COLM TUCKER:COLM TUCKER commanded reverence in his native, rugby-loving Limerick but the warmth of his personality inspired affection along with the awe over his exploits for Shannon, Munster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.
He was a modern rugby player long before the game went professional. Among the many tributes paid following his death at the age of 59, there was a recurring theme: he was an athlete far ahead of time who would have thrived as a wing forward in today’s faster and more physical game.
Many of those who saw him in his prime contend that few, if any, players in the history of the Irish game have been so short-changed by the national selectors. He played just three times for his country but wore the red Lions jersey on nine occasions, two of them test matches on the controversial 1980 tour of South Africa. That was the summer that cemented his reputation and brought immense pride to the club and the city he loved.
Ultimately, though, his limited opportunities for Ireland mattered little, not least to the man himself. Some still smile at the memorable misspelling of his name in the match programme when he was among the Irish replacements against France in Paris on one occasion – the French spelling of Tucker began with an F instead of a T.
He brought more than his fair share of granite to the Munster team that beat the All Blacks of 1978, but there was more to his game than the uncompromising spirit of a ball-carrier. He had deftness to accompany power. Tom Kiernan was the coach of that Munster team. Many years later, he watched again the limited footage that survives and the moment that pleased him most was Tucker’s sublime pass to Tony Ward, which allowed the outhalf to drive the final nail into the All Blacks’ coffin with a second drop goal.
Most of that celebrated Munster team attended his funeral, 15 months after the death of another team mate, Moss Keane. On the day they made history together Tucker, wearing the battered, far from new number six jersey, was a sales manager for Murphy’s brewery.
The following day he was on the road, making his usual calls.
He later became proprietor of The Office, a Limerick pub that became a second home to many Shannon supporters. Such was his devotion to his club that he insisted Shannon’s momentous victory over local rivals Garryowen in the 1977 Munster Senior Cup final was his finest hour in rugby. Eleven years later he was still in the Shannon pack, picking up another winner’s medal – his fifth in a competition that once meant everything to Limerick rugby people.
In 1999-2000 he was elected club president. A hugely popular man, he enjoyed many happy nights in Shannon’s clubhouse at Thomond Park, a short stroll from his family home in Thomondgate. He was thrilled by the club’s dominance in the early years of the All Ireland League, a competition that did more than anything to put an end to the kind of selection injustices of which he was the victim. He was more than a partisan clubman as the success of other Limerick clubs in the national competition pleased him too.
He was deeply religious, a family man to his core and fiercely proud of his home town, but in an unpublished interview he gave in 2002 he made it plain that he was tired of Limerick being forever labelled the “sporting capital of Ireland”. There was, he said, far more to the place than that. “I don’t like it being pronounced all the time,” he said. “Too much, too much – it’s a cliché, let it be. Let Limerick be recognised for the other things it’s good for as well. The development of the city has been fantastic.”
Later in life he worked as regional operations manager for Saab cars. But in his final years he was dogged by ill-health and was not always able to make the periodic reunions of the 1978 Munster team.
He is survived by his wife Geraldine, sons Colm and Richard and daughter Rachel.
Colm Tucker: born September 22nd, 1952; died January 11th