A volunteer grown weary

When Pat Whelan wakes up this morning, his sense of relief will probably outstrip any misgivings or regrets he may have about walking away. It is not the first time he has considered this course of action, for in his celebrated meeting of early January with Brian Ashton in Sutton, which was also attended by the latter's agent and fellow selector Donal Lenihan, Whelan offered to resign then.

It wasn't that he particularly wanted to walk away from the job, more that if Ashton felt he couldn't work with him, then he would quit. There was clearly a friction and frostiness between the two men, which even Irish squad members could discern. However, Ashton did not demand Whelan's head nor, when push came to shove, did he accept it when offered.

This development perhaps shows how willing Whelan was to accommodate Ashton, even though Whelan declined then, or at the time of Ashton's resignation in January, to reveal as much. He merely continually stated he had "documented evidence" to show how much support he had given.

Ashton wanted, and eventually got, more control over the selection of squads but by all accounts, throughout his year in charge, he was given the team he wanted - with one exception.

Arguably, if the coach-manager relationship was to have been a partnership per se, then Whelan perhaps should have resigned when Murray Kidd's contract was terminated by the IRFU in early 1997. But Whelan's prime motive for doing the job was to see the thing through until Ireland's results improved.

By all accounts, too, Whelan had much more say in the appointment of Gatland than he did with Kidd or Ashton, and enjoyed a discernibly better working relationship with the current coach as well.

Irish players and close confidantes of Whelan say he had less of a hands-on involvement, seemed more relaxed, and to have enjoyed the last six weeks more than at any other stage in his tenure. But on the night of the concluding Five Nations' match against England at Twickenham, back at the team hotel, Whelan was wearily wondering aloud about a less demanding, more diminished role.

Frank Hogan, chairman at Garryowen and a long-time friend of Whelan, admitted yesterday that "I have been trying to persuade Pat to resign for the last 18 months. Personally I'm delighted for him. It's an impossible job to manage the Irish team on a part-time basis, especially with a wife and three children, and a demanding business to run."

Whelan is currently involved in building a hotel, as well as another new housing estate in Limerick.

When based with the Irish squad, whether it was late at night or in the early morning hours of last summer's Development tour to New Zealand, he would regularly be seen on his mobile phone.

"There's another million," would be the joke, though in truth his business probably suffered from his regular absences with the Irish squad, as perhaps did his managerial role, too. During the team's stay in Richmond prior to departing for Bologna last December, Whelan returned to Limerick for a day before linking up with the squad again in Italy.

In the heel of the hunt, he would have looked at the international team's itinerary until the World Cup in the autumn of next year and concluded that between tours to South Africa and Australia, as well as friendly internationals and the Five Nations, his task as `honorary manager' would take him away from his home and business for another five months.

Thus, at times you wondered why Whelan did it. He worked in a voluntary capacity alongside three financially remunerated, professional coaches. He spent hours every day on the phone, and always returned a call, yet had also to take the brickbats.

During one of the press conferences in Limerick before the French game, he was asked if the criticisms of him hurt. "No way," he said through gritted teeth while fixing his questioner with a determined glare. But as one confidante confided: "It hurt him big."

Yet it would be fair to say that anyone who comes through the intensely parochial and political world of Munster rugby didn't come in off the last haystack.

He did not enjoy a harmonious relationship with Ashton, who would have regarded him as a Union man. That he was, though ironically they didn't always back him, most notably when he called for a much reduced All-Ireland League first division.

Up until the last year, players privately admitted they were wary of him, yet many also say that on the development tour and especially as this season progressed, he was not the ogre he was generally portrayed to be. He had become more mellow, more relaxed and generally easier to deal with.

None of the several players this writer spoke to yesterday had any inclination of this surprise decision. Most probably though, he just grew weary of it, all the more so when he looked into the future.