I promised myself my next blog would not be about badgers, just for a change. I love sports and particularly rugby and the Six Nations is a highlight of my calendar so here goes.
Sports stars come in all shapes and sizes. They flit into our consciousness during their prime and fade away again once their time is done. For the very few superstars, the special ones, their star continues to shine long after their playing days have gone. There is even a kind of sporting deification when a nickname which becomes synonymous with them is bestowed. “Beefy” will always be Botham to the cricket world. Recently the trend is to refer to them just by their initials. KP has been trending for a couple of weeks on social media and most people who follow the Premier League will know RVP or JT.
In Ireland, a special version of this exists where the initials spell a word through the inclusion of a letter O. It started with Brian O’Driscoll. Irish rugby fans delight in saying that in BOD we trust. For a while he stood alone but during a golden age for Irish rugby two more legends joined and we had ROG and POC to join BOD. in that glorious 2009 season they won the Six Nations and the first Grand Slam since 1948.
ROG has left now, gone to the afterlife in a commentary box. After a disastrous 2013 Six Nations tournament it seemed the golden age was over and Irish rugby would sink back into mediocrity. BOD is in his swansong season before a well earned retirement. His commitment never waivers but the body is injury prone now. A poor result against Australia in the autumn series did nothing to dispel the sense that a new coach could not halt our decline.
But then that stunning, unexpected and ultimately heartbreaking, gut-wrenching defeat to New Zealand kindled a faint hope. Two more matches in the Six Nations have helped flame that faint hope and expectations have grown. There is, of course, much to do still, starting with England in a fortnight, but the team is building a consistency to their performance we haven’t seen since 2009 and Joe Schmidt has brought a tactical side which is new. The foundation of this consistency, as always in rugby, is in the depths of “the breakdown”. Here the teams contest supremacy even where the all-seeing television cameras cannot see all. Here the heart of the team works together to keep the ball, to stop their opponents, to slow them down without over committing bodies and to ultimately win a turnover. Special warriors are needed to gain fractional but crucial advantage in the deepest recesses of the rucks and mauls and Ireland have found a new star.
A magical moment in any sports fan’s life has just taken place. Peter O’Mahony, I name you POM.
Backstops 