Munster generate Ireland's new flame

As we come to the end of the year, it is an appropriate time for reflection. The year 2000 started very much afternoon at Twickenham. Gone now the Five Nations Championship which had been with us for so long, now it was the Six Nations Championship with the advent of Italy to the series.

Ireland not alone made a very inauspicious start to the new series, but one that could be described as extremely disturbing. A defeat by England 50 points to 18. That same afternoon Italy marked their debut in the championship by beating the reigning Five Nations champions Scotland 34-20 in Rome. France hammered Wales 36-3.

But all was not bleak. Munster, coached by Declan Kidney and Niall O'Donovan, had won their group in the European Cup. The performances were to have a profound influence on subsequent events. The defeat in Twickenham certainly concentrated the minds of the Ireland management and it was to Munster that they turned as the team to play Scotland was selected. Not since 1988 had Ireland beaten Scotland. The side showed eight changes with the Munster halfbacks Ronan O'Gara and Peter Stringer called into the team as was prop John Hayes and Mick Galwey, Simon Easterby, Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie. Not alone had over half that team against Scotland not played in the World Cup, they had not even been in the squad.

The new Ireland team brought about a great transformation in fortunes and the Scots got hammered 44-22. Next up was a visit from Italy, to whom Ireland had lost in their previous three matches. The Italians were destroyed, 60-13.

Wins over Scotland and Italy were heartening but the acid test lay in Paris, where Ireland had not won since 1972. On a glorious spring afternoon at Stade de France, the Ireland team gave a great performance and ended that dismal run with a magnificent 27-25 victory. What a transformation from that overcast afternoon in Twickenham. It was a great Ireland team performance, but for Brian O'Driscoll it was a particularly golden occasion as he stamped his class on the scene with three tries, executed in the manner that embraced speed, perception and keen football intellect.

So the final match was against Wales and while defeat was Ireland's portion (2319), it was a match that could and should have been won but was lost to two late Neil Jenkins penalty kicks. It was a disappointing end to the series, but Ireland had indeed turned their season round in a manner few could have envisaged after Twickenham.

Ireland A, under Kidney and O'Donvovan, won the Championship and Triple Crown, the only loss being narrowly to France, while the under-21 side beat Wales, Scotland and Italy. The under-19s side defeated Romania, Argentina and South Africa in the FIRA-IRB World Cup and lost in most unfortunate circumstances to Australia, 14-12. The Youth team (under-18) beat Scotland and lost to England and Wales.

The Schools side yet again underlined the quality of the game at this level in Ireland with wins over England and Wales and lost to France after being depleted from an early stage. The Schools team then went to Australia and returned with a magnificent 100 per cent record, emulating the feat attained by the Ireland side four years previously.

Meanwhile as winter gave way to spring, the Munster team, under the inspirational leadership of Mick Galwey and the coaching skill of Kidney and O'Donovan was setting the scene alight in Europe. A quarter-final win over Stade Francais at Thomond Park earned a semi-final against Toulouse which brought Munster to Bordeaux. On another glorious day, Munster played magnificently and recorded one of the greatest victories in the illustrious history of the province.

In the final at Twickenham on a May afternoon that would not have been out of place in mid January - heavy rain, a sodden surface and high wind - Northampton beat Munster by a point and what came down to a matter of a few inches as Ronan O'Gara's late penalty was caught by the wind and drifted fractionally wide. But it had been a wonderful campaign that captivated the country.

The Ireland team toured Argentina, the United States and Canada, losing to Argentina, overwhelming the US and drawing with Canada. In the autumn, Ireland beat Romania in the most comprehensive manner and lost 28-18 to South Africa after the teams had been level at 18-18 in the 79th minute.

Nor must we forget a great display by the Ireland A team in a splendid win over South Africa.

Foremost among the year's controversies were the England players going on strike over a few hundred pounds before good sense prevailed and the scandals of those who produced grandparents out of the hat to gain international qualifications for Wales and Scotland.

St Mary's College became the first Leinster club to win the All-Ireland League. And the outstanding achievement by a club? Surely Nenagh Ormond - winners of the Munster Junior Cup, Munster Junior Challenge Cup, the AllIreland and Munster under-18 league titles, the O'Carroll and Garryowen Cups, and the Gleeson League.