Managing to retain that old appeal

We have reached that time of year when the oldest international competition in the game is about to begin. Invariably the pulse races in anticipation, hope and expectation. It is true to say, too, there is also that element of apprehension that precedes major competitions. That applies to all the countries.

When the World Cup was inaugurated in 1987 it was stated that it was the beginning of the end for the Five Nations Championship, that it would lose its appeal for spectators and players, that interest would diminish to the point of extinction.

Those gloomy forecasts came from some of the same sources that subsequently, when the game went professional in 1995, informed the world, or that part of it that was willing to listen, how great the club game would be in England.

That and the World Cup were the future. Indeed we even had one of the English club owners going so far as to tell all and sundry that international rugby would be a back number and that the future was with the clubs.

Then we also had the proposition propounded with the authority that is the preserve of the arrogant that our "masters and betters" - England - would be playing with the big boys south of the Equator while the rest of us paddled our own canoes in the shallow waters of a little lake.

Well there is really no need for elaboration on the inaccuracy of those forecasts, we will just let the facts speak for themselves. The great Richmond club, a founder member of the English Union (RFU), and old and respected clubs such as Moseley and Rugby know what it is to have felt the cold hand of reality as the club owners took their leave of the scene.

Well, like much else, the doom and the gloom forecast for the Five Nations Championship did not come to pass and for that let us be extremely grateful. It still has all the old appeal, The carnival is far from over and the annual pilgrimages to Lansdowne Road, Twickenham, Cardiff, Murrayfield and Paris continue. Every match has been a sell-out at those venues through the years - unlike the World Cup. We can now add in a new venue as the Five Nations series becomes the Six Nations Championship with the advent of Italy to the championship. Now a visit to Rome certainly has appeal. It will be interesting to see how appealing the championship proves for the Italian public.

The All Blacks, the Wallabies and the Springboks can come and go and visits to and from those nations are never less than appealing. But no match holds a greater attraction or fascination or appeal from an Irish perspective than the annual joust against England. Tomorrow we make the biennial visit to Twickenham. It is the second oldest pairing in international rugby, predated only by England against Scotland. Ireland against England has a history stretching back over 125 years. In those circumstances it is appropriate that Ireland's first match of this century should be against the country we first met on February 15th, 1875.

The match represents a very formidable opening assignment in the championship for Ireland. But that is just one of three matches on the schedule today. Scotland travel to Rome to play Italy and the country that kept the European flag flying in the recent World Cup, France, go back to the scene of their defeat last November in the World Cup final, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, to play Wales. That is the ground, of course, that has risen from the ashes of the old Arms Park. It represents a homecoming for Wales in the championship, who, while that ground was being constructed, played their home matches in Wembley Stadium for two years in the championship. The French will feel a bit apprehensive, as well they might.

For all of the Welsh troubles over the last decade, in fact France last won in the championship in Cardiff in 1992. But they did defeat Wales in Wembley in 1998. It was a humiliation for the Welsh that afternoon when they lost 51-0. France also won a non-championship match in Cardiff in 1996 by 40-33.

AND what of Ireland at Twickenham? Ireland's last win at the venue was the famous 13-12 victory in 1994. That was a victory achieved when the English were odds-on favourites to win, just as they are tomorrow and just as they were in 1993 when Ireland fashioned that famous 17-3 victory in Dublin.

Twickenham has been something of a fortress for England in the championship during the last decade. They suffered just two home championship defeats in the 1990s - the loss to Ireland six years ago and in 1997 when France won 23-20.

Two of the players who helped Ireland to that 13-12 win will be playing again tomorrow. They are full back Conor O'Shea and prop Peter Clohessy. Eric Elwood and Mick Galwey, two Ireland replacements tomorrow, also played in a match in which Simon Geoghegan scored a very famous try, Elwood kicked two penalty goals and a conversion. Ireland defended superbly that afternoon and Geoghegan's 38th-minute try in the left corner was a gem.

A repeat performance tomorrow would be very welcome and certainly the same defensive application will be an absolute necessity if the odds are to be defied again. England field two of the team tomorrow who played in the match - prop Jason Leonard and flanker Neil Back.

That was Ireland's last win over England, in the interim, five consecutive defeats. That is a far cry from the 1970s when Ireland won five times in a row between 1972 and 1976 and that included three consecutive victories at Twickenham. One has to go back over 75 years since England last won six in a row against Ireland in the championship.

Thus a win for Ireland tomorrow would stop another six on the trot. And if the odds are against it, then this is far from being an England team endowed with all the talents, and if Ireland do not concede early scores we might see the odds defied yet again. Altogether tomorrow afternoon should be revealing in the context of the strengths or otherwise of all six teams in the championship.

In conclusion it is 12 years since the Irish last won their opening match in the championship. There could be no better occasion to bring that sequence to a halt than tomorrow afternoon.