Good things come to those who wait…

The Sports Editor - Niall Farrell

Soaring high in the grey Welsh sky, the ball looked dead certain to get the three points.

Its flight took it past thousands of jubilant Welsh faces, despairing Irish who had travelled to see their moment of glory, a sign bearing the Welsh word “Calon” (meaning heart) and the gaze of both the Irish president and the prince of Wales.
Players who had overcome Herculean tasks earlier in their campaign were now helpless to stop the goal-bound ball.

In pubs throughout Ireland, tears began their descent down the faces of a nation who had waited too long for a taste of a prestige above any other.

In the Old Bar, silence gripped a previously rejoicing crowd of people. The Fields of Athenry, previously chanted across the world, ceased - the bar became eerily silent.

The tension was too much for one sports editor, as he felt like crawling behind a couch like he did when the Daleks came on the telly when he was a child. History held its breath.

Then, Icarus-like, the ball dropped pitifully before its destination, bouncing under the points. A nation exhaled. The tears at last flowed, but now in jubilation.

The usually reserved RTE commentators joined in with their compatriots in celebration. A nation forgot about the rest of life, and celebrated. This issue Sports View bring you the reactions of three other people who watched the historic match.

Niall Farrell is the College View’s Sports Editor. He likes to pretend he is Russia. Apparently.

The Pundit - Brent Pope

The atmosphere in the studio was very emotional, even for me. I’ve been with RTÉ for 13 years and as we follow the Irish rugby team, you go on the journey with the players and you see the highs and lows, and we’ve been close to them and the management for the last while.

I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a tear in the eye during the last few minutes, and that surprised me. I think it was the drama of the game that helped it, I don’t know if there would have been as much emotion if the game hadn’t ebbed and flowed like it did.

After the programme we went out - myself, Conor, and the two oldies. We had something to eat at a Chinese, and I met with some friends later on in the evening in town.

The celebrations were muted though. We knew that we had to present coverage of the homecoming the next day, so you have to watch yourself – you don’t want to be bleary-eyed on live TV!

I’ve been in Ireland for half of my life and in that time rugby has grown hugely. 10 years ago, you’d have gotten a few hundred people watching a match between Leinster and Ulster - now you’d get 15,000.

There are children kicking rugby balls around with their friends nowadays in places that weren’t traditionally rugby-friendly.

Sport is a great thing to have in recessionary years. During the Great Depression in the US, they had their sporting heroes.

Our troubles are nowhere near as bad, but it’s great to have things like this to lift the mood, and it’s not just rugby either – we have it in Bernard Dunne, the footballers draw against Italy – they’re all things that help people collectively feel better.

Winning and feeling good is a habit in sport. The euphoria that comes with something like the Grand Slam is something that you remember, and the provinces are going to want to keep feeling that way.

So rather than suggest that the likes of Leinster and Munster are going to be tired and unmotivated, I think this is just the injection they need. Rocky Elsom even said that when the Leinster lads came back he couldn’t believe the step-up that the Grand Slam had given them.

So this is going to make Leinster really want to go on and win the Heineken Cup, and it’s going to make Munster want to retain it.What’s amazing is that for a small rugby country, Ireland could end up having all the major rugby trophies – the Six Nations, the Triple Crown, the Heineken Cup and the Magners League.

This wouldn’t have happened under Eddie O’Sullivan, without a doubt. I’ve been a great defender of O’Sullivan, including on RTÉ, and he came very, very close to great things only to be denied by late scores on a few occasions.What O’Sullivan did with our golden generation was great, but last year he’d lost them in the dressing room.

Declan Kidney was fresh to the Irish setup, and it may well be that he doesn’t win anything else with the Irish team. But when he took over, what the Irish team needed was a few tweaks and extra motivation, and he was able to provide that.
I’ve been in the same situation myself with St Mary’s, where we had the likes of Victor Costello and Denis Hickie. We won Division One of the AIB League, and before that they’d been in four semi-finals. So it was the same thing, they’d been knocking on the door for a few years, but it just took someone new to come along and add a bit of motivation.

Brent Pope is a rugby analyst with RTÉ Television. He played rugby with Otago University in New Zealand and also underwent trials with the All Blacks before the 1987 World Cup. He moved to Ireland in 1991, where he joined Clontarf RFC, and later St Mary’s RFC as a player and coach. He has written four books for children.

The Manager - Jack Hanratty

The Super Saturday at the Old Bar was fantastic. It went really well - everybody was there to enjoy rugby and it was great to see that there was interest in it.

It was a day where we were all rugby fans, and it kept the great buzz that there’s been about rugby on campus going.
We didn’t raise as much money as we would have liked - we only raised a few hundred euro. But the place was absolutely packed to the rafters, I couldn’t even guess how many were there, and they were all wearing green. It was like another St Patrick’s Day.

To try and put the atmosphere into words… It was like Thomond Park, the RDS, Ravenhill, the Sportsgrounds and Croke Park all mixed into one.

It was something really special. Some matches I like to watch alone, but this one wasn’t one of them. It didn’t matter who was beside you, everybody was just hugging one another.

We all just jumped in the air the minute it ended. There wasn’t a person in the bar not supporting Ireland. It was a day where the recession could be forgotten about.

After the game I went to Skerries RFC, I drove there with Irish flags flying out the window and I beeped at every car along the way!

It was a day for screaming and enjoying rugby, and I wanted to enjoy it with my other rugby club as well as DCU.

DCU used to mean nothing in Leinster Rugby – it was one of the least progressive clubs around for getting players into the Leinster colleges’ teams. DCU wasn’t an asset, but we’ve changed that. We’ve got a hard-working committee that work to get the message across that DCU Rugby is alive and well.

Last year, we were just short of fielding a rugby team, but this year we’ve changed that and have been very successful in the process.

Our men only lost one game, their semi-final, and the women had great success too.

Jack Hanratty is a rugby development officer with Leinster Rugby and DCU. He’s been in the job for two years, and has been with DCU since last September. He’s originally from Skerries, Co Dublin, and his age remains a mystery.

The Fan - Richard Spencer

I watched the game in The Bank, a pub in Gorey. The atmosphere was tense for want of a better word.
There was just a lot of anticipation beforehand and excitement afterwards We just spent the whole game wondering: ‘If only he’d done this or that’ - but by the end it just felt great.

We were watching the kick by Jones going ‘oh fuck’, and we were hoping it’d drop short. Thankfully, it did. My brother just buried his head in my shoulder at the end of it.

I stayed in The Bank afterwards with my brother and my friends, and we just drank until closing time. There was some major celebrating done there, the place was packed.

With everything that’s been going on with the economy and the recession, it’s great to have something good. I think this lifted a lot of people’s spirits, and it just gave them something to be proud of.

It’s something to smile about, something to let us forget about the worries and just celebrate for awhile.

20-year-old Richard Spencer is in first year of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science.