The Game: Ireland 44 Scotland 22, February 2000

What it Defined: The birth of a new generation of Irish players, a ‘Golden Generation’ according to some

The State of Play

Irish rugby has been in the doldrums for a decade.  The IRFU has grudgingly lumbered into the dawn of professionalism unprepared and unwilling.  The majority of Ireland’s players are playing for England’s club sides and the national team appear to be slipping towards the second tier of world rugby.  Results are appalling.  Ireland have not won more than a single match in the Five Nations since 1993.  The 1999 World Cup is a disaster, with Ireland exiting before the quarter-finals in a dramatic loss to a gutsy but limited Argentina side.  It is a very public humiliation, with the entire world watching our glaring incompetence.  In the opening game of the now Six Nations (after some notable results in friendly games, Italy are included in the championship for the first time), Ireland are beaten by a rampant England side by 50-18, conceding six tries.

However, all is not as bad as it might appear.  While the Lens debacle was a crushing and highly visible lowpoint, much work behind the scenes has been done.   With the birth of professionalism, the newly minted Heineken European Cup is successfully launched.  It creates a platform for four Irish provincial franchises, giving Ireland a vehicle to keep its best players on these shores, and just as importantly, to pool its playing resources into just four teams rather than a sprawl of AIL sides, and they get exposure to playing the big French and English clubs.  By 2000, the competition has gained significant traction and Irish provinces are improving rapidly.  Ulster win the Cup in 1999 (albeit with the English sides not taking part) and in Spring 2000, Munster have qualified for the quarter-final, having beaten Saracens and Colomiers home and away, with a young pair of halfbacks, Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara catching the eye.  The new format is catching on with the public, too.  Ulster’s victory is played out in front of a rammed Lansdowne Road, and in Munster, where the club game has always been strong, an army of Cork and Limerick fans are rallying behind the Munster brand.

Ireland also have an exciting coaching team in place.  While Gatland has yet to preside over any upswing in results, he is held in high esteem.  And he has a new assistant coach in tow – Eddie O’Sullivan.  The Corkman is considered authoritarian and aloof, but is a technically outstanding coach of back play and a master at analysing how to hurt opponents.  He favours a highly programmed and rehearsed, but often exciting and attractive brand of rugby, with a heavy emphasis on first-phase back moves.

The Game

Following the defeat to England, Ireland face Scotland in Lansdowne Road.  Warren Gatland ditches the old brigade and selects five young players, four of whom are playing in Ireland, for their first caps.  The five are a giant prop, John Hayes, Munster’s fresh-faced halfbacks, Stringer and O’Gara, a rangy winger-cum-centre from Leinster called Shane Horgan and a gutsy backrow playing for Llanelli, Simon Easterby – all went on to be key members of the first team for 8 years.  The changes mean that 13 of the team are plying their club trade in Ireland; Easterby and Kieran Dawson (London Irish) are the exceptions.

After a slow, nervous start, Ireland fall 10-0 behind, but recover their composure to lead 13-10 at the break, with Mal O’Kelly scoring his first try for Ireland, and Ronan O’Gara settling into the match.  In the second half they pull away, winning the match 44-22, with Horgan bagging a try on his debut.  Two old hands, Keith Wood and David Humphreys, are hugely influential in the win, and the five debutants are all considered a success.

Four weeks later, after hammering Italy 60-13, Ireland, improbably, incredibly, go to Paris and win, 27-25, with a famous hat-trick from another kid playing his first Six Nations, a youthful Brian O’Driscoll, seemingly playing in a jersey several sizes too big for him.  Although the season peters out with a loss at home to Wales, the series is a success, with Ireland bagging three wins, their best for some time, and with a young, zestful team.  For the first time in a long time, there is a feelgood feeling around Irish rugby.

With the five new debutants picked to start against Scotland, the team that came together over the next decade was largely in place.  The full line-up that day was:

Ireland: 1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey, 5 Malcolm O’Kelly, 6 Kieron Dawson, 7 Simon Easterby, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O’Gara, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Mike Mullins, 13 Brian O’Driscoll, 14 Shane Horgan, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves: Jeremy Davidson, Rob Henderson, David Humphreys, Justin Fitzpatrick
Unused: Guy Easterby, Trevor Brennan, Frankie Sheahan

The Aftermath

The Golden Generation of Irish rugby is born.  With this group of players currently passing into retirement, the idea of them being a one-off ‘golden generation’ seems foolish, but, for certain, they were golden compared to what went before.  Whatever you make of the phrase, there is little doubt that throughout the noughties, Ireland were blessed by a group of brilliant players who completely turned the fortunes of rugby in the country.  The bad old days of the 1990s were behind us.

The new generation were fearless, incredibly tough and, crucially, professional to the core, with no hangover from the amateur days.  They were broadly split between a Munster-based pack and halves, which had lost none of the chippiness handed down from the previous generation, but had absorbed the tenets of professionalism, and a slick cabal of Leinster backs; skilful, exciting and capable of scoring from anywhere on the pitch.  They were incredibly demanding of themselves and one another.  The old have-a-go-and-sure-we’ll-drink-them-under-the-table-anyway ethos was put to bed – these were men who dreamed only of winning, of securing silverware and medals.  They would go on to become heroes to a nation, household names and thanks to a certain pair of red underpants, even sex icons.

They’d have to do most of that without Warren Gatland, though, and the demise of the head coach after his conspicuous role in turning around the nation’s rugby fortunes represents one of Irish rugby’s great cloak-and-dagger moments.   Indeed, Gatland’s Ireland take another big step forward in the following Six Nations.  In a foot-and-mouth disrupted series, they beat France and Italy before the tournament is postponed.  Reconvening in September, the series is there for the taking, but they splutter to an awful 32-10 drubbing against Scotland.  The season is rescued in style, however: thrashing Wales in Cardiff and signing off with a Grand Slam party-pooping, Keith Wood-inspired 20-14 victory against England.  It’s a four-win series, and Ireland are denied the championship only on points difference.  A month later they give New Zealand a jolt, running up a 21-7 lead early in the second half, before eventually succumbing to the visitors, who are debuting a new openside from Canterbury, Richie McCaw.

However, it proves to be Gatland’s last game in charge.  The IRFU appear to be taken with the impact of his increasingly prominent assistant, O’Sullivan, who is credited with the newfound invention in Ireland’s back play.  Gatland recieves his marching orders, and as he is driving out of the Berkley Court Hotel, having been told in an eight-minute meeting that his contract will not be renewed, his assistant Eddie O’Sullivan is seen arriving, ready to sign a new three-year contract as Head Coach.  Gatland perceives it as an act of unforgiveable treachery, giving rise to ‘Dagger’s image as a ruthless political mover.

Three final pieces of the jigsaw were needed for Ireland to become properly competitive: an athletic, flame-haired pack enforcer in the second row, for their quick-footed line-breaking inside centre to get his head sorted out, and for their powerful ball-carrying openside to overcome a spell of injuries and patchy form.  Once those ingredients were in place, Ireland could begin to strive for something greater…