So I think it's

33:39

something you more reflect on probably

33:41

when your career's over or the World Cup's over.

33:44

Very fast talking about careers being over, but too soon.

33:48

Get through the World Cup first. That's what happens

33:50

when you get to my age. In terms

33:53

of Canada, Nigeria, have you had much

33:55

of an opportunity to look back on the

33:57

game that happened yesterday?

33:59

Mine yesterday when the match was on,

34:02

but it was actually on the telly last night, so I look

34:04

back on it obviously, Canada,

34:07

penalty saved as well, so they're unfortunate

34:09

in that front, but within that year I put

34:11

a look to them as well, so I can take

34:14

positives out of that result going into Wednesday.

34:17

So the general thought, like I was talking to

34:19

a couple of the players last night, and the general feeling seemed to

34:21

be quite positive after that game, like obviously

34:23

the disappointment of not getting through something wanted, but

34:25

also after seeing that game feeling like there's

34:28

two wins possibly you've been taking

34:29

there? Yeah absolutely, like you do

34:32

every game, football to win don't you, so we just have

34:34

to back ourselves and even take

34:36

the positives out of the game in the old age and turn

34:40

yourself on eating and prepare like we always do.

34:52

Right, four minutes,

34:54

five minutes passed out this morning, we're turning back to hurling in the

34:56

Ireland final and the season in general. Tommy

34:59

Walsh, good morning to you.

35:00

Yeah, good morning, Jar. The dust has settled,

35:02

how are you feeling about it now? Ah,

35:05

it's tough now, it's one of the toughest defeats we've

35:08

got at it Jar. So

35:10

disappointed, like normally you dust yourself

35:12

down and you look forward to the following

35:14

year but definitely finding this one

35:16

would be harder to get over. You

35:19

know, why, like every Ireland is

35:21

important, but I suppose you know, like I

35:24

always shout out to you for the underdog, whether it's Fiske Kenny or

35:26

whoever it is, like I'm an underdog

35:29

man you know, and just seeing

35:31

the lads like, you know after losing the last couple

35:33

of all Ireland's,

35:34

I suppose a whole bit, you know seven

35:36

or eight or ten years ago and know

35:39

exactly what they put into it, like

35:42

you know, talk about role

35:44

models for your county or for young lads, young lads

35:46

now growing up and training young

35:48

lads and they're the guys we want them

35:50

to look up to and you couldn't pick better

35:52

role models and that's from being

35:54

in Witten ten years ago and in order, probably

35:57

got on to huge lengths since then.

35:59

game has gone on so much from training

36:02

two or three times a week, we'll say,

36:04

and maybe training a gym session every maybe 10 days.

36:07

Now, like they're training six, seven days a week,

36:10

like a recovery session now is nearly 10

36:12

hundred meter sprints. And so

36:15

just seeing what they put into it and just seeing walking

36:17

off the field after the disappointment of

36:19

an all-earn last year was heartbreaking

36:22

enough. Like, you know, so, but listen,

36:25

all congratulations to Limerick, they were met

36:27

by a team that is just absolutely outstanding.

36:29

Yeah, I think maybe one of the reasons

36:32

why it's harder to take is that there's

36:33

not much else that you can point to that Glocheni

36:36

could have done, maybe a

36:38

free here or maybe better

36:40

shot selection. But like they played about

36:42

as well as they could do. They were

36:45

feverish and tigress in that first half.

36:47

And it's it just wasn't enough.

36:50

Yeah, it wasn't enough. And like,

36:53

you know, I probably could

36:55

easily go and went along with that argument that

36:57

you said for, you know, for a little for

36:59

a minute or two. But when you take

37:01

back on it like games do change on

37:03

so many moments,

37:05

like, and you only have to go back to the other and then you find

37:07

like a emoji on it and all in part here

37:09

to weekend, Tipperary and Watford,

37:12

like to one eight to three pints. And

37:14

it looks like, you know,

37:16

an all-earn winning team versus a team that isn't

37:18

a contender at that stage. And

37:21

suddenly a few things changed for Watford

37:23

and suddenly they looked brilliant.

37:25

So, you know, probably

37:27

just a team that gets an all-earn and finds

37:30

should be good enough to win it. And I believe that any

37:32

team, I believe to have the forwards,

37:34

to have the team and to have the subs

37:36

coming on, we talked about their subs all year,

37:39

just a few different instances on the day

37:41

just could have changed, you know, like regards

37:44

the 65 that wasn't the

37:46

three

37:47

or

37:49

four goal chances that we had, like David Reedy's,

37:52

who got an O on Alan

37:54

Murphy at home was, you know, it looked ordinary,

37:57

but that was amazing because

37:59

he had so

37:59

much ground. He's reading in a beautiful kind

38:02

of a messy type of a ball

38:04

over the top and straight into into

38:07

the Kenny Forest hand and Alan Morphy then nearly

38:09

had a great goal chance yet. You know, you

38:11

had the Massey slip. We had the

38:14

half chance of a poll there in the second

38:16

half. Well, went into Nicky Crane the end. You

38:19

had the goal chance in the first half. And we did

38:21

have a lot of points as well, Jared, that we

38:23

normally would shoot over the bar and like

38:25

we have to rewind with 60 minutes gone.

38:27

I'd say it was around 60 a minute, it was 59 minutes.

38:30

There was only two sheet points in it. Like

38:32

a score, say if you had to go a few score before that,

38:34

suddenly you're two points up. It's squeaky bum

38:36

time then. So I know,

38:39

I think the last 10 minutes probably,

38:41

you know, painted a different

38:43

picture of the whole entire game. And

38:45

that's just, I suppose it is Limerick's ability to score

38:48

three or four quick points. That's probably what

38:50

stands them out from the rest. Like if you go through their

38:52

team, especially say from midfield

38:54

up, you couldn't say anyone was unbelievable.

38:57

Like you know, in regards, Peter Casey scored five

38:59

great points, scored two off,

39:01

two or three, you know, off different lads. Didn't

39:03

score them all off the one fella. And I just

39:06

think he got lovely ball time hard to defend it.

39:08

But other than let's say Peter scoring five points, everyone

39:10

else is only chipping him with two each. I think

39:12

I had to down for six, six of the Limerick

39:14

players score two each. And

39:17

you know, like if, say if you take Peter Casey,

39:19

the second half of the farm is out of it,

39:22

was it clear who was demanding a match? You

39:24

know, normally you would in such a,

39:26

such a victory, but no, I don't

39:28

think they were that far away when you go

39:31

back on it. But the scoreline obviously, the work

39:33

Tommy, I think it was Fann Larkin and Johanna Cisserie

39:36

last week. It's one thing walking around Kakeni as

39:38

a Kakeni Herrler, but walking around Kakeni as a all

39:40

Ireland winning Kakeni Herrler is what they all dream

39:43

of. Like this is going to enter now in ninth year,

39:45

next year since Kakeni won. Aside

39:47

from those seven or eight players that you said you played with

39:49

that maybe have won an A Mccarthy

39:51

at some point, like most of this Kakeni team have

39:54

never experienced winning a senior all Ireland. So I

39:56

think the last 10 and a half gap for Kakeni

39:58

was maybe 93 to 2000. and the

40:00

rest of the time there hasn't really been much of a gap

40:02

at all. So

40:04

does the pressure rack it up now year

40:06

on year until this particular

40:08

team wins one? I

40:11

don't want to listen when you get to the final,

40:13

obviously it will because of

40:15

the last couple of finals. But I don't think to

40:19

win an All-Ireland Championship for Kilkenny, I

40:22

don't think the time frame is really bothering

40:24

anyone. It's not bothering me anyway because

40:27

this is a great team at the moment. I

40:29

just think you have to look forward when you're young listening

40:32

you're always hopeful and hopeless what everyone

40:34

needs. There will be new

40:36

players coming in from the Canada 20s, there will

40:39

be new players coming in all the time that will have to be tried

40:41

and tested. We've

40:42

seen the Cork team that won the All-Ireland 99 full

40:44

of young fellas against the Hesse and

40:46

the Kilkenny team in the 82 against Cork. Young

40:49

fellas win All-Irelands all the time

40:51

and that's what you'll be hoping for.

40:53

But listen, the comeback is probably not the time

40:55

chain to be even thinking about that. It's

40:58

too far away. What they'll be thinking about is now get

41:00

back probably this week, probably a week or two off,

41:02

back into the club action then. It's amazing

41:05

how January comes around quick and you forget it all

41:07

and on you go again. There

41:10

is hope then for that team that it's less

41:12

despair.

41:14

Before we move on, I do want to just talk about Canark because the

41:16

lad in the hurling pot we're asking, he's still only

41:19

in his late 30s, mid 30s if

41:22

you're nitpicking

41:24

here. It's an incredible achievement to reach the point of this

41:27

stage of his career where everybody now universally acknowledges

41:30

him as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game.

41:33

Yeah, absolutely. If

41:37

you think back, I suppose just

41:39

looking at interviews and listening to guys and you were talking

41:41

to a few of them, Joe Hennessy and Eddie Caron at the end

41:43

of the day, like Fadar Tommy Marr,

41:46

we don't know the extent of

41:49

the difference in his coaching by

41:51

their recollections at that time. It seemed

41:53

to be something similar in that he

41:55

started coaching players and analysing and

41:58

showing them how to perform.

41:59

the skills and the acts of hurling.

42:02

Then if you go on just trying to think

42:04

off top of me head like Eamonn O'Shea for

42:06

Tipperary was different, you

42:08

know he brought that difference in movement like that.

42:11

When Eamonn O'Shea came with that Tipperary team,

42:13

the

42:15

belief and the traditionalist and everyone that

42:17

was involved in hurling at the time was all about winning your

42:19

own ball and that if you kind of ran away

42:21

from your man you were kind of afraid of him. Because

42:24

when Eamonn O'Shea came along he changed all that

42:26

and that movement was key. So

42:28

you saw the likes of Laric Carpet, Owen

42:30

Kelly, Young Gnaw and McRab probably 19 years

42:33

of age, Jamie Calnan, their

42:35

games went to new levels probably under Raymond

42:38

O'Shea that might not have had under the

42:40

old regime of hitting down the ball and winning your own

42:42

ball. I

42:43

don't know

42:45

was it Newtown, Chandrum or? It was

42:47

wasn't it Ben and Jerry's dad? Yeah

42:50

I think it was that time like the running game again

42:52

was not a thing like it was kind of frowned upon but

42:55

like winning then makes everything right and that

42:58

Newtown, Chandrum and Carpet team after

43:00

that had huge success

43:02

with the running game and it

43:05

probably boils down to using the coaching

43:07

methods that suit your team maybe and

43:10

you

43:10

know dogging it out really against the public and not

43:12

being swayed

43:13

which leads us on to Canirk.

43:16

I'm not sure if they left out anyone there along

43:18

the way but they were tough. So Canirk,

43:20

amazing man like you know

43:23

I was speaking to someone down around there

43:25

last winter and they said even away from coaching

43:28

this man is a bit of a genius so

43:30

I'm not sure how true that is but you're listening it

43:32

probably is. Regardless

43:34

you know his success

43:36

like he's had huge success with Clare on the

43:38

21s

43:40

and like I think even the minors that

43:42

time he

43:43

had success with the minors monster

43:45

but I don't think they won the All Ireland that year

43:47

and came back though and then was so successful that

43:49

Clare on the 21 team

43:51

went on to the Clare senior team then and

43:53

won with Davey Fitts back in 2013. Again

43:56

different methods again you'd have to say

43:58

went against Eddie Wentworth sweet but

43:59

was finally showing that on Ireland, then they pushed up and

44:02

nearly went the old traditional way

44:04

of changing totally up.

44:05

And then fast forward on then to this current

44:08

Limerick team for his successes after

44:10

all. But his humility I suppose is and his

44:12

ability to stay out of the limelight

44:14

is very intriguing too. You'd

44:17

love to know that bit more about him. Yeah.

44:19

Probably by the sound of that too,

44:21

Shane to, and Jared to, he's

44:23

a teacher by trait and profession. And

44:27

like if you go back to all the great managers,

44:30

the coaches in the GA and hurling, like

44:32

teachers have had a huge role.

44:34

And I would say it myself, like, like

44:38

the skills and the tactics

44:40

and all, that's one side of it,

44:41

but just getting the players to believe, getting

44:44

the players to buy into everything, like

44:46

that is huge because you're dealing with so

44:48

many different personalities. And as we've seen with that Limerick,

44:50

they have huge personalities, but

44:52

they're able to manage them, Canerka and Kylie,

44:55

but these teachers, you see, they spend four

44:57

years or three years up in the same paths or whatever,

45:00

learning how to deal with different personalities

45:02

as such.

45:03

And it's probably a trade. You

45:05

go off to be a block layer, you do a trade for four years, go

45:08

off to be a carpenter and electrician. You do a trade

45:10

for four years, learning the different,

45:12

the bits and all gets. And I think

45:14

teachers have a huge advantage in that, in

45:16

that they're learning how to deal with, we'll say, Jared Gilroy

45:19

versus Shane versus John O'Loughlin. You

45:21

know, it

45:22

has to be huge because you're a big personality

45:25

there, you take plenty of advantage. I

45:27

was wondering where you were going with that, Tommy. Come

45:32

here, you've picked a 15 for us for the season. So

45:35

this is your All-Stars team.

45:36

Yeah. Who were the

45:38

certainties? Yeah, so

45:40

the certainties, I'll

45:43

skip through to the full back lane. Two in the full back lane that you

45:45

had is Mikey Butler and

45:47

Hugh Lawler. So, Mikey Butler,

45:50

right corner back number two. I just think again, he's second year

45:52

on the Kenny team. He

45:55

had such an outstanding year last year. Got

45:57

young earlier than all-star. like,

46:00

is he going to have second year right? But he didn't. He

46:03

still marked the best of the best. Was brilliant all

46:05

through. Even in the other final,

46:07

he was super.

46:08

So Mikey Butler is right card back. You

46:11

will all, I think, is Kenny's player

46:13

of the,

46:13

probably the last couple of years. He's an outstanding

46:16

fullback. He's the ability to play from the front.

46:19

He's the ability to play from behind. He's massive

46:21

as well, I'm glad. He's brilliant in the air. Todd

46:23

Ashton and O'Reilly picked out his catch

46:25

there in the second half of the other final

46:27

as a great moment. I thought it was unbelievable

46:29

because you can't let Golan behind you.

46:32

99% of the time he will catch

46:34

that in its goal. But he will all are caught

46:36

down the field.

46:38

The half back line, then I thought

46:41

that was probably fairly straight forward. Deirah

46:43

McBurns, William O'Gonoh and Kyle Hayes.

46:45

Burns has gone from level to level. Like,

46:48

he's just gone up the levels every year. Like, he

46:50

started off as a kind of a guy that was winged

46:52

back many years ago that might score a couple

46:55

of pounds. But now he's just an absolute,

46:57

you know, I'd like to

46:59

hit all the wilder china in here. They're just, the ball can't

47:01

go past these guys. It's unbelievable.

47:04

High balls, low balls. You

47:06

just can't get past them. And he scored eight points

47:08

in the other one and found seven points from freeze.

47:12

And they're all tough freeze. They're out in the wing most

47:14

of them under the hook and they're accusing. William

47:18

O'Gonoh, who then sent her back. William O'Gonoh,

47:20

who was just an outstanding season. Even

47:22

if he was midfield, he would have been picked midfield.

47:25

I thought he was brilliant even up until the

47:27

changeover to send her back.

47:29

He's the kind of enforcer for them. He

47:31

loves being that mean machine. I

47:33

suppose he revels in it really. And in

47:35

fairness to him, he's very good at it. So

47:37

just from playing myself,

47:39

to have a player like that that is kind of unselfish

47:42

and doesn't probably look for it for

47:44

five points of play. It's unbelievable

47:47

confidence for a wing back that you can go off and attack

47:49

the ball, that you notice the lad there that's thinking

47:51

of the team all the time and will defend for

47:53

you. Good wing back then is Kyle Hayes.

47:55

You know, he's probably up for a hundred a

47:58

year as well. Kyle Hayes, center of...

47:59

forward last year, wing back this year,

48:02

this man is unbelievable. I mean, I always go back to that monster

48:04

final goal he scored down Park Leave.

48:08

That was just off the charts. So Kyle Hayes, yeah,

48:10

is a certainty there. Midfield again,

48:12

two more certainty.

48:14

Darryl Dunavant and David

48:17

Fitzgerald. I thought David Fitzgerald had

48:19

another outstanding season for a player, his

48:21

ability, and he gave Kyle Hayes enough

48:23

that he timed out play them, which

48:25

is a fair mark and a fair testament

48:28

to the player. But David Fitzgerald has definitely

48:30

gone on to be one of Claire's main players. He turns

48:32

up every single day and to be an all-around

48:35

champion and to be the Limerick's

48:38

of this world, you have to score a lot from play. And

48:40

David Fitzgerald regularly comes up with three, four, five

48:42

pints. Darryl Dunavant then, another probably lad

48:44

that's probably up for a hundred a year. I thought he was

48:46

outstanding for Limerick all year, especially when times were

48:48

tough. This man is a busy body out around the

48:51

middle

48:52

and nobody seems to be able to get the better

48:54

of Darryl there this year. Then

48:57

half-hour lane was tough. The full-fire lane then,

48:59

I thought, picks itself, Aaron Galan, full-fire

49:02

Connor Wheeling and the other Connor Owen Cody. Again,

49:05

if each of them won

49:07

the all-erlands both, each of them would be up

49:09

for a hundred a year, I'd say. So that's why they picked themselves.

49:11

Galan, just

49:12

the go-to man. I think the best forward

49:14

in the country at the moment. I think even

49:17

Hugh Lawler had a great battle with the other day.

49:20

But still he had a few important possessions

49:22

and pints and won a few

49:24

frees. Connor Wheeling then, the one trick

49:27

Bonnie, I think he's two tricks now. So

49:30

he was outstanding, I think.

49:32

He turned up every day, especially when they need him. Connor

49:35

Wheeling and the far far and then Owen Cody.

49:37

Owen Cody, just

49:39

incredible year for such a young chap, two times

49:41

young, harder of the year, all of his shows for the ball.

49:43

Very difficult as a car and a far and maybe to have

49:46

so many good games, but to have Owen was outstanding

49:48

this year. His dummy year in the all-erland final, I

49:50

hope it doesn't get lost to the annals of history

49:52

because it was amazing.

49:54

Yeah, I haven't been able

49:56

to go back at the game, though. I just remembered from

49:58

the year RA. Yeah, no

50:00

outstanding on there. There's a few little

50:03

dribbles there. I'd say that was part of that one there

50:05

in the first half Yeah, incredible

50:07

right. So there's a doubt about the goalkeeper

50:10

left corner back and the half forward line They're the

50:12

only ones who weren't certainties for you

50:14

Yeah, so on goal to the morphe or Nikki

50:16

quaid really at either quilligan had

50:18

a great year as well for clear outstanding really,

50:20

but the two lads it was a straight shoe out

50:23

a tank and I

50:24

Take puck out sport more brilliant this year.

50:27

I think saves bottom are brilliant

50:29

this year But I suppose that the

50:31

same an essential dollar and semi-fighting

50:34

was just this the small one that really

50:36

the tip that

50:37

The vote in all Morphe's favor.

50:39

So Morphe on the gold with nothing between

50:41

them. Okay, yeah Go

50:44

on. Sorry. Yeah, and the other left car. Yeah,

50:46

then was another shoe help between

50:48

two limerick lads I taught Barry Nash

50:50

and that dad Marcy I

50:53

Thought that Marcy was just he's

50:56

always mister, you know fix

50:58

it. He can play a fullback center back

51:00

wing back

51:01

Just anywhere where the need

51:03

and he has always played but fullback is probably the hardest

51:05

position in the in the field And he's played there

51:08

for the last couple of years But

51:10

I suppose what helps is that limerick defend

51:12

us a team as opposed to individual

51:14

So he was absolutely outstanding the

51:17

other car, but I saw who I will pick those

51:19

Barry Nash, right? Yeah

51:23

We lost Tommy there The

51:25

line appears have gone.

51:26

Yeah, we get him back. So it's Barry Nash He's

51:29

gone for in the end. We get the rationale behind that

51:31

I think you know as

51:33

a distributor of the ball as

51:36

Somebody who was trusted by

51:38

limerick for the short puck outs when they needed him someone

51:41

who always show for it as somebody who

51:43

has Transformed into a cornerback

51:46

by Nash having it put together quite the career. Yeah,

51:48

he's amazing I think Sarah had

51:50

opted for Dan Marcy as a dark horse for player

51:53

the for her of the year Right like saying he

51:55

was he was definitely a boater with his performances

51:57

towards the latter end. So That's

51:59

a tough one

51:59

Like leaving down Marcy out is tough.

52:02

Yeah, look it's gonna be It

52:05

is gonna be tough. I think it'll be

52:07

interesting to see if the all-star selectors

52:09

skew more limerick than

52:11

Kokanee on the back of

52:14

The final tending to count double

52:16

or treble.

52:17

Yeah. Why is that like as well? Look, because it's

52:19

the honor final. So you've gone for Barry Nash

52:21

there Tommy your back

52:23

Yeah, so Barry Nash then in their car. I just think

52:25

he's after he's

52:27

just an odd star I think he's a

52:29

guy you nearly have to mark every day of go out He's

52:31

an eye that's always attacking from the corner back

52:33

like it's rare that you would see that and he has

52:35

to be marked I thought he was in every game he

52:38

turned up. He was either in eighth or a nine odd season.

52:40

So a very Nash cornerback I thought

52:42

in the half backline then I just thought just an

52:44

honorable mention Dear McRein and John Conlon

52:47

I thought they were unfortunately missed out to just missed out

52:49

because the other three limerick lads were just Off the

52:51

charts. So Dear McRein or brilliant near so

52:53

did John Conlon

52:54

the half hour line Then is the next one and

52:57

this was a tough tough one now really

52:59

to be honest

53:00

But I went for Tony Kelly wing forward

53:02

T. J. Reed center and Tom Marcy the other wing

53:05

Tom Marcy gets it on the base of a

53:07

top when limerick were under pressure all year Tom

53:09

Marcy was the one man that showed up

53:12

time after time after time remember

53:14

the all-earn championship Well, it starts

53:16

with the league all year Then you go into the months around

53:18

robin and even months are fine. I learned semi-final

53:21

final So we can't just base on maybe

53:23

being outstanding in the final that's all I

53:25

thought Tom Marcy just all year Was

53:27

just a go-to man when

53:29

everyone else was dipping in farm Tom Marcy was there

53:32

and you could depend on him and you could see the embrace maybe

53:34

John Kelly had with tom after the game He

53:37

knew how important that man was all our

53:39

findings aren't just one on the day They're one in

53:41

a couple of months beforehand and tom was crucial

53:44

Senator farron and tj reid is a tj

53:46

at 35 36 years of age what he's doing is

53:50

Is amazing really in the modern game

53:53

and he's not just standing up there in the fall

53:55

fire like trying to win ball He's all over the field and

53:58

his catch by tying the all-earn final

53:59

the finalist pass even into for the

54:02

goal chance near the end, just sum them up.

54:04

He never stays going to the very end and we

54:06

take free tickers for granted. Like

54:09

how many teams have lost games

54:11

through vital freeze? Tije never rarely misses

54:14

a free. He's kind of an eight, nine out of ten

54:16

free taker all day long. In the old days

54:18

used to be if you were a seven out

54:20

of ten free taker, you were a brilliant

54:22

free taker. Now it's gone up. The standard

54:24

has gone up and it's mainly down to Felix Eich himself

54:26

and Hargen. He's the all time harder score,

54:29

all time score, hard and score of

54:32

the century. So fair play to him. The

54:34

other wing far in is Tony Kelly. So

54:36

this is between himself and Shane O'Donnell.

54:38

Now, listen, I saw Shane O'Donnell lost

54:41

picked on the Sunday game and this and this,

54:44

there was only, you know, such

54:46

small things changed for me. But I just look back

54:48

at the scoring of Tony Kelly during the year. He

54:51

scored four points against Limerick in their own drop.

54:53

He scored two, four versus Karth. He

54:56

scored 13 points for from play against

54:58

Watford. He scored six points against Limerick

55:01

in the monster five four from play. He

55:03

scored three, four from play against

55:05

Dublin. He scored two points, one

55:07

or two points against Kiekenny. But he wasn't

55:09

it like one to bad against Kiekenny.

55:12

Like he was on a bit of all. You just don't have

55:14

to score to be to be an outstanding, have an outstanding

55:16

game.

55:17

And how could you leave a lot of with that

55:19

score? So Tony Kelly gets number 10

55:22

just slightly ahead of Shane O'Donnell. Shane O'Donnell

55:24

was outstanding. And sorry, earlier the year, then

55:26

you're who have you got?

55:28

Earlier is I didn't really even have to think

55:30

about this. Golan. Right.

55:33

Yeah, I know. I know his was picked in some

55:36

quarters there, but Golan

55:38

on season was just really just

55:41

couldn't mark. He was on mark with it going back

55:43

as far as the league. And this is a guy didn't know

55:45

at the start of the league, was he going to be

55:47

back on the panel or not?

55:49

By God, when he came back, he came back in style.

55:52

Like he plays from the front, he plays from behind. You

55:55

just can't mark him right here at the moment.

55:57

I think your point about this being a.

55:59

long thing like we now fully appreciate

56:02

just how difficult it was for Limerick to get out

56:04

of monster and they won the semi final and the final by

56:06

nine points not with fan of the fact that the

56:09

game was much closer in the final and

56:11

the final scoreline suggests but when

56:14

the the

56:15

entire season was in the melting pot

56:17

it was Tom Marcy and Galan who

56:20

were showing up in those games and getting them through

56:22

while the rest of the team were just getting the dirty

56:24

diesel out of the system so I think that's why I

56:27

think you're right about Galan to be honest

56:29

yeah and Flanagan as well definitely

56:31

deserves huge credit and he was

56:34

quite in the semi-final and finalist was

56:36

Jer

56:36

I was worried about him for the final but

56:38

in fairness to the young Tommy, Tommy

56:41

Welsh here from Tolaron

56:42

like he his performances probably get lost

56:45

because the other two lads are so good Mikey

56:48

Butler and Nulaner Tommy Ita,

56:51

if the other two lads weren't so good he'd be honest

56:53

there Ita he had an incredible season and

56:55

he was on Flanagan like kept him quiet

56:58

for the majority that game like Flanagan

57:00

was brilliant in that months or championship yeah like

57:02

he was you know along with Galan they're like the

57:04

twin towers up there. Tommy we've got to

57:07

go I'll let you go thanks a million that was great

57:10

cheers Tommy was there giving us his team of

57:12

the year and his Herder of the Year Aaron Galan and

57:14

we'll stick that team up on Twitter and you can you

57:16

can have at it if you want right

57:19

here is Ashling O'Reilly at the Limerick Homecoming

57:21

last night chatting with some young fans we're back very

57:54

good so

57:55

you have a certain player

57:57

on from your club who's that? Carol Raggerty

58:00

Have you ever met Grode? Yeah. And

58:02

what is he like? He's a nice man. He's

58:05

out. What boy? Have you ever took a training session?

58:08

Once for like a half an hour.

58:10

Oh! Love the simple train oil. It

58:12

was very good. It helped me improve a lot. And

58:15

what do you like about Grode? He's just very

58:17

good pair. Yeah. He's

58:19

a leader and he carries the team. And

58:23

do all of you dream of playing for Limerick one

58:25

day? Yeah. No.

58:26

No, I don't miss him. I wish I could play with Trudy

58:28

and Lillie with that strong casey fella. Right,

58:32

okay. Soccer fans getting a look in as well. Okay.

58:36

Yeah. They're in a sweet spot at the moment, Limerick.

58:39

And let's wait and

58:41

see what happens. But yeah. They're

58:43

pretty good.

58:46

087-918180 is the WhatsApp number. If

58:49

you want to get in touch with us this morning, you can leave a comment. YouTube.com

58:51

forward slash off the ball. You can watch us live

58:53

every morning. And of course, you can listen to us as a radio

58:55

show on OTB Sports Radio.

58:58

Just tell your smart speaker to play

59:00

OTB Sports Radio and we are with you. Now,

59:03

let's talk about Ireland. Obviously, it's a

59:05

massive game against Canada. The way the results have gone

59:07

so far, it would suggest that this is going to be a tight

59:09

game. That we're going to... We're staring at the barrel

59:11

of two very tight games. Sue Ronan is with us. Sue,

59:13

good morning to you. How are you?

59:15

Morning, guys. How are we keeping? The niddle will draw

59:17

between Canada and Nigeria last night. Not

59:20

last night, earlier in the week.

59:22

What does that suggest about

59:25

the game that we're going to see tomorrow and even the game that we're

59:27

going to see against Nigeria at the end? Well,

59:31

it shows, I think, what we knew all along that

59:33

the group is going to be very, very tight. I

59:36

think I said it from the very beginning. I did

59:39

fancy us to come out, but I still fancy

59:42

us to potentially come out of

59:44

the group. But, you know, I think we knew there was

59:46

going to be very, very tight results amongst

59:48

the four teams. And

59:50

that's been the case so far. Canada

59:53

seem to have had a slow start,

59:55

but Nigeria, we can't forget, they're a very, very good

59:57

team. We mentioned that they've...

59:59

qualified from the

1:00:02

CAF Confederation for I think almost every

1:00:04

World Cup. They're very experienced, they're very

1:00:06

fit, very physical.

1:00:09

Canada obviously Olympic champions are also

1:00:11

a very good team so yeah

1:00:13

they had a chance to win the game they missed a penalty.

1:00:17

Sinclair who you'd normally put your house on

1:00:19

to

1:00:20

score I think she scored nearly 150

1:00:22

goals for her country. Christine

1:00:24

Sinclair she missed it was actually quite a weak

1:00:26

penalty I think but

1:00:28

yeah I think it's it's gonna be another tight game

1:00:30

for us tomorrow and I think we're still well in this group

1:00:33

and I suppose that draw has has really

1:00:35

brought us back into it following our defeat in the opening

1:00:37

game.

1:00:38

The breaking news this morning is that the Philippines have

1:00:40

beaten New Zealand 1-0 so obviously New Zealand

1:00:43

got the tournament off to a flyer when they beat Norway by

1:00:45

goal to nil and now they've lost

1:00:48

so we are seeing Topsy

1:00:50

Turvy results we are seeing teams who we thought

1:00:52

would be pushovers like Haiti for example put

1:00:55

it up to England over the course of the 90 minutes

1:00:57

and that one so no

1:00:59

one's taking anything for granted. In terms of the

1:01:01

quality of the performance that Ireland put in as the dust

1:01:04

has settled on the Australia game

1:01:05

how well did we do? I

1:01:08

think we did very well you

1:01:11

know we started off we were quite

1:01:14

we were in a compact low block which we

1:01:16

knew we would be early on we wanted to

1:01:18

frustrate Australia we knew they were going to have much

1:01:20

more possession than us we

1:01:22

knew where their danger is what where which

1:01:24

were down the flanks I mean it was

1:01:27

a real blessing in disguise for

1:01:29

us that Sam Kerr

1:01:30

was injured and obviously you don't want to wish anyone

1:01:33

an injury but of course that was a bit

1:01:35

of good luck for us as she wasn't playing one of the top

1:01:37

strikers in

1:01:38

the world so that was one less danger

1:01:40

to worry about. So

1:01:43

I think their biggest threat came from the wingers their

1:01:45

two wingers are very good vine I think was on the

1:01:47

left and Raso on the right and the full back supporting

1:01:49

them trying to create overloads or trying

1:01:52

to create one-by-ones and I think part of them

1:01:54

a couple of you know maybe a couple

1:01:56

of dodgy dodgy

1:01:58

moments early in the game I think

1:02:00

we were quite comfortable. We

1:02:02

frustrated them. They were

1:02:04

restricted to shots from distance. I don't think Courtney

1:02:07

Brosnan had a shot to save in the first half.

1:02:09

And

1:02:10

then unfortunately, we were looking

1:02:12

to try and I suppose, Nik, a goal on the break.

1:02:15

I think we didn't get forward in numbers

1:02:17

enough in that first half. Anytime we did

1:02:19

manage to get the ball forward, Caruso was isolated,

1:02:22

or

1:02:23

Shiva was isolated, or a couple of times you

1:02:25

saw McCabe making runs forward

1:02:27

and just wasn't working

1:02:29

out for us. And

1:02:31

then unfortunately, you have the city penalty

1:02:33

in the second half, and then all of a sudden you're chasing the

1:02:35

game and you have to really look at now, well,

1:02:37

what can we do to get back into this game?

1:02:39

And I

1:02:41

think Australia's backs were up for a few minutes,

1:02:43

obviously, after they scored. But I think after

1:02:46

that, then the last 20 minutes, we sort of owned the

1:02:48

game. And you wonder then, could

1:02:50

we have gone at them maybe a little bit

1:02:52

earlier? I think the subs

1:02:54

made a huge difference.

1:02:55

I think Abby Larkin

1:02:57

was tremendous when she came on and she was fearless,

1:03:00

as you'd expect from a young one, but she's got

1:03:02

such an amount

1:03:03

of skill as well. And we created

1:03:05

two or three really good chances on another day

1:03:07

we could have scored. So yeah,

1:03:10

I think we did well. I think the fact that everyone

1:03:13

was disappointed that we didn't get something from the

1:03:15

game shows that we did well. And Australia are

1:03:17

a very good team. They're not one of the top five

1:03:19

or six in the world that we mentioned before, but they're still

1:03:21

very, very good and very experienced and have

1:03:23

been at every World Cup for most World Cups

1:03:26

to date, where obviously this is our first.

1:03:29

Would

1:03:29

you expect Abby Larkin to

1:03:31

start tomorrow, Sue, given, I guess, well,

1:03:34

certainly the paper seemed to be hinting that it's

1:03:37

on the cards. But obviously, I

1:03:39

guess, for an 18-year-old from the start in a World

1:03:41

Cup game is

1:03:42

a little bit more daunting, I guess, than coming off the bench.

1:03:44

Yeah, I don't think Vera

1:03:47

will start her, to be honest. I'd like to

1:03:49

see her start, but I don't think Vera

1:03:51

will start her. I think maybe she'll spring her from the

1:03:53

bench again if we need her, or maybe

1:03:56

whether, you know, at some point to change it up or

1:03:58

to put on fresh legs. She

1:04:01

is fearless, but don't

1:04:03

forget we're playing an opponent now who's a level

1:04:06

up again like Canada are a stronger opponent

1:04:09

than

1:04:09

Australia. Some

1:04:11

of the defensive players they have on that team

1:04:13

are playing in the top teams in the

1:04:15

world, they're excellent. So

1:04:18

I'd be surprised if Vera does start her. If

1:04:21

she changes it up much, we all

1:04:23

know she tends to go

1:04:26

with the same players in the same

1:04:28

shape.

1:04:30

But certainly I'd like to see us get that counted a little

1:04:32

bit more. I mean, you know, we can't be gung-ho,

1:04:34

of course, and we have to keep it tight. And,

1:04:36

you know, we can't be naive either and

1:04:38

think that we can take the game to them. But

1:04:40

I think we need to pick our moments and maybe, you

1:04:42

know, every so often you're going

1:04:45

to go at them

1:04:45

and you're getting one or two players, you

1:04:47

know, more in attacking

1:04:49

positions like our two wing backs, for example. There

1:04:53

has to be moments when they can maybe attack and try

1:04:55

to support the front players because that

1:04:57

was missing last week and especially in that

1:05:00

first half.

1:05:01

Lucy Quinn, another option too, I guess Marisa

1:05:03

Shiva, the player who maybe

1:05:05

didn't have the best of games against Australia, it was tough for her out

1:05:07

there. Yeah, it was

1:05:09

tough for her. I also didn't think Caruso

1:05:11

had the best of games and she has done well up front.

1:05:14

But and again, it's a difficult role. You know,

1:05:16

she's up there. Balls are coming to her. She probably

1:05:18

had two or three defenders around her. She had

1:05:21

no options and it wasn't

1:05:23

really sticking. It was going up to her. Marisa

1:05:25

Shiva, yeah, didn't

1:05:27

have the best of games either. You

1:05:31

know, there was one or two, while we did play well in general

1:05:34

and some of the players really wearing that nine

1:05:36

out of 10 or 10 out of 10 as you need, there was one

1:05:38

or two who you'd expect

1:05:39

maybe between the nines out of 10 that were probably

1:05:41

only maybe about seven or eight. So they can maybe give

1:05:43

a little bit more as well. I think

1:05:45

we're concerned to get more out of the cage. I thought

1:05:47

Denise was all over the pitch, but her

1:05:49

passing wasn't as sharp

1:05:52

as normal, whether she

1:05:54

was still carrying the effects of the

1:05:56

injury or what, I don't know.

1:05:57

But at times she's caught in possession.

1:06:00

you're very, very sad to see Denise come in possession.

1:06:03

So I certainly think one or two of

1:06:05

the more experienced players can probably

1:06:07

even go up another level. I

1:06:10

thought Nia Fahy was tremendous. At the

1:06:12

back three centre-halves

1:06:13

were excellent. I

1:06:16

thought Farley when she was on the pitch

1:06:18

was very good also.

1:06:21

Heather Payne did well

1:06:23

too. So yeah, I think, you

1:06:26

know, I definitely think that there's more in us and I

1:06:28

think that there's

1:06:28

an opportunity to get something from this game

1:06:31

tomorrow.

1:06:32

The back three and

1:06:34

their lack of pace is something that Veer

1:06:37

has spoken about, about why she wants to

1:06:39

stick with the back three for now. And

1:06:41

like, it's very pragmatic

1:06:43

and it's very honest in her assessment.

1:06:46

You know, you could say stereotypically Dutch if we were to

1:06:49

indulge ourselves in a bit of profiling. Sometimes

1:06:52

they're very blunt when they talk about football in Holland, it's

1:06:54

their culture. Ours is like a little bit, oh,

1:06:56

you know, maybe we have certain strengths

1:06:58

that are like, nah, we're just not fast

1:07:00

enough. She might be right.

1:07:03

Perhaps, yeah. Yeah, no, look, perhaps

1:07:05

she is and you do,

1:07:07

when you're up against very fast and attacking

1:07:10

players, you do have to have speed. But, you

1:07:12

know, I think maybe what we, if we do

1:07:14

like speed there, I think we've got

1:07:16

great experience. You know, you look at Nia Fahy and the

1:07:18

way she reads the game, I mean, she's been around

1:07:21

the block. She might not have been at a

1:07:23

World Cup or a European championships, but she's

1:07:25

very, very good at reading the game. Likewise, Louise

1:07:28

Quinn, again, mightn't be blessed with the,

1:07:30

with lots of pace, but,

1:07:33

you know, it was very strong, can read what's

1:07:35

going on, can cover where

1:07:36

it needs to cover, can maybe get in ahead of

1:07:38

her, of her attacker to

1:07:40

win that ball. And then Megan then

1:07:43

provides a little sweeping up, I guess. Personally,

1:07:46

I'd like to see Megan at midfield. I really would. I think

1:07:48

that would release Denise a little bit, maybe into a little

1:07:50

bit more of an attacking role. She

1:07:53

could sort of do that number six role.

1:07:55

She could sort

1:07:55

of sweep in front of the back,

1:07:58

whether it's a back five or back four.

1:07:59

whatever, but I'd

1:08:01

certainly prefer to see her a little bit further

1:08:03

up the pitch. But

1:08:05

yeah, it is a back five, very

1:08:07

much a back five, but I think in this game, you

1:08:10

know, we can turn into a back four at any given

1:08:12

moment and get one of those wing backs in a forward

1:08:14

position because both of them are well capable

1:08:16

of getting up the pitch and getting back if need

1:08:18

be. So I think that's something

1:08:20

that I'd certainly like to see.

1:08:22

Jesse Fleming that we've mentioned this

1:08:24

morning, Sue, like a lot

1:08:26

of the creativity from Canada, by all accounts

1:08:29

seems to come through her. How

1:08:31

is she best nullified as a Katie McCabe? I guess they're

1:08:33

familiar with each other as rivals with Arsenal

1:08:35

and Chelsea. So is that a job

1:08:37

for Katie?

1:08:38

She's a very good player, Jesse Fleming, and

1:08:41

she didn't play the other day, I think against Nigeria.

1:08:44

She's excellent and she's had an excellent couple of seasons

1:08:46

with Chelsea. And she tends to play

1:08:48

on that right side, all right. So you're probably looking

1:08:51

at maybe Katie getting into another another battle

1:08:53

again and no better player

1:08:56

to do that. So yeah,

1:08:58

look, I mean, we're just going to have to try

1:09:00

to nullify her influence on the game because

1:09:02

she can be a big influence for Canada when she's on

1:09:04

form as she is for Chelsea. We're

1:09:07

certainly not going to go man to man or woman

1:09:10

to woman, so to speak, you know, in a game. But

1:09:12

obviously you just have to be wary and,

1:09:15

you know, try to nullify that threat that she has of

1:09:17

that creativity because she definitely can make

1:09:19

Canada tick. They're

1:09:20

not as quick maybe on the counter attack. Some

1:09:23

people suggest that Canada as Australia perhaps

1:09:25

were, but they still have attacking threats.

1:09:28

I guess the Irish wingbacks were pinned in a lot

1:09:31

against

1:09:32

the Australians and didn't have much room. You'd hope that

1:09:34

maybe that'll

1:09:35

be slightly different given the Canadians are

1:09:37

a bit more laboured.

1:09:39

Yeah, they are and they're an older team

1:09:41

as well probably, but they're definitely not as, you

1:09:43

know, not as direct and

1:09:45

they don't use the wing play as much as the

1:09:48

Australians do. So,

1:09:50

you know, from our point of view, I'd like to see our wingbacks

1:09:53

impose ourselves on it and give them something

1:09:55

to think about. And as you say, don't get

1:09:57

pinned in so much for all of the game. of

1:10:00

course, it's going to be times and they're going to have to be deep.

1:10:03

But I think, you know, let's give Canada something to think

1:10:05

about and let's take the game to them

1:10:08

at moments, you know, choose our moments. We

1:10:11

can't

1:10:11

do it, of course, for 90 minutes and

1:10:13

we'd be silly to try because

1:10:15

they are a very, very good team. But yeah,

1:10:19

I think I definitely think

1:10:21

there's there's a result in this one for us tomorrow

1:10:23

that has to be or we're going home effectively.

1:10:26

You know, we have to get something. We definitely

1:10:28

can't lose the game.

1:10:29

Even a draw will keep us in it, but we definitely

1:10:31

can't afford to lose this game. There

1:10:34

is a world in which we do to to

1:10:36

know draws in our next two games and assume

1:10:39

that Australia beats the other teams by

1:10:41

two goals. And we go through without having scored.

1:10:44

That was Gavin Comiskey who's pointing that out today. It

1:10:46

could be similar to vaguely

1:10:48

similar to Italian 90. We'd

1:10:50

probably take it at this stage, but I think we can be we can be

1:10:52

a bit more ambitious, can't we? Like there's no

1:10:54

reason to fear anything that's left in the in the tournament

1:10:57

from what we've seen so far.

1:10:59

Yeah, no, I agree. And when you look at some of the

1:11:01

performances we put in against better teams

1:11:04

in the last year, you know, it shows that

1:11:06

we have it in our locker to do it. I mean, look at the

1:11:08

two games against USA. We didn't

1:11:10

fear them. There was nothing at stake. There was nothing to

1:11:12

lose. It was their only friendly

1:11:14

games. But we were

1:11:16

so good in those games, especially that first game.

1:11:19

Like we totally outplayed them in the first half. And again,

1:11:21

we've talked about it on this this program

1:11:24

because they're really a top top team. They

1:11:26

found a way to win. I think the in the

1:11:28

first game wasn't

1:11:29

a speculative

1:11:31

cross or something from one of the wings came in

1:11:33

and the loot at Courtney Brosnan. You

1:11:36

know, and then there was a penalty as well. So and

1:11:39

we actually scored a goal. We were lucky that was just

1:11:41

allowed. So the performance we put in against

1:11:43

them, the performance we put in against Australia

1:11:45

at home and the friendly against Sweden

1:11:47

away when we took the game to them against Norway

1:11:50

or Finland away when we had to

1:11:52

win or wanted to win to

1:11:53

put our marker down in the qualifying group.

1:11:56

And it just shows that we actually

1:11:58

can play.

1:11:59

We want to so that's what I'm saying,

1:12:02

you know, let's look and try

1:12:04

to do that. And I'd love to see us try to

1:12:06

do that for periods in the game. Let's

1:12:09

give the Canadians something to worry about. And then I'd

1:12:11

hear it's also because we

1:12:13

really have some good players and some good footballers,

1:12:16

you know, who can create and can

1:12:18

show the best of themselves if

1:12:21

that's the style of play that we're

1:12:23

going to use. You'd hope that's the legacy of the

1:12:25

tournament, that actually they take

1:12:27

incredible confidence about the fact that they're

1:12:29

mixing it in a World Cup. Top 32 teams

1:12:32

in the world and they don't look in any way out of place.

1:12:35

No, they don't. And you mentioned

1:12:37

at the beginning there, I think they've probably

1:12:39

lost now in New Zealand,

1:12:41

were 1-0 down to the Philippines.

1:12:43

And there's been some really tight results

1:12:45

like Haiti really pulled up to England. They

1:12:47

were very, very lucky to get out of that game with the win. Twice

1:12:51

taken penalty they needed. France couldn't

1:12:54

beat, who

1:12:56

were France playing? I can't remember now. They

1:12:58

couldn't. Pardon me. Jamaica?

1:13:01

Jamaica, that's right. Yeah. And you had

1:13:03

Bunny Shaw up front who caused them huge

1:13:06

amount of trouble. And there's been some

1:13:08

some games, some some matches like that that

1:13:10

have been really, really close and the top teams have found

1:13:12

it difficult to get the breakthrough or to

1:13:15

win. So the gap is definitely closing. And

1:13:17

I know we often talk

1:13:18

about rankings and teams ranked 50,

1:13:20

their teams ranked 20. Even

1:13:23

the team ranked 50 might be there by virtue of not

1:13:25

having played games, you

1:13:26

know. But in actual fact, they're

1:13:29

probably better than their actual ranking

1:13:31

in their own confederation. So

1:13:33

the gap is definitely closing. We don't look

1:13:35

a bit out of place.

1:13:37

Let's hope now this the legacy really is the

1:13:39

start that we now know how to qualify

1:13:41

for major tournaments. We've got over that hump and

1:13:44

that we can continue to do so

1:13:45

in the in the coming years. That's the thing as well.

1:13:47

So like we don't really have much to do. We

1:13:49

don't have a lot of fear against the Canadians. They are Olympic

1:13:52

champions by by rights. But this column was saying

1:13:54

earlier, like some of the stats are in Canada. Wouldn't

1:13:57

feel you full of fear. So they haven't

1:13:59

scored more than one.

1:13:59

once against the European team in the last 13 games

1:14:02

or meetings. They've only won one of the last six that was

1:14:04

a game against Brazil in February. So, I

1:14:07

mean, there are causes for optimism

1:14:09

here, you'd imagine, for Ireland.

1:14:11

No, absolutely. In Canada, there are definitely a team you can

1:14:13

get at. Of course, they're one of the top teams. They're

1:14:16

still not in that league, the USA, the Germany,

1:14:18

the

1:14:18

France, as I told them, that

1:14:20

they will find ways to win. Japan, I've

1:14:23

mentioned the fans in Japan all along, they've been very

1:14:25

impressive

1:14:26

in their win. They dispatched

1:14:28

down and they really, really well. They scored five goals.

1:14:30

So, they're not in that league. Of course, they're a very

1:14:33

good team. They've qualified for lots

1:14:35

of World Cups. Well, we can certainly get

1:14:37

at them. I remember when I was coach,

1:14:39

we played Canada in the Cypress Cup, going

1:14:42

back whatever 2015, 2016, and

1:14:45

they were similarly a top team

1:14:47

then. And we were even less ranked

1:14:50

and probably very few professional players in the squad

1:14:52

at the time. And it was one of the playoff games

1:14:54

for maybe seventh or eighth or fifth and sixth,

1:14:56

actually, I think it was in the tournament. We came

1:14:59

so close to beating them because we had no fear of them. And

1:15:01

it took their manager at the time with Megan

1:15:03

Campbell taking her long throws. It took the

1:15:05

manager at the time to try and block

1:15:08

her in his dugout, in his technical

1:15:10

area when she was taking

1:15:11

the throw-ins, because we were really

1:15:13

hurting them so much. And we took the lead in that game

1:15:16

actually and we unluckily lost to one, but

1:15:18

we hadn't got any fear. So,

1:15:20

I really feel we don't have fear against

1:15:23

the Canadians that we can get a result

1:15:24

out of them. In terms

1:15:26

of the legacy, right, there's

1:15:28

watch parties in Daily Mail Park and there's

1:15:31

hundreds of kids going. And I know from the

1:15:34

WhatsApp groups of my kids football that

1:15:36

there's been a surge in interest.

1:15:38

You'd hope that

1:15:41

we've learned some lessons from 40 years ago, 30

1:15:43

years ago, when we qualified for Italian 90 and there

1:15:45

was literally no legacy. There was no improvement

1:15:47

in facilities. The surge of numbers,

1:15:50

it's definitely the bit where the playing

1:15:52

numbers surged, but we didn't quite

1:15:54

cement that with an upswing

1:15:56

in domestic fortunes. It

1:15:58

feels a little bit like we're...

1:16:00

at least thinking about how

1:16:03

to maximize an

1:16:05

improvement in returns from the government and

1:16:07

from facilities at the moment. What's

1:16:10

your sense about somebody who kind of understands this whole

1:16:13

thing and has seen first hand for the last

1:16:15

while, how

1:16:17

difficult it has been to get the game going. What

1:16:20

do you hope is coming next? How well do you

1:16:22

think we're doing or are prepared for it? Well,

1:16:25

you can see the surge there already with these watch

1:16:27

parties and everything on social media

1:16:30

and just the following the team has now. And

1:16:33

the fact that clubs are saying that

1:16:34

they're inundated now, girls wanting to join

1:16:37

traditional what we would call

1:16:39

male clubs, male

1:16:41

dominated or just traditional male

1:16:44

clubs are now catering for girls

1:16:46

where they wouldn't have before. I

1:16:48

certainly know it's still an issue around the country

1:16:51

facilities and in many clubs

1:16:54

around the country at grassroots level, the

1:16:56

girls team is still left to last on the

1:16:58

weekend to get access to the pitch. Or the girls

1:17:00

match might be

1:17:01

the first one cancelled if there's

1:17:03

an issue with weather and

1:17:05

they might play the boys games off first. So you

1:17:08

would certainly like to see that, you know,

1:17:10

that type of thing not happen

1:17:12

and that more equality now in

1:17:14

every club that the girls are just as important

1:17:16

as the boys.

1:17:17

And the importance goes

1:17:19

according to the level of the team, whether that's the

1:17:22

women's team are playing in the National League, they

1:17:24

get more preference over the boys team is maybe playing

1:17:26

in a Junior League or

1:17:26

whatever. But

1:17:29

yeah, I think I think we definitely are in

1:17:31

a better position to cater

1:17:33

for the numbers. Now I would like to think I'd like to

1:17:35

hope we are.

1:17:36

And I've always spoken

1:17:38

then about that legacy. I'd really like to see our

1:17:41

National League

1:17:42

go professional at some point.

1:17:44

Now we're a bit off that. I think we've just

1:17:46

gone semi professional this year. But

1:17:48

I think we need to be careful there too. You know, I

1:17:50

think it should be quality over quantity. There's no

1:17:53

point having 12,

1:17:54

14 teams in a National League or 12, 14 teams

1:17:57

in underage National Leagues.

1:17:59

those big results because you look at the WSL

1:18:02

in England, I think, but if they got eight or 10 teams

1:18:04

at the moment, it's taken them

1:18:05

like 12 years to get up to that level

1:18:08

or that number. So it's not about

1:18:10

just opening it up to anyone that wants to come

1:18:12

in or that can achieve global licensing. I think we

1:18:14

need to be looking at quality, especially

1:18:17

as most of our best players at the moment, our national team,

1:18:19

they're all playing abroad. So,

1:18:20

you know, do we have that depth there?

1:18:22

We want to create a really, really

1:18:25

strong competitive league. So

1:18:27

I think we need to be looking more

1:18:29

about the quality over quantity there,

1:18:31

hopefully then a couple of years down the line, we're

1:18:33

looking at a more professional league. Last question for

1:18:35

you on this. And what

1:18:37

didn't mean to bring this up today, but just the,

1:18:40

I do wonder if there's a room for some centralized

1:18:42

contracts

1:18:43

for players.

1:18:45

And I know it's very difficult for so what

1:18:48

club benefits? Is it the club with all the money? Is it

1:18:50

the club with the rich owner? You know, how do you work

1:18:52

that out? It's very difficult. And does every

1:18:54

does everybody have to get one like, back

1:18:56

in the days of the basketball where everybody had an American, it's like,

1:18:59

everybody's allowed one centrally contracted player, but

1:19:01

it would allow the FBI to have control

1:19:04

of the players and make sure that they were full time

1:19:06

and every club has one

1:19:07

who maybe is

1:19:09

a part time player and a part time football administrator

1:19:11

or coach or something. I think we just need to be a little bit

1:19:13

creative about how we get there.

1:19:15

Yeah, no, absolutely. And these are ideas that

1:19:18

you know, I would have put forward many years ago, because

1:19:20

I saw it happening in other countries, and it was working. And

1:19:22

it was probably before there was professional leagues,

1:19:24

to be fair.

1:19:25

I know they did

1:19:27

in Holland initially, when their National League started

1:19:29

up for up first gone

1:19:32

way back. And I think Vera would have been

1:19:34

very much involved at the at the time,

1:19:36

they literally placed the players in their own

1:19:38

centralised contracts with the FAA. And they

1:19:40

placed the players say you didn't know he

1:19:42

didn't have 10 at one

1:19:43

club. And that's something that

1:19:45

unfortunately, we've seen happen in Ireland

1:19:48

over the last number of years, you've, and

1:19:49

particularly at our underage. We've

1:19:52

seen I know Dave Connell gets frustrated he often

1:19:54

sees some this before the introduction of the

1:19:56

under 19 league you'd have some of the players

1:19:58

from the underage squad who are really.

1:19:59

really good enough to be playing at the top level, sitting

1:20:02

on the bench,

1:20:02

not getting game time. And that doesn't

1:20:04

do anything for their own career or for

1:20:06

the national teams. So it's something

1:20:09

potentially to look at. In Holland, it's

1:20:11

definitely easier to do because it definitely is a smaller country

1:20:13

and travel to and from. Players can

1:20:15

still live at home and travel to wherever

1:20:17

they're playing. Whereas if you have a player from

1:20:20

Donegal and you're placing

1:20:21

her on a team in Dublin or in Cork, which

1:20:23

is still living or going to college in Donegal, that's

1:20:26

probably a little more difficult. But I agree

1:20:28

with you, we do need to be a little bit more creative and

1:20:30

try to bring the competitiveness of that

1:20:33

league up and look at trying to do that

1:20:35

rather than just trying to make it bigger. Yeah.

1:20:38

And look, if there was a transfer fee to come, then that would go

1:20:40

to the FAI. That might help to pay for it over the years. So there's

1:20:43

definitely, if there's a will, there's a way. Sue, great stuff.

1:20:45

Thanks so much for joining us as ever.

1:20:47

All right, guys, take care. See you around and give us our thoughts

1:20:49

ahead of the game tomorrow. It's 8.50.

1:20:53

Call them a line of this. Call them on, how are you?

1:20:56

Morning, lads. How's it going? What is going on? Well,

1:20:58

really good game at the Women's World Cup this morning and a

1:21:00

big result for the Philippines because they secured a

1:21:02

famous victory. They beat the New Zealand

1:21:04

by a goal to nil. Serena Bolden with

1:21:07

the goal there for the winners. New

1:21:09

Zealand had a couple of chances in the second half as

1:21:11

well. They had a goal disallowed, but it didn't quite happen for

1:21:13

them today after their great win in the first

1:21:15

round of fixtures in Group A. So the other game in that group

1:21:17

between Norway and Switzerland kicks off now and

1:21:20

the next few minutes at 9 o'clock. So Norway, who

1:21:22

are the highest ranked team in that group,

1:21:24

actually have no points now ahead of that game. The

1:21:26

other three teams all have three. Earlier

1:21:28

today, overnight, Colombia, after

1:21:31

winning start in Group H, they were two nil winners over

1:21:33

Korea Republic in that encounter.

1:21:35

So that's the action at the Women's World Cup

1:21:38

today. Good news for Ireland overnight in swimming

1:21:40

because Daniel Wiffen has qualified for the Paris

1:21:43

Olympics. He clocked a new Irish record time of

1:21:45

seven minutes, 43.81 seconds.

1:21:47

That was in the 800 meters freestyle heats at

1:21:50

the World Championships in Japan. And that's enough to

1:21:52

secure his place in the games and passage through

1:21:54

to the final of that event tomorrow. And later today, Mona

1:21:56

McSharry back in the pool for the final of

1:21:59

the 100 meters. That's said to take place

1:22:01

around about lunchtime Irish time some

1:22:03

injury news for the Kerry ladies footballer

1:22:05

Sheer for all shade their captain has been ruled

1:22:07

out for the rest of the season She suffered an ACL

1:22:09

injury in training over the weekend Kerry playing

1:22:12

male in the all-arland Semifinal this

1:22:14

Saturday that game is at Semple Stadium in Thurlis and

1:22:16

the Irish women's cricketers in action in their women's

1:22:19

one day International against Australia today their

1:22:21

scheduled match on Sunday was abandoned due to the terrible

1:22:24

weather over the weekend I played you to get underway this morning

1:22:26

at 1045 and thankfully the weather looks a little

1:22:28

bit better

1:22:29

Christine Sinclair for Canada right

1:22:32

her stats international level. So she's 40. She's

1:22:34

played in six World Cups made her debut for

1:22:36

Canada at 16

1:22:38

She's got 324 appearances for Canada

1:22:41

and she scored 190 goals. It's not bad is it that's

1:22:43

scandalous And

1:22:45

I think she's in line to become the first player

1:22:47

to score at six World Cups, but she missed the penalty.

1:22:49

Yes last week Hopefully she doesn't do it tomorrow. Yeah,

1:22:52

so Let's see, but

1:22:54

they weren't overly impressive in their first game. So no,

1:22:57

there's plenty of potential for a result. Hopefully tomorrow

1:22:59

Yeah, hopefully they're in crisis and we can somehow

1:23:01

benefit from it or else it's like oh they

1:23:04

were just getting you

1:23:05

know They've decided now now come on. Yeah,

1:23:07

yeah together. We've got a record breaker here a lot

1:23:10

of the games have been quite tight I know yesterday there was a couple

1:23:12

of one-sided matches But

1:23:13

by and large a lot of the games have been quite tight

1:23:15

and there hasn't been a whole lot between the teams even

1:23:18

Allowing for some of the gaps in the rankings between

1:23:20

some of the sides Which hopefully will give

1:23:22

Ireland a little bit of hope going into that match tomorrow Well, if you look

1:23:24

to the England Haiti game beforehand, you're like this is gonna

1:23:26

be six seven eight nil Yeah, but like Jamaica

1:23:29

France the same little evil. Yeah, so

1:23:31

it's maybe it's gonna be one of those tournaments where you're

1:23:33

just gonna have A lot of surprise results although

1:23:35

I guess in the men's work up as well you had Saudi Arabia

1:23:38

beat Argentina and the groups and We

1:23:40

know what happened then so, you know teams Maybe

1:23:42

just need

1:23:43

one wake-up call in the group stage and then take

1:23:45

off from there. Hopefully that's not the sake with Canada But

1:23:49

the case with Canada rather. Yeah, it's

1:23:51

but it's a big game tomorrow I think the there's

1:23:54

a huge amount of interest in the Irish team I think and tomorrow's

1:23:56

kickoff time at one o'clock isn't at Irish time which should

1:23:58

lend itself to another really big

1:23:59

television audience and you know watch parties

1:24:02

and stuff and people watching in offices around the country and I

1:24:04

think there is a fair degree of hype around the

1:24:06

team now which is great and that'll only be heightened

1:24:09

if they can get a result tomorrow.

1:24:11

Rumours of Miliana Martinez

1:24:14

transferred to Inter Milan? Inter,

1:24:16

right. Oh no, of course. There have

1:24:19

been rumours that it was Spurs, that it was Chelsea,

1:24:21

that it was PSG. No, I never quite

1:24:23

thought,

1:24:24

is it going to go to France

1:24:26

to live in, you know, I haven't done the whole

1:24:28

thing with Chelsea to the French and like, you know.

1:24:31

Surely not. Most shit-housery against

1:24:33

him. And maybe that's it, maybe he would go and it would be like

1:24:36

the exact right thing for

1:24:38

his career to be like, ah look, I'm actually, I'm

1:24:40

a good guy. They love him then. Yeah, maybe he

1:24:42

won't move anywhere. You know, obviously, the Prusians,

1:24:44

the PSG fans wouldn't, the rest of the country would hate

1:24:46

him and that'll be perfect.

1:24:48

Yeah, you've got to take a lot of the transfer stuff

1:24:50

with a pinch of salt, don't you, because like Spurs are

1:24:52

interested in Mbappe apparently and

1:24:55

you know this sort of stuff. Like

1:24:57

the Mbappe stuff, I know you're channin' through it and it's

1:24:59

just, it's just borderline

1:25:02

disgusting really, the only involved, when you

1:25:04

think, I think the Guardian's reporting that he could

1:25:06

be on 700 million a year when

1:25:08

you consider commercial arrangements and

1:25:10

image rights and all the rest of that, which

1:25:12

is just astronomical stuff. I

1:25:15

guess I can imagine, that was my point earlier, like obviously

1:25:17

now I will make the adult

1:25:18

decision knowing what I know about Saudi

1:25:20

Arabia not to watch that football,

1:25:22

but I think as a kid, if

1:25:25

Mbappe was one of my favourite players, I would be walking

1:25:27

around in an Al Hallal jersey with

1:25:28

Mbappe on the back and maybe nobody

1:25:31

might. Your parents would have had to fight for you. Yeah.

1:25:33

But they mightn't have thought of, you know, some players might

1:25:36

think of it. You don't think? I

1:25:38

trusted they would have, but I mean, there

1:25:40

are parents out there that maybe aren't just, I

1:25:42

don't know. Were there loads of parents

1:25:45

buying Springbok jerseys during apartheid

1:25:47

for their kids? I don't think there were. No.

1:25:51

I think sport has changed a little bit in that people

1:25:53

tend to follow players now rather than teens, don't

1:25:55

they? Which might change it a little

1:25:57

bit, but

1:25:58

yeah, I can see Al Hallal. penetrating

1:26:00

the has has has Cristiano

1:26:03

already because he's the ultimate example of that right

1:26:05

where his football no longer merited

1:26:08

him being supported and they're paying him is

1:26:11

that 120 million a year is that all

1:26:13

he's getting now

1:26:14

he's getting 170 million years I thought he's getting

1:26:16

yeah anyway look where does

1:26:18

it all land tunnels yeah call

1:26:21

good stuff thanks lads it's 8 56 here

1:26:23

on o t b a m this morning make sure you check out the lunchtime

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rap today bringing you all the latest sports news that's

1:26:28

where thanks to deliveru check out the app for some

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the world cup deliveru food we

1:26:35

get it after the break allen quillen in studio

1:26:40

o

1:26:40

t b a m the

1:26:42

sports breakfast show from off

1:26:44

the ball right it's

1:26:46

a 57 allen quillen is with us allen good morning to you morning

1:26:48

lads how are you homework for the off season a little

1:26:50

bit yeah so we asked you for

1:26:53

are the rules you have to be on the field here

1:26:55

or just yeah okay so you were on the field for these

1:26:57

are your five favorite tries

1:26:59

five most important tries ones that probably stand

1:27:01

out um how did you pick them so

1:27:06

you had to be able to watch him to mind first well

1:27:09

I was in the squad for yeah with the one in

1:27:11

berto I picked one from there

1:27:13

woody had picked uh john hayes's try against

1:27:15

salusan berto I picked roger's

1:27:17

try there because it was an incredible team try um

1:27:21

the ones that came to mind really um

1:27:25

my international career was kind of heavily

1:27:28

disrupted obviously from 2003 with

1:27:32

my shoulder injury at the world cup

1:27:35

um kind of fought got my way back into

1:27:37

the squad

1:27:38

um and

1:27:41

then I had my knee injury in all six so I had a kind

1:27:43

of a period there where it was a very successful period

1:27:45

for Ireland winning triple crowns and championships

1:27:48

um up and kind of got back in

1:27:51

all six or seven for that world

1:27:53

cup and France didn't play there so um

1:27:56

and then back I kind of got back in again

1:27:58

in in 08 and a bit of on

1:27:59

So I was in and out of the squad a

1:28:02

fair bit and some of that was injuries.

1:28:04

I think Woody said in fairness, he was very complimentary

1:28:07

of what he said about me as a player and

1:28:09

it kind of made me think, God yeah,

1:28:12

if I was kind of more

1:28:15

calmer, controlled

1:28:19

and probably not as hard on myself,

1:28:21

I probably could have got the best out of myself because

1:28:24

from a talent point of view, I was, I

1:28:26

probably had what was required to

1:28:28

be, play consistently at that level. So

1:28:31

there's, we didn't plan to talk about

1:28:33

this, but that's a realisation

1:28:35

that a lot of people don't come to, right? Yeah. Wayne

1:28:38

Rooney has had a similar kind of like, oh,

1:28:40

he needs the anger, otherwise he won't be, but actually

1:28:42

that's nonsense. You didn't need to play. I don't

1:28:45

even think it was completely the anger because that kind

1:28:47

of perception is with me a little

1:28:49

bit

1:28:49

because I would

1:28:52

have liked to think that bit of fury and stuff

1:28:54

helps me for sure. But you can control that

1:28:57

now. Yeah, but I think there's a lot of self-doubt and

1:28:59

self-belief stuff as well, which can affect

1:29:02

do you feel comfortable? I always said this before

1:29:04

that when I went into Ireland squads, particularly

1:29:07

in the earlier days, I didn't feel, God, I

1:29:10

doubted myself. And I didn't, like

1:29:12

I remember even the France game in 2000 and

1:29:15

in one in Dublin, it's my first

1:29:18

start in the Six Nations. It's kind

1:29:20

of a dream come true. I was there

1:29:22

as a kid watching matches. Did they win 9-8? Did

1:29:24

we miss a kick in their last few minutes? No, we won 22-15. Oh,

1:29:26

okay, we win, okay. I had one

1:29:29

I picked one, Rick was Troy, yeah, where

1:29:31

he scores in the corner. There's a bit of controversy

1:29:33

about the grounding and all that. But

1:29:37

I even look back at that game yesterday and I think I

1:29:39

was kind of standoffish. I was nervous

1:29:41

about making a mistake. So a little

1:29:43

bit of that was the mindset of being

1:29:46

afraid to

1:29:46

make mistakes. Obviously,

1:29:50

there's another element to that as well about

1:29:53

not looking after myself.

1:29:55

Not off the field, but not understanding

1:29:58

the level of consistency you need.

1:29:59

to have around your training. Because

1:30:03

I always trained pretty hard, but probably inconsistently.

1:30:05

I never went down to the fitness session and didn't try

1:30:07

hard. I always kind of pushed myself to the limit,

1:30:10

but I probably, just

1:30:12

to get myself in the best shape, and I think

1:30:14

that was in 03, where I kind

1:30:17

of, I'm 28, 29, and I'm thinking, it's

1:30:20

late, but at least I'm here now. Everyone's

1:30:22

fitting available for that World Cup. I was in great

1:30:24

shape, really good condition. I was so

1:30:27

much quicker than I realized

1:30:29

I could be.

1:30:29

Hence, I scored a try, and

1:30:32

I had the pace to go off

1:30:34

that. So yeah, of course, it brings

1:30:36

back some kind of, God, I wish I had, you know,

1:30:38

I have 27 caps. Most of the lads I played

1:30:41

were 70, 80, 100 caps or more. I

1:30:44

guess my question was, do you think

1:30:47

that there'd be a role if he's somewhere in rugby

1:30:49

to have those conversations with people? I

1:30:52

don't know. What I would

1:30:54

try and say to younger people is,

1:30:58

the younger players particularly,

1:30:59

is to express

1:31:03

the pressure and talk to people who've

1:31:05

maybe, you know, been there, done that. Some

1:31:07

people are more natural. Like, I always looked at

1:31:09

Axel across the dress room and went, God,

1:31:12

I wish I was like Axel. He was just,

1:31:16

do your job type mentality, and

1:31:18

you know, like, you

1:31:20

even hear Woody in the podcast talking about

1:31:23

when we got drawn against Toulouse in 2000

1:31:25

in that semifinal in Bordeaux, which is

1:31:28

kind of unthinkable stuff. God,

1:31:31

that's a disaster mentally. Yeah,

1:31:33

sure, that's us done. We get to semifinal,

1:31:35

and it'll be a great trip to France, but

1:31:38

Axel was the one who said, well, we'll just have to go and beat

1:31:41

him. He had that kind of just

1:31:44

calm mentality, and he would have been

1:31:46

my under 20s captain in Shannon when I went into

1:31:48

Shannon first. I remember going, God,

1:31:51

I want to be like him. I want to be calm

1:31:53

and controlled, and look, he had

1:31:55

Eddie Halvy and myself on either side of

1:31:57

him in a back row, which you could say was

1:31:59

incredible. talented back row and we

1:32:02

ended up playing for Munster for a period of time together.

1:32:04

We dominated with Shannon in the All-Ireland

1:32:06

League for a number of years

1:32:09

and

1:32:11

you know he was kind of in between me and Eddie kind

1:32:13

of keeping us calm and kind of

1:32:15

giving us a bit of rope to go and play and just

1:32:17

make an incredible linebreaker do something special

1:32:20

but it was just most parts of

1:32:22

his game were were nailed

1:32:24

on if you know what I mean so yeah

1:32:27

like for sure if I could if I

1:32:29

could just share that

1:32:31

it would any would anyone playing sport

1:32:33

you want to try and be in a state

1:32:36

that you're kind of not

1:32:38

over an animated or over

1:32:41

anxious yeah because anxiety brings

1:32:44

tension and but you still you still need to

1:32:46

access the fury and

1:32:48

you still need to access that but just have a

1:32:52

means of controlling it and releasing it when for sure

1:32:54

and the game is change all sport has changed

1:32:56

so much more nowadays because them everybody

1:32:59

has sports psychologists

1:33:01

and people to help them and coaches

1:33:04

are on

1:33:05

much more understanding of

1:33:07

the type of person you have not everybody's the

1:33:10

same you know Declan kidney would have been really good

1:33:12

I think in in a kind

1:33:14

of a positive turnaround for me after 2000

1:33:17

because I

1:33:18

probably was at that stage where I took things

1:33:20

for granted and I expected because I

1:33:22

was talented that I would just get picked

1:33:24

on teams and that happened

1:33:27

a bit up to that point but you

1:33:29

know I played the six pool games

1:33:31

in in 1990 thousands and

1:33:33

there's a break then from January to April

1:33:37

my form wasn't great with Shannon

1:33:40

well that was scrutinized

1:33:43

heavily back then we would have all went back and played

1:33:45

with our clubs and you know

1:33:47

I get to April and I'm

1:33:49

I'm dropped for the start of the quarter final against that

1:33:51

Francine Tomon Park and I couldn't

1:33:53

really see why who came in here

1:33:55

Eddie Helvie came in and you know Eddie Eddie was

1:33:58

unbelievably talented so what

1:33:59

Dave Wallace, Eddie Halvie and Axel

1:34:02

played in the background, I was on the bench and

1:34:04

that was my first big kind of

1:34:06

blow and of course

1:34:08

I didn't see the fault in myself. I

1:34:11

kind of had a bit of bitterness with Declan

1:34:13

and you know I was on the, I came off the bench

1:34:15

in the quarterfinal, didn't come off the bench in

1:34:17

Bordeaux or didn't come off the bench in the final against

1:34:19

Northampton. Ended up sitting down with Declan Kidney

1:34:21

that summer kind

1:34:24

of opening up about the way I feel and how

1:34:26

you know that anxiety and stuff like

1:34:28

that and also being honest and saying look I need

1:34:30

to get more consistent in my training, my

1:34:32

attitude and my mentality and

1:34:35

we got on like a house on fire and he helped

1:34:37

me so much. So my point

1:34:38

here is you know obviously the coach has to look

1:34:40

at not everybody with the same, in the

1:34:43

same view. Some people do have

1:34:45

a little bit more stress and pressure and

1:34:47

it's about getting the best out of them but I would say in

1:34:50

the modern sport everybody has

1:34:52

that ability now and somebody to talk to or somebody

1:34:55

to kind of, who can see the players

1:34:57

and go and have a chat with them and say well Joe

1:34:59

Bloggs is a little bit more anxious, we

1:35:02

need to keep him calm and really

1:35:05

kind of focus on your strengths. So

1:35:07

one of the things I would have probably didn't understand

1:35:09

is I always tried to focus on my weaknesses.

1:35:12

Yeah.

1:35:12

And I forgot what I was good at and so

1:35:15

many times players, people, Woody was

1:35:17

one who got, he kind of pushed

1:35:19

me to be on a tour in 2002 to New Zealand. He

1:35:22

was always telling me

1:35:25

get the ball in your hands and just run, do

1:35:27

something because you can pass, you can

1:35:29

offload, whereas you know I taught

1:35:32

God when I get up to the yard and set up I can't

1:35:34

make a mistake here. So I was much more comfortable

1:35:37

a lot with Munster and

1:35:39

certainly for young people it's about you know figuring

1:35:42

that out and asking people who have

1:35:44

the experiences and times are

1:35:47

totally different nowadays. Every, you

1:35:49

know even

1:35:50

the approaches from coaches, how to deal

1:35:52

with players even in amateur

1:35:55

sports right across the board is

1:35:58

very good nowadays I think.

1:35:59

Yeah, I know the point you're making

1:36:02

about in the professional environment. There's definitely

1:36:04

way more access to

1:36:07

Proper sports psychology and performance coaching

1:36:09

but it's even kind of earlier. It's like the 13 to 15

1:36:13

year old you probably and how do you

1:36:15

give it someone who's lacking that little

1:36:17

bit of confidence or ability

1:36:19

to take the bull by the horns and Run

1:36:22

up that wing in a soccer match and take on these

1:36:24

men because he's really quick It's quite

1:36:26

skillful and he's brilliant across

1:36:28

in the ball How do you make him believe

1:36:30

that if he's kind of nervous about

1:36:33

taking on his man because he may he

1:36:35

thinks if I give The ball away here, you know

1:36:37

How do you tell a kid like that?

1:36:40

Just have a crack and the next if you look

1:36:42

if he takes if the defender takes the ball off you Do

1:36:44

it again and again and eventually you know

1:36:47

One of these runs that you make is

1:36:49

gonna lead to a goal and it's the bigger picture

1:36:51

It's just about breaking it down into small pieces

1:36:53

like that I think which so

1:36:56

the point there about kids is coaches

1:36:58

now can see a little bit their

1:37:00

eyes are more open to One

1:37:02

or two guys who have the potential and the

1:37:04

ability How do I give them confidence

1:37:07

and

1:37:07

make him believe that it is okay to make

1:37:09

a mistake? I taught mistakes or

1:37:11

what you're going to be judged by after the performance

1:37:14

a lot when I was younger Well,

1:37:15

they probably were yeah, I know

1:37:18

has changed a lot but but yeah But

1:37:20

you know what if you focus on all the mistakes you're

1:37:22

gonna make what you

1:37:24

know You look at a nine and a ten

1:37:26

now a scrum half and an out half and a rugby match They're

1:37:28

gonna handle about 70 or 80 times in the game

1:37:32

Are those 70 or 80 times they're gonna touch

1:37:34

the ball gonna be brilliant moments. They're not

1:37:36

there's gonna be three or four mistakes

1:37:39

in there And if we if you forget about the

1:37:41

other 70 good moments where they deliver

1:37:43

and kicked well You know, so it's about

1:37:45

focusing on the positives and just getting it. I'm not saying

1:37:47

that I was it was all negative God, I

1:37:49

look back at some of the monster matches and even some of

1:37:51

these tries and I was like, wow Is

1:37:54

that me in the field? I was

1:37:56

actually playing brilliant here and I was looked

1:37:58

like I was grabbed

1:37:59

in the bowl by the horns. We should

1:38:02

talk about this one then. So the first one is Ron LaGara

1:38:04

versus Toulouse in 2000. This

1:38:06

is in Bordeaux and it's a semi-final of

1:38:09

the

1:38:09

Heining Cup. Is that right? Yeah,

1:38:11

that's the semi-final when, you know, and

1:38:13

Woody spoke about the John Hayes

1:38:15

try, which was an incredible try. And this was a

1:38:17

kind of against the odds kind of performance.

1:38:21

Nobody expected a

1:38:23

victory here. As I said, Toulouse

1:38:26

were an

1:38:28

incredible squad. We

1:38:30

were on the back of obviously a brilliant,

1:38:33

a brilliant position of beating

1:38:36

Sarah since twice in the pool stages.

1:38:40

It was just a phenomenal team score.

1:38:43

I

1:38:43

think it was a scrum outside the Munster 22.

1:38:48

The ball was

1:38:50

much

1:38:51

past the Mikey Mullins, a little switch

1:38:53

with Jason Holland. John Kelly

1:38:56

comes in off the wing with his another

1:38:58

switch. He gets

1:39:00

tackled and he's back around the 10-yard line, pops

1:39:02

it to Axel. He makes a break. Then

1:39:05

Munster come back on the left hand side to

1:39:08

Anthony Horgan makes a break. And

1:39:10

then it's back in field. And, you know, someone

1:39:12

who was

1:39:14

incredible for Munster back then was Dominic Crotty.

1:39:17

He had played for Ireland when he was quite young. He

1:39:19

was full back in this team. He

1:39:22

handled the ball a number of times in

1:39:24

all those phases. And he

1:39:26

makes that unbelievable

1:39:28

pace. He run onto the ball

1:39:30

near the end. It's half tackle and pops

1:39:33

it up to Rogge and it's a try under the post. It's

1:39:35

a phenomenal score. If people look back and watch

1:39:37

it, the team score. Yeah, it is.

1:39:40

And the one thing that kind of jumped out at me is Toulouse

1:39:43

never got to the point where they could

1:39:45

get their defensive line set if you watch it. And,

1:39:49

you know,

1:39:50

Rogge's ability to run onto the ball

1:39:53

was superb and he's

1:39:55

timing and then being able

1:39:57

to deliver passes and stuff like that.

1:39:59

you know, if you look back at the backline that Mike

1:40:03

Mullins was against somebody probably

1:40:05

a bit like me in the sense that Mikey

1:40:07

lacked a bit of confidence at times but

1:40:10

when you gave him that confidence

1:40:12

and ability, you know, he was brilliant

1:40:14

for Munster he was part

1:40:18

of the reason why we came back over in Saracens

1:40:20

and Vicarage Road that season and

1:40:22

turned around a big deficit at half time to win

1:40:24

that game, he was just superb but

1:40:27

that for me was a try that just

1:40:29

comes to mind straight away, you know John

1:40:32

Hayes' try was similar, John is on the ground,

1:40:34

Woody picked that one you know, Woody's

1:40:36

incredible run up the touchline and

1:40:39

Keith Wood and John Langford were phenomenal for Munster

1:40:42

that year Same game Same game, yeah, Woody

1:40:44

makes the charge up for John Hayes'

1:40:46

try up the wing, pulled his calf but,

1:40:50

you know, both Langford and Woody were they

1:40:52

brought us to a different level and that was kind

1:40:54

of a very significant period

1:40:56

of time for that whole group about moving

1:40:59

on to the next level and understanding

1:41:01

professionalism and what was required and stuff

1:41:03

and they were really central to that, Woody and John

1:41:05

Langford Because obviously Keith Wood was

1:41:07

just coming back from Harlequins for

1:41:10

that one year Yeah, for one year, yeah, and he

1:41:12

was brilliant and I think we

1:41:14

started to believe in ourselves and you

1:41:16

know, like I said, the axial comment

1:41:18

of we would just have to go and beat him and

1:41:22

it was one that stands out for a lot of people,

1:41:24

you know, in particularly

1:41:26

the Munster supporters as well who went to Bordeaux

1:41:29

Obviously there was heartache in the final but, you

1:41:31

know,

1:41:32

watch that try back it's a sensational

1:41:34

score He scored 21 points, Rog, in that game

1:41:37

Yeah, he's kicking was brilliant as well He's unbelievable,

1:41:39

he's 23 years of age but already a leader in the team

1:41:41

Yeah, Jason Holland as well Yeah

1:41:43

What a player, you know, again, looking

1:41:45

back at some of these games Someone who

1:41:47

came over playing club rugby with Middleton got

1:41:50

called in in 1990,000 season

1:41:53

for World Cup warm-up against Ireland

1:41:56

in Cork because we

1:41:58

couldn't find any players and he went down

1:41:59

to be absolutely brilliant for Munster.

1:42:03

Some game. It was just a phenomenal

1:42:05

game and it was one that it was

1:42:08

kind of baffling in the end. The

1:42:10

rugby that was there and like if you look at the stars

1:42:13

that they had and even

1:42:15

their physique a little bit

1:42:17

towards maybe us, they're

1:42:20

bigger, stronger, more athletic looking.

1:42:23

But I think we were getting to it. Well, obviously, it was a lot

1:42:25

of fight and passion, but

1:42:28

that Munster team was fit, getting

1:42:30

fitter, getting stronger,

1:42:33

becoming a bit more skillful. So

1:42:35

I think it was a real important crossroads for that group.

1:42:38

That whole season, you know, because that's on

1:42:40

the back of, as I said, being to Vicarage

1:42:42

Road, getting an incredible win over again Saracens,

1:42:45

beating the Saracens at home. You

1:42:49

know, what a year it was. It ended up in disappointment

1:42:51

in Northampton and in Twickenham in the final,

1:42:54

but that was an incredible score from Raj. Yeah,

1:42:56

but the journey that the team is

1:42:58

on at the end of that game, that's my first

1:43:01

recollection ever of hearing the

1:43:03

Fields of Athens-Rae at a rugby match is when the Munster

1:43:05

fans sing after the game in Twickenham and

1:43:07

it is lament for something that's lost, but it's also a celebration

1:43:09

of the fact that you're like the second

1:43:11

best team in Europe, slash maybe the best. But I

1:43:14

don't know, just it was a moment in Munster's

1:43:16

history where it's the birth of something really,

1:43:19

really important. The style to play is also something.

1:43:22

Yeah, it's starting to improve, yeah, and it's different. It

1:43:24

isn't all about just kicking it, but when you've

1:43:26

two young half-backs like Peter Stringer and

1:43:28

Raj and, you know,

1:43:31

really good attacking centre in Mikey

1:43:34

Mullins and... But you were all passing the ball.

1:43:37

Yeah, footballers as well, people who are trying to

1:43:39

keep the ball alive as well and not just kind of run straight

1:43:41

at people. So it's

1:43:44

definitely a start of something really positive.

1:43:47

Let's talk about the next one is Draco versus

1:43:49

France in 01.

1:43:51

So this is the game in Dublin you were talking about. Yeah,

1:43:55

you could pick, look, I

1:43:57

was trying to go back in an Orion Games that I was

1:43:59

involved in. and pick out other

1:44:01

thrice. But this this one jumps

1:44:04

out because it was my first start in Dublin, as I said,

1:44:06

and I was probably shaking

1:44:09

like a leaf. And when the anthems

1:44:11

are happening and you're looking up at the crowd, but I

1:44:13

just I don't know, a trick. Drico

1:44:15

obviously got the three tries the year before in

1:44:17

Paris. This

1:44:20

game is the first time in 40

1:44:22

years that Ireland back to back

1:44:24

wins against

1:44:26

France.

1:44:27

It's a really big kind

1:44:29

of moment. Again, there's probably

1:44:31

a bit of expectation that France

1:44:34

win this game like they've done for the previous 10,

1:44:36

12 years. I think there was Ireland

1:44:39

hadn't beaten France in Dublin. They use the Howard's.

1:44:42

Yeah, well, the ones in Dublin are a bit tighter.

1:44:44

The ones in Paris are were around

1:44:46

that time where, you know,

1:44:48

the year before, obviously, that trend was booked.

1:44:51

Ninety eight, I think it was very close

1:44:53

as well under Warren Gatland. But

1:44:57

this

1:44:58

I just

1:44:59

again, looking back in it, I remember at the

1:45:01

time thinking, God, Brian Driscoll

1:45:03

is just phenomenal.

1:45:04

Like he was making line breaks and stepping

1:45:07

people in this game and going clear,

1:45:10

if you like, right up to

1:45:12

that point. He

1:45:14

too clean line breaks or two or three clean

1:45:16

line breaks in that game up to that point. And

1:45:19

I just remember the try was

1:45:22

again, it was inside our half and

1:45:25

it was a scrum with field, Ireland

1:45:27

go left. Rob Henderson makes

1:45:29

a bit of a show and go charge. Gets

1:45:32

through Olivia Marnier

1:45:34

offloads to David Wallace. And again, you know, Wally

1:45:36

is this incredible ball

1:45:38

carrier and this has this acceleration

1:45:42

and ability defend and he offloads a little

1:45:44

inside pass to Drico. And then it's

1:45:46

just pace. Wally's pass is almost

1:45:48

invisible. Yeah, it is. You're on the replay.

1:45:50

You have to go back and go. But it's John Strickland's anticipation

1:45:53

to kind of track the ball

1:45:55

as well. And and obviously it gets to

1:45:57

the corner and there's

1:45:59

big debate. Is he grounded as a pundit now

1:46:01

you can say? Well I think if you look back at it now and

1:46:03

you know the

1:46:05

downward pressure, fingertips stuff and

1:46:07

we see some of these tries that are scrutinized

1:46:10

for a long time and funnily enough I couldn't

1:46:12

remember at the time there was a TMO,

1:46:15

Brian Kamsel, an English TMO was

1:46:19

looked at that try and it took him three minutes

1:46:21

so there's a big kind of break, three minutes is a long

1:46:24

time now for somebody to look him back in a try

1:46:26

over and over and over again he gave the try

1:46:28

because I think he felt those fingertip

1:46:30

pressure on it. I watched it 10

1:46:33

times there and I can't tell if you... We were saying that... Yeah

1:46:35

even watching it back it's hard to judge it,

1:46:38

I think there is a bit of fingertip

1:46:40

pressure there that that's why he gave him and

1:46:42

it's kind of given the benefit of the touch here. Well I was going to say

1:46:45

we were saying at the weekend, Owen

1:46:46

Cody has the amazing dribble

1:46:49

where it's Keon Lynch who he sends to

1:46:52

the shops with the dummy and

1:46:54

I think the referee gave him a free because it was so good. Yeah yeah yeah.

1:46:57

Sorry that's... I think he gets a little

1:46:59

bit of fingertips here but look there's so many tries

1:47:01

you could pick for

1:47:04

for for Drico.

1:47:05

I just think this the anticipation,

1:47:07

the pace and the ability as he was

1:47:10

getting tackled by Christophe Lamazan

1:47:12

into touch,

1:47:15

it

1:47:15

was brilliant. Did an incredibly strong side

1:47:18

when you think of Bernard... Philip

1:47:20

Bernat-Sal, Pelus, Galtier,

1:47:23

Serge Bettsen, Christophe Domici...

1:47:25

We've been... Dominicci... We've been having

1:47:27

this conversation... Olivia Manier. This conversation

1:47:30

is bubbled up about the most of the

1:47:32

best Irish rugby player, the greatest Irish rugby player

1:47:35

of all time and I would argue that

1:47:37

without

1:47:38

this period of time that

1:47:41

we wouldn't have had Johnny Sexton winning European

1:47:43

Cups without Audrisco emerging that

1:47:46

like the hat-trick in Paris. Well

1:47:48

it was about belief and confidence and actually

1:47:50

thinking as Irish people you can go and win these games

1:47:53

so certainly the three tries, the Drico scores

1:47:55

in Paris and it's just kind of like you're

1:47:57

in 20 years of age and you're...

1:47:58

This is just

1:48:00

normal then for other people coming

1:48:03

through that you've something to look at

1:48:05

and a reference point to say well

1:48:07

This Irish team or this team has done it and

1:48:10

it's a little bit like the province is going to France

1:48:12

for the first time Winning a certain thing because

1:48:14

we I remember that really well when we played one

1:48:16

of our goals in 97-98 was to win

1:48:19

for the first time in France

1:48:21

So Munster in the previous year or two had been to

1:48:24

France in European games and been like

1:48:26

40-50 points So it's

1:48:28

not about keeping the score down. It's actually saying

1:48:30

we actually want to win there So we go to Colombia

1:48:33

and win for the first time in France I think it was

1:48:36

97-98 and then you go well the next

1:48:38

step is okay You're against

1:48:40

to lose or you against be rich or you against

1:48:42

that fran say can you go and beat them? so

1:48:44

it's it's a process and certainly,

1:48:47

that's a very very valid point that

1:48:50

you know, maybe

1:48:51

the

1:48:52

The foundations were doped for

1:48:54

yeah, you know that platform we're splitting hairs

1:48:57

obviously and yeah It's a very it's

1:48:59

an interesting debate doesn't really matter in the grand scheme

1:49:01

of things But I do feel like there's you have to give

1:49:03

extra kudos to the founding fathers

1:49:05

of the whole thing And so

1:49:08

the next one is Peter Stringer. You've got the assist for this

1:49:10

one. Yeah, I got an assist I was trying

1:49:12

I wasn't trying to put my own tries in and again

1:49:15

I'd like to say I could easily put Woody's

1:49:17

try against Sarah since in there

1:49:19

in 2000 in Tomin Park It's

1:49:21

the one where they score up the field

1:49:23

in 77th minute and

1:49:26

it looks like the crowd is silent and

1:49:29

we're

1:49:30

Not gonna beat Sarah since here Saracen's

1:49:32

are gonna win the game here in Tomin Park

1:49:35

Gala kind of pulled us together and literally says

1:49:37

we're going up the field. We're gonna score I

1:49:40

can't really remember what happened. We got a penalty. We

1:49:42

kicked down into the corner I think

1:49:45

we won the ball back from the kickoff got a penalty kicks

1:49:47

into the corner ball is drawn

1:49:49

to the back of the line out and

1:49:52

Mall is pulled on and Woody just kind

1:49:54

of accelerates this pick and go and scores Rog

1:49:56

kicks the penalty we win by a point. So you

1:49:59

talk about

1:49:59

significant moments, that

1:50:02

try by Woody and again Saracens

1:50:04

and Tom and Prach could easily pick that in there but

1:50:07

you know Peter Stringer's try, this

1:50:10

was in the back of

1:50:12

the miracle match against Gloucester

1:50:16

where we had to do this insane

1:50:20

situation against Gloucester to beat him

1:50:22

by X number of points, we end up winning

1:50:24

33-6 and we get into the quarter finals

1:50:27

and our reward is a trip to Welford Road

1:50:29

against the champions who had not beaten us in

1:50:32

the millennium stadium the year before. The

1:50:34

hand of Neil Bach. Yeah

1:50:37

and we're thinking God that's some reward isn't

1:50:39

it for qualifying

1:50:42

but we lost two pool games in that

1:50:44

year, we lost against Peppermint on the way,

1:50:46

round one against Gloucester we're beating

1:50:49

35-16 and that was a bit of an eye

1:50:51

opener, they were the English champions at Gloucester,

1:50:54

Starr started the team, Trevor

1:50:56

Woodman, Phil Vickery, Andy Gomorsel,

1:50:58

Tina

1:51:00

Delport, James

1:51:03

Simpson Daniel, all these guys were big names

1:51:06

and we went to Gloucester

1:51:08

and got

1:51:11

walloped in round one, so we

1:51:13

didn't start the competition well, round

1:51:16

two we'd be prepping at home

1:51:18

then we backed back games against Via Dana

1:51:20

and the Italian team we beat them well,

1:51:23

round five we got to Peppermint on we're beating again

1:51:25

so we're completely on the back foot, we lost

1:51:27

two games

1:51:31

which is risky,

1:51:34

back then there were six rounds and Gloucester

1:51:38

had been unbeaten, I

1:51:41

think they would last in Peppermint on so

1:51:43

we had to beat them by X amount of points, we didn't know any

1:51:45

of that stuff it's kind of famous but we

1:51:47

go to Welford Road, we'll go back to that one in a minute

1:51:49

because John Kelly scores that try I picked

1:51:52

that one, Peter

1:51:54

Stringer's try yeah for me not

1:51:57

because I had an assist at the end but I just

1:51:59

thought I'd just jumps out at me that that

1:52:01

was a very really special day.

1:52:04

There's certain games over the years that we could

1:52:06

pick out and all the lads,

1:52:09

the monster team in that year would pick certain ones.

1:52:11

There was a few ones on Saturday nights in Castas

1:52:15

were seen to be a regular occurrence.

1:52:17

They were ones, they're in my memory. But

1:52:20

this try, because

1:52:21

it was against a really powerful

1:52:24

strong Leicester side, they

1:52:27

went on. A lot of these fellas were winning a World Cup

1:52:29

a number of months later. You know,

1:52:31

they'd kneel back, Martin

1:52:34

Curry, Ben Kay, Johnson, Austin

1:52:37

Healy, Tom Tierney actually,

1:52:39

was scrum half that day

1:52:42

for Leicester, Jordan

1:52:45

Morphy was playing Lee Unlie, Tim Stimson, all

1:52:47

these guys, very

1:52:49

strong side and they don't lose them well for

1:52:51

Road. So again, the mentality

1:52:54

that you mentioned there was

1:52:56

pretty strong. We give ourselves

1:52:58

a really good chance there. We knew we

1:53:00

had to find a performance

1:53:03

and crazily enough, I think it's

1:53:06

3-0

1:53:07

at half time to monster. You

1:53:10

know, you're not really, you're thinking you're going to have

1:53:12

an open game here and a

1:53:14

lot of scoring. So we're winning 3-0. Then

1:53:16

we go 6-0 in the 56 minutes. And then they score

1:53:20

a try, I think after that, Steve

1:53:23

Bootes. And unfortunately he's

1:53:25

passed away as well.

1:53:26

Three people have played

1:53:28

that day, Steve Bootes, Tom Tierney

1:53:31

and Anthony Foley.

1:53:32

And all from heart

1:53:34

disease, which is incredible to think that there's three

1:53:37

people on the field that are not around anymore. Steve

1:53:40

Bootes scored a try and they go 7-6. Then Raj

1:53:42

gets a try and

1:53:45

I think our reaction, our performance and our intensity

1:53:48

that day was phenomenal. So

1:53:50

we're winning 13-7 and we've

1:53:53

a scrum

1:53:54

in our half and Raj

1:53:57

is going to win. makes

1:54:00

a little bit of a break and gets tackled but

1:54:02

pops the ball up to Rob Henderson and the tackle.

1:54:05

Yeah. And then he in turn...

1:54:07

Sorry, was that a surprise that you were expressing there about Ron McCarrar

1:54:09

making the break? No, but there was a perception that

1:54:12

he didn't make a break, he runs at the line

1:54:14

and found a bit of space and got leg

1:54:16

tackled but on his back kind of pops the

1:54:18

ball up because sometimes

1:54:21

people think that Rog didn't run with the ball. He was actually really

1:54:23

good at running on Getty's timing well onto

1:54:26

the ball and attacked

1:54:28

it unbelievably well,

1:54:30

pops it up to Rob Henderson who then does

1:54:33

a bit of a shimmy, passes it to Mike

1:54:35

Mullins who kind of goes on the outside

1:54:37

and gives this kind of basketball pass back on

1:54:39

the inside to me. You did well to catch it actually,

1:54:41

he throws it at you at a bit of an awkward enough height.

1:54:44

Yeah, and literally

1:54:46

I'm kind of getting rapped, I think Neil back

1:54:49

is one of them and I'm shocked that I can get

1:54:51

this little pop pass to Stringer who comes

1:54:53

on my shoulder and it was one of

1:54:55

those ones where you're,

1:54:57

wow, this is it. We had a mall

1:55:00

right at the end of that game and

1:55:03

Lester were the team who we

1:55:05

probably would have looked up to, we had a lot of similarities.

1:55:08

We had a mall at the end of that game where we moored

1:55:10

Lester about 20 yards up

1:55:12

the field and it was one of those ones where the Munster

1:55:14

fans are just singing, chanting,

1:55:17

it's incredible.

1:55:19

And that happened in Welford Road so it wasn't,

1:55:22

it was a wonderful performance, it was absolutely

1:55:25

brilliant.

1:55:26

Everybody was on it that day

1:55:28

and that try from Stringer kind of summed it up

1:55:30

at the end so it was one that stood out for me and

1:55:32

it was really special.

1:55:35

Great shot at Peter Classy at the end of the

1:55:37

crowd kind of going mad and showing

1:55:39

that emotion. Had he retired? Yeah,

1:55:41

he retired the year before and

1:55:44

so it was a really special day but

1:55:47

obviously you don't win trophies

1:55:49

and we went to Toulouse then the semi-final, we were

1:55:51

beating 13-12

1:55:54

and it was the home final in Dublin so we were

1:55:56

whiskers away from being in

1:55:58

a final and

1:56:01

Lenstra actually, funnily enough, were on the other side

1:56:04

and they lost to Perpignan in Dublin,

1:56:06

which I think they lost 22-15 or

1:56:08

21-17 or something like that to Perpignan in

1:56:12

the other semi-final in Dublin

1:56:14

and it ended up being two French teams in Dublin with

1:56:16

a small crowd and Toulouse won it. 21-14 in the end. Toulouse

1:56:19

beat you by a point in the semi. Toulouse

1:56:21

beat us by a point in Toulouse, yeah, 13-12. Again,

1:56:24

a couple of drop goals in the end that were missed,

1:56:27

Jeremy Staunton had one or two I think and

1:56:29

a very, very tight game.

1:56:33

We were a whisk

1:56:35

away from probably being in the final and

1:56:38

probably winning

1:56:41

the tournament. So

1:56:44

very close, but that was a really significant try

1:56:46

from Peter Schranhauer. You weren't wrong about Wellford

1:56:48

Road. Two teams had won there in five years, which

1:56:50

is insane to think of 4,000 Monster fans there to

1:56:53

watch it. And a very strong team and

1:56:55

the scenes at the end, we're out in the pitch and

1:56:57

all the Monster fans are kind

1:56:59

of there. So yeah, very special moments

1:57:01

and it was a great try, I think. So next

1:57:03

we have John Kelly's try versus Gloucester in the Miracle

1:57:06

match, that same season. Yeah, no glitz

1:57:08

or glamour about this. I

1:57:10

just think significance really and the importance

1:57:12

of this

1:57:13

try, again, you know,

1:57:16

the messages are starting to come onto the field about

1:57:18

what needs to happen when we kind of score

1:57:20

two tries in the first half, Mikko Driskey

1:57:23

gets one midway through the second half and then

1:57:25

we're kind of pushing for that four

1:57:27

try and suddenly the messages

1:57:29

are coming on, keep going, don't concede any points,

1:57:31

but keep pushing on. And

1:57:34

I'd say 90% of the team didn't know what the

1:57:36

score line. We had to win by 27 points

1:57:38

in the end or more. And we did that. We

1:57:41

won by 27 points. But this try at

1:57:43

the end, we

1:57:45

had a penalty.

1:57:46

Raj kicked it into the corner. Frankie

1:57:52

Sheehan throws the ball to the back of the line. So

1:57:54

we had this line up where we moved the whole backer up

1:57:56

to the front of the line out. So Jim Williams,

1:57:59

myself.

1:57:59

and Anthony Foley were at the front

1:58:03

and we moved some of our seconders

1:58:06

to the back of the line. So the ball is thrown to Dunneka at the Dunneka

1:58:08

Calenda tail, Axel peels

1:58:10

around pops at the stringer and he hits Jason

1:58:15

Holland and Mike Mullins in midfield and we set

1:58:17

up this mall

1:58:18

and we

1:58:21

kind of are driving them

1:58:23

right back towards the goal line

1:58:25

and we need this for a try and they pull

1:58:27

it down. It looks like they're turning the ball over.

1:58:31

It's a bit kamikaze because

1:58:33

this fella is coming in from all sides and all

1:58:35

angles and we

1:58:38

eventually the ball comes back out it's popped

1:58:40

up to Jeremy Staunton and he makes

1:58:42

a little dart for the line rolls it back through his legs

1:58:45

and an in-stringer sweeps it away

1:58:47

to Raj and he passed to John

1:58:49

Kelly and

1:58:51

it's unbelievable it's phenomenal. We've

1:58:53

got that for a try he kicks the conversion

1:58:56

and we had

1:58:58

those incredible scenes you know they make

1:59:00

the video about about the game but none

1:59:04

of that was really we

1:59:05

weren't really conscious of any of that it's amazing

1:59:07

when you're out in the field and to look back

1:59:10

at the old stadium and the supporters

1:59:12

and even looking back and I just I was seeing people

1:59:14

I knew and what it

1:59:16

meant to them and how exciting it was and what an atmosphere

1:59:19

it was so it was a really significant

1:59:21

try John had scored one the first half, Mosi

1:59:24

Lawlor scored one the first half but

1:59:26

that really was a

1:59:27

again a really obviously

1:59:30

a crucial try for us to put us into

1:59:32

the quarter-finals to be able to go to Alfred Rode.

1:59:34

Raj always said that he didn't know before

1:59:36

he took that kick that it

1:59:38

was so significant were you aware or

1:59:40

any idea? I think after

1:59:42

Raj kicked the ball there was a lot of mess

1:59:44

just coming on then don't concede

1:59:47

don't give away would you believe I

1:59:49

give away a penalty very shortly after

1:59:51

that outside the 22 I'm trying

1:59:54

to poach a ball from a Gloucester player I

1:59:56

penalized which

1:59:58

genuinely I think

1:59:59

I shouldn't

2:00:02

have been penalized. I should have got the penalties

2:00:04

players holding on the ground But

2:00:06

it's one of those ones where you say nowadays to people

2:00:09

just let them have it don't don't contest the

2:00:11

ball You know if you're if you're if you're winning

2:00:13

in a game, just let them have it. Just let them have

2:00:15

it My mentality

2:00:17

wasn't just let him out of here's the turnover for

2:00:20

me and I was penalized if

2:00:22

they if Gloucester had stopped and paused

2:00:25

and Actually, let

2:00:27

Mercier, Ludac, Ludac, Mercier

2:00:29

kicked the

2:00:29

ball over the bar.

2:00:31

They would have went through to the quarter-finals. We were out

2:00:34

That penalty

2:00:36

would have put them Communication wasn't great there.

2:00:38

No, and they didn't really know either So

2:00:41

Andy Garmusl gets the ball and he taps

2:00:43

and goes really quickly because they're now 33 six

2:00:46

down in the game But really if they

2:00:48

if they knew and understood themselves

2:00:51

Nobody saw this happening Shane. They

2:00:53

didn't see it. We didn't see it. I remember

2:00:55

the night before this game, you know, Mick Galway

2:00:58

wasn't starting but

2:01:00

he was the captain squad captain and

2:01:04

Obviously a great leader for us and like the

2:01:06

night before we

2:01:08

it was a case of

2:01:10

It's gonna be really difficult to beat this Gloucester team

2:01:12

at home here but we owe

2:01:14

to the fans and ourselves to get a performance

2:01:17

and it was a very emotional

2:01:19

kind of Friday night meeting and We

2:01:22

were incredibly pumped for that game.

2:01:25

It was phenomenal again Looking

2:01:29

back and kind of the the work

2:01:31

rate and the intensity the players it was it was

2:01:33

it was brilliant to see and But

2:01:36

the significance really we didn't know anything about

2:01:38

the scorelines It was talk about game plans

2:01:40

that were lost in taxis and we

2:01:43

did lost our game plan or Not

2:01:46

all news to me at the time, you know, I mean, but it was

2:01:48

a brilliant win a very special day again The

2:01:50

taxi story was untrue

2:01:53

Some someone is claiming it's true, but

2:01:55

we had no idea of any sort

2:01:57

of situation of

2:01:59

of game plans or anything like that. That

2:02:02

never filtered true to us but you know

2:02:04

it's a lovely day and a really special day and

2:02:06

we had a great night in Limerick afterwards and as

2:02:09

I said we did great win in Welford Road after

2:02:11

that and you know then the disappointment of the semi-final

2:02:14

against Toulouse. It's all part of the journey to

2:02:16

get to a point where you do eventually get over

2:02:18

the line. You haven't picked one from the first year you

2:02:20

get over the line you pick one from the second one at Dennis Lee. But again

2:02:23

I could pick Stringer's one against I love

2:02:25

the Serge Betts at the tri after Scrum where

2:02:27

Stringer goes around Serge Betts and in all six

2:02:29

and that really seals

2:02:33

well it doesn't seal the game but I think it

2:02:35

just it was a brilliant brilliant piece

2:02:37

of work from Peter Stringer to kind of dummy

2:02:40

one way and and you

2:02:42

know obviously to catch such a brilliant player Serge

2:02:44

Betts and who was a tackling

2:02:46

machine a great try that

2:02:49

game in all six. I

2:02:52

just love the fact in 2008

2:02:54

in the final against Toulouse Dennis Leamy just was

2:02:56

he

2:03:03

was a monster really you know I remember

2:03:05

Graham Henry in 2006 describing him

2:03:08

as such when

2:03:10

he played Test

2:03:12

match against New Zealand and Hamilton you know Graham

2:03:15

Henry spoke in the press conference afterwards about Dennis

2:03:17

Leamy being the best number eight in the world he was phenomenal

2:03:20

had his injuries very

2:03:22

unfortunate injuries with his knees

2:03:26

but you know we were we

2:03:28

were a different team probably in that OA game because

2:03:30

you had Doug Howlett and Matthew and Tepokie

2:03:33

as opposed to you know the

2:03:35

difference in maybe Trevor Halstead and John

2:03:37

Kelly played in the centers the two years

2:03:39

previous and no disrespect to

2:03:41

them Halstead and John Kelly were brilliant and

2:03:43

that game plan and structure

2:03:45

beating Burt and all six

2:03:48

was perfect but OA it was a little

2:03:50

bit different when you're those

2:03:52

type of players you just want to try and give them the ball

2:03:54

and we had

2:03:56

we scored

2:03:58

some brilliant tries that year with that

2:03:59

monster team. We had a really

2:04:02

hard group in the pool stages

2:04:04

with wasps and Clermont-Ferrand

2:04:07

at the time.

2:04:10

Probably nearly lost. Well,

2:04:12

the semi-final

2:04:14

in Coventry against Saracens

2:04:17

was one where we were favourite,

2:04:20

heavy favourites, and in the end we're kind of

2:04:22

lucky to get through it. They possibly

2:04:25

were claiming a penalty right at the end of the game.

2:04:27

They could have kicked and put us out, but we

2:04:29

get to the final in 08. Again, it's a

2:04:33

kind of drab affair because it's

2:04:36

fairly low scoring. Is it the start of France?

2:04:38

No, it's in Millennium Stadium against

2:04:41

Toulouse again. Yeah, it's the second time we're back

2:04:43

there in 2008 and Toulouse are 3-0 up and we get

2:04:45

down

2:04:49

close to our line and Toulouse

2:04:51

end up with a 5-metre scrum defending.

2:04:54

We

2:04:57

kind of twist the scrum around. It's reset

2:04:59

again.

2:05:02

Then Toulouse go again and I

2:05:04

think it was the scrum twist again and I tackle

2:05:07

Sean Sorby there at number 8. South African

2:05:09

kind of on the line. We get the scrum

2:05:12

and then Leamy breaks off the back of the

2:05:14

scrum and we go infield and there's a bit of picking

2:05:16

and going for for a number of minutes

2:05:18

and it was really just... It's a forwards try.

2:05:21

It's

2:05:21

a forwards try, but you know what? It's

2:05:23

a dogged, hard-working and

2:05:26

honestly I was getting a little bit of an adrenaline

2:05:28

rush watching this again

2:05:30

and I remember at the time just the atmosphere.

2:05:33

A little bit of an between you and the

2:05:35

back row. A little bit,

2:05:37

yeah. Look,

2:05:39

I think Toulouse were phenomenal and we had incredible

2:05:42

respect for them. They were basically French international

2:05:44

sides. Yeah, they were and I

2:05:46

think but we felt really... We were

2:05:48

in a good place. We

2:05:51

started picking

2:05:51

and going in the 74th minute which

2:05:53

is pretty famous. Every

2:05:56

time I meet I need a Toulouse players. Now they go

2:05:58

picking goal, picking goal.

2:05:59

big and go and it was crazy.

2:06:02

Tomás Solirí had come in for

2:06:04

Peter and played in the quarterfinal, semi-final

2:06:07

and final and he started kind of

2:06:09

off you go forwards, out in the inside

2:06:13

to lose half and we're about trying

2:06:15

to see out the game. Anyway, that's if

2:06:17

you look back in that it was crazy but I

2:06:20

just, Lemie's try there was

2:06:22

one of, it was a real statement of

2:06:25

intent, the scrum,

2:06:28

the way we kind of pushed them back in a scrum

2:06:30

because you think it was earlier days,

2:06:32

you think French scrum was going to kill us and they

2:06:34

want to try and they believe they're going to kill us. Now

2:06:37

we're at a point in 2008 from that kind of journey from 96,

2:06:39

97 onwards for some of us and

2:06:44

now we're the ones who are doing it

2:06:47

to a French scrum, you know, so it's

2:06:49

gone full circle really and

2:06:53

I just remember that try, brilliant, it was

2:06:55

a great try and it was it was scored by Dennis

2:06:57

who was just a phenomenal

2:07:00

player and we had a homegrown

2:07:02

pack, Marcus Horne, Jerry Flannery,

2:07:04

John Hayes, Doneko

2:07:06

Calla and Paulo Canel, myself,

2:07:09

Dennis and Wally

2:07:12

which was

2:07:14

pretty impressive. It was the Irish pack bar

2:07:16

me because they you know they

2:07:18

were all Simon Eastby was playing with all those guys

2:07:20

for Ireland for a period of time so

2:07:22

they were great players to have around, you know, we

2:07:25

had a great line out and Paul was

2:07:27

on his game, you know, constantly Doneko

2:07:31

worked great through the roof so it was a great team

2:07:34

and then as you say when you have Mathieu and Toboki in

2:07:36

the centre they're special players but

2:07:38

we nearly lost the semi-final but we thankfully

2:07:41

got our hands on a second trophy that day. Yeah and

2:07:43

Frank the greatness

2:07:44

of the team as well, I think a lot of people are going to be

2:07:46

going down a YouTube wormhole as a result of that.

2:07:48

Sorry there are not more Ireland tries in there but

2:07:51

I didn't play enough of Ireland games where there was really

2:07:53

significant tries in big Six Nations

2:07:56

games or big, you know,

2:07:59

test matches but.

2:07:59

There's a few there that I could have easily picked.

2:08:03

Hendo's tree tries in Rome,

2:08:05

they jump out of me. Couple

2:08:08

of tries in the World Cup, and you know, tree

2:08:10

as well, and other Six

2:08:12

Nations games. My favorite

2:08:15

try of all though, if I

2:08:17

was not, been not involved, was Mick always

2:08:19

try in 93 against England. He

2:08:22

didn't have a lot to do when you look back at it now, but

2:08:24

I remember being at that game,

2:08:27

I think it was playing

2:08:30

under 18s or under 20s with Shannon, and we went

2:08:32

up on a bus from Limerick. We

2:08:34

were in the terraces in the all lands down

2:08:36

road, and again, this

2:08:38

is star stud at English side.

2:08:42

Will Carling. Will Carling, Rob

2:08:44

Andrew, Martin Bayfield, Jason

2:08:47

Leonard,

2:08:49

your powerful, powerful English side, and

2:08:51

Gallo gets that try at the end in the corner.

2:08:54

He was with Shannon, he was someone I was kind of

2:08:56

looked up to.

2:08:59

His sister runs on the field, and that's just

2:09:02

brilliant, giving him a big hug at the end. Mick Bradley

2:09:04

makes a little half break, and pops

2:09:06

it up to Gallo. Again,

2:09:09

significant because I was there, and I remember really

2:09:12

well. Some of these tries, you could pick any that

2:09:14

the lads to come in and pick tries. It's

2:09:16

ones that kind of you,

2:09:18

you want to try and think

2:09:20

in your mind, if I was to ask you straight up, what

2:09:23

comes to mind first? So these are kind of the ones

2:09:25

that came. No, no, you did a great job, it was perfect.

2:09:27

Okay, cheers. Thank you very much. Quick

2:09:30

Vera Power update on Louise Quinn. We

2:09:32

are also a bit concerned, we think she can play.

2:09:35

We're always honest, she's going to train, and we

2:09:37

will see. I

2:09:39

think that's keeping the opposition guessing. She's playing, if she's

2:09:42

doing any training, I would

2:09:44

be amazed if she's not starting

2:09:45

that game tomorrow. OTB,

2:09:48

AM. The Sports Breakfast Show

2:09:51

from off the ball.

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