Destiny still calls after epic struggle

RUGBY/WALES V IRELAND: Destiny calls them? After this testing of the old ticker you'd be inclined to believe so.

If Ireland do somehow derail the mighty English chariot in the mother of all Grand Slam showdowns Lansdowne Road has ever seen next Sunday, for sheer shattering dramatics the events of the Millennium Stadium on Saturday will still take some beating. Follow that.

Good sides win when playing badly, it is said, and good sides make their own luck. When Wales kicked off their halcyon 1970s with a first Grand Slam in 19 years in 1971, it will be remembered that they completed the fourth leg in Murrayfield with a last-ditch touchline conversion by flanker John Taylor.

From a long time ago there wasn't a ticket to be had, yet 62 Lansdowne Road will really come under siege now. A 49,000 capacity will be a loaves and fishes job. Politicians, big business, sponsors and other assorted big-wigs will really up the pressure for tickets now. Philip Browne, the IRFU chief executive, will probably have the least enviable job in the country for the next week.

It's a good problem to have, perhaps, and could you imagine the sense of letdown if Ireland had lost on Saturday and, as with two years ago, it was only England who had the Grand Slam in their sights?

Now, at least, Ireland have a tilt at a slam for the first time in 21 years. A chance of a lifetime indeed.

Journalism demands that you're constantly looking ahead. Move the story on, particularly when next up is the biggest story ever to come to Lansdowne Road.

Yet you couldn't possibly forget Ireland's 25-24 win in Cardiff on Saturday.

England's 31-point winning margin later that afternoon against the Scots means that their superior points differences gives them the minor edge of knowing that a draw would leave them champions. But a draw would be an anti-climax for both sides.

As coach Eddie O'Sullivan said, it's on now: "A showdown for the Grand Slam, the winner takes all and the devil take the hindmost."

Besides, any Irishman or Irishwoman would have chopped off the Lord's hand if they'd been offered a one-point Irish win from about the 71st minute onwards on Saturday. Instead, the gods gave us, and the game, Ronan O'Gara. Some 12 minutes later he looked down, dropped the ball onto his right foot and aimed toward the posts.

At that juncture he had the whole kaboodle in his hands and at his feet. The season and the dream was all down to him. "The whole bag of chips," as Eddie O'Sullivan wryly put it.

"I just chanced my arm really," O'Gara smiled disarmingly. He didn't claim he knew it was over when he hit it; he feared he had hit it too high and that it would drop short.

"It kind of got shot halfway through its flight but it managed to stay on course to fall the right side from our point of view."

Nor, he confessed, was it a called move, as he was half-expecting the pack to take it on first. "Just pure instinct," he said, shaking his head.

O'Gara is right back in the frame for a starting place next Sunday, and O'Sullivan will hope that Victor Costello and Gary Longwell will be also by the time he announces his hand on Wednesday.

It might, in the overall scheme of things, be no bad thing that Ireland received the shock of all shocks to their system in Cardiff. The one-off stakes of next Sunday will certainly clarify the situation, and in a sense the pressure of ensuring that shoot-out came to pass applied far more psychological pressure last Saturday.

"There was a lot of nervousness out there," admitted O'Sullivan, "because talking to the guys afterwards they were all very nervous. I'd hate for people to think that we took Wales for granted. I don't think anybody can say that, but at the back of their minds they knew the importance of this game and it put huge pressure knowing they could be one game away from winning the Grand Slam.

What a way for Malcolm O'Kelly to celebrate his 50th cap! Bursting out of the dressing-room onto the pitch, albeit in the wrong direction, he had another big game and, fittingly, chased down that final Irish restart.

"It was a roller-coaster game, up in the air right to the death," he reflected almost whimsically. "We hung in there. The last 10 minutes were a free-for-all. All our plans went out the window."

Of the restart he said: "I told Rog to put it on the 15 and the kick was right on the money. I got a tap on it, we recycled it, secured it and Rog kicked it. Somebody up there was looking after us today."

Somebody up there was also keeping an eye on Donncha O'Callaghan, for whom his 17-minute debut will take some beating. For his mother, four brothers and sister, it was an emotional day, as they had buried his father on this very Saturday 18 years ago. "It was incredible that it should happen today," said his brother Eddie. "It made it all the sweeter."

He's a special talent, and he fearlessly put himself about to make quite an impact during his cameo. Funnily enough, one of his abiding memories was the wall of noise that greeted Stephen Jones's drop goal. "I've never heard noise like that in my life. It was incredible. The ground seemed to shake."

Despite the controversial manner in which they were denied the late penalty they probably should have been given for Justin Bishop's deliberate knock-on, the Welsh were generous in defeat, and the sense of goodwill towards Ireland next Sunday was palpable.

"I think Ireland can beat England," ventured Welsh captain Jonathan Humphreys. "It's probably going to be the biggest day of their rugby lives."

In another quirk, Paddy Reid, who played in the 1948 team, is a second cousin of the Irish team manager, Brian O'Brien. The young O'Brien, "about 10 at the time", was in Ravenhill on the day 53 years ago when Ireland completed that one and only Grand Slam by beating France.

Next Sunday could be another one to tell the grandchildren about alright. "But wait till I tell you about what happened the week before in Cardiff . . ."