The man who brought the smile back to Irish rugby

REMEMBER the last time anybody smiled after a rugby international involving Ireland? Remember the last occasion people were able to occupy saloon bars in order to celebrate victory rather than to bury the memory of another Irish failure?

Irish rugby in recent years has had a way of setting up people's hopes. The odd wind against the grain. The heart thumping performance of the gallant loser. But it has also specialised introducing the expectations of anyone who has dared think bigger than modest successes. Until recently the direst of thoughts had passed through the minds of those in attendance at Lansdowne Road - that the post professional modem game was accelerating faster than Ireland could keep up.

Two weeks ago in the Cardiff Arms Park Irish rugby smiled. It took some manoeuvring to get the lips positioned and the eyes correctly squinted. A cobweb may have broken, some dust might have unsettled from above furrowed brows. It had been so long. So long without reason to smile, so long without seven hope that the Irish rugby team could improve enough so as not to be humiliated come the Five Nations Championship.

Our short term memories harboured nasty experiences. Western Samoa, Australia, Italy, France. Each team had recently come to Dublin and had left with an Irish scalp. Italy particularly had seriously molested Ireland's morale. A team short on match practice and not rated worthy of inclusion into the Five Nations Championship, ran up 37 points to a reply of 29. Ireland were mining new depths.

"Yes, you could say we're getting into a losing habit," Irish manager Whelan grimly admitted afterwards.

Keith Wood, the Irish captain, frog marched into every post match press conference, was beginning to show signs of "the condition". He picked a spot on the wall somewhere behind the media scrum and stared the 1,000 yard stare while trying to answer for the sins of the team.

But the Italian job was even too indigestible for cast iron Irish stomachs. Change had to come.

Cut to Wales two weeks ago and Ireland's revitalising victory. Among the bruised bodies that marched out of the Arms Park with something approaching a spring in their step stood a small, round, mild mannered, middle aged Lancastrian named Brian Ashton. Brought in as an adviser to the Irish squad, Ashton is to blame for the current soaring levels of expectation.

The 50 year old former scrum half had been crudely drafted into the ailing Irish setup by the IRFU at the expense of former Kiwi coach Murray Kidd, who unceremoniously "stepped down" two weeks before Ireland's first Five Nations match against the French.

In time Ashton will be made, official Irish coach once a satisfactory contract can be sorted out. At the moment he retains the advisory title, although it is he who is now calling the shots.

Despite his sophisticated understanding of the game and his reputedly excellent communication with the players, the suggestion of an Irish renaissance is certainly premature. The last time such optimism prevailed was when Kidd took over the helm from the then Irish coach Gerry Murphy.

But Ashton's role now has been largely defined by the circumstances under which he was brought into the beleaguered team, and in reality any signs of Irish improvement, however small, will in the shorts term be seen as success.

A former international, Ashton was a member of the England squad that toured Australia in 1975. He also experienced a number of playing styles and rugby philosophies, lining out for Orrel in England as well as stints with the French club, Montferrand, and for a time as player/coach with Milan in Italy.

He subsequently became assistant English coach to Dick Greenwood in 1984 before joining forces with the current England coach, Jack Rowell, in 1989 when the two went to coach the Somerset club side Bath.

In the five year period between 1989 and 1994 Bath won four league titles and the cup three times, proving themselves one of the finest teams, not only in Britain, but in Europe.

After Rowell's departure to the English side in 1994, Ashton went on with Bath to win the cup in 1995 and last season completed the league and cup double.

Ashton's own departure from Bath in January resulted from problems between himself and the club's director, John Hall.

The players were not involved. Ashton typically kept a dignified silence throughout until his tenure ended in a somewhat timely fashion for Ireland to pick him up in early January.

In short the Irish adviser's past has yielded little but success and still he maintains the mild mannered and courteous demeanour of the school teacher he was until last July.

In recent weeks he has been able to defuse the growing pressure on the Irish team, and has effectively disarmed the media with his understated and erudite way of dealing with the endless queries.

His northern upbringing in staunch working class rugby league country also imparted an awareness of class divides between the north and south of England. Ashton spent his childhood watching his father play for league side Wigan at a time when the relationship between the two codes was positively hostile and the class divide obvious. It was his move to King's Burton School that finally took him south.

But it is the image of the ball in hand, dynamic, expansive rugby associated with Bath that sets hearts racing. Ireland can only aspire to such a style unless root and branch reform takes place, but at least Ashton is a persuasive and presumably ruthless character, who has a proven track record at a level that is close to international rugby.

Today's game against his home country at Lansdowne Road takes him up against his old Bath pal Rowell. England are clear favourites, but if Ireland lose, it will be by the manner in which they lose that Ashton will be judged on only his second, but biggest, test to date.