WELLINGTON DIARY

 Tipp crew rally for hurlers:  TOMORROW'S Munster hurling semi-final is a regular source of debate among the Irish party, with the Tipperary contingent of Alan Quinlan, Denis Leamy and IRFU fitness director Dr Liam Hennessy keen to convey support for their county and hopeful of finding television coverage somewhere on arrival in Melbourne on Sunday evening.

"We'd just like the lads to know that we're backing them," said Hennessy, while Quinlan added: "We need to have the bragging rights for next week over those Cork fellas."

Alas, the odds on Quinlan being around much longer into the week are diminishing, with his quad strain failing to clear up amid suspicions it could be worse than originally diagnosed. For all the official protestations to the country, no less than with Luke Fitzgerald earlier in the week, the decision to reroute Stephen Ferris from the Churchill Cup in America to this tour as additional cover suggests the desperately unlucky Quinlan's injury jinx has struck again.

Daftly overlooked all season by Ireland, he cannot even blame Eddie O'Sullivan for this latest development.

Grace recalls the one that got away: AMONG the small entourage travelling with the Ireland squad are the IRFU president, Der Healy, and the honorary treasurer, Tom Grace.

In only his third cap for Ireland in 1973 at Lansdowne Road, Grace scored the late try that earned Ireland their best result, a 10-all draw, after 20 attempts against the All Blacks.

Scored tight in the right-hand corner of the Lansdowne end, his try left Barry McGann with a touchline conversion to create history. Grace has a video of the game and says from a camera angle directly in line with McGann's kick the ball was en route for the posts before falling away like a golf shot.

"McGann often says to me when I meet him now, 'Gracer, I tell you, if I'd only got that kick you'd have been bleedin' famous'."

Of course, so would McGann have been - famous.

In a 25-Test career between 1972 and 1978, Grace would play against the All Blacks twice more; the 15-6 defeat in Lansdowne Road in 1974 and Ireland's first Test in New Zealand, here in Wellington, which the hosts won 11-3.

Grace was captain that day and this is the one he laments most.

"John O'Shea wrote in the papers we shouldn't have been out here at all, we should have been training in the Kerry mountains, we were so bad. Willie John, Ken Kennedy and all those guys were gone. We'd won a few games but the Saturday before the international we played Canterbury, who had Alex Wyllie and Billy Bush and these fellas, and murdered us 20-4, and they had a lot of guys in the Test side. But honestly they were there for the taking. Rather than the 10-all, that was the game that got away."

But he and McGann had off days with their place-kicking.

"I can honestly say we didn't believe we could win. I have the video of that one as well and the pack murdered them."

The tight five of Phil Orr, Pa Whelan, Phil O'Callaghan, Moss Keane and Brendan Foley contained four Munstermen, and Jimmy Davidson (who had not played for Ireland since the draw in 1973) came out as a late call-up to replace Grace's good friend Shay Deering, who had dislocated a shoulder.

Grace should be a popular man in New Zealand rugby circles, given he was one of the first to know their bid to host the 2011 World Cup was successful. His accounting firm Price Waterhouse Cooper supervised the vote count and it was Grace who handed the envelope containing the result to the IRB chairman, Syd Millar, for him to make the announcement.

Ironman v Sex and the City: WEDNESDAY evening's day off culminated in an evening trek to the movies for the Irish squad. Some went to see 'Ironman', while quite a few went to see 'Sex and the City'. Getting in touch with their feminine side before facing the All Blacks seems a curious choice, though for a suitable amount of hush-hush money, we'll refrain from divulging the identity of those involved.