Post by smallball on Oct 25, 2007 11:55:40 GMT
By Colm Keys
Depending on your slant you may feel an Irish man, referee Alain Rolland, had an input into South Africa's Rugby World Cup success on Saturday night. Sections of the English media certainly felt he had, even overlooking the try that wasn't.
But if one or two of Rolland's more contentious decisions somehow contributed to Springbok glory, he wasn't the first Irish man to do so.
Back in early 2006 the current Limerick football manager and former Kerry player, Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, embarked on a whistle stop eight-day tour of their five Super 14 clubs, to explain the rudiments of catching a ball above the head, Gaelic football style.
O'Sullivan has fond memories of his sojourn, that helped to develop a keen interest in the Springboks' progress in France over the last six weeks.
He was invited there at the behest of the South African rugby union and their High Performance Programme aimed to hone specia list skills of the game. The former English full-back Jonathan Callard joined on the trip as a kicking adviser.
During the stay O'Sullivan visited five clubs in four cities, the Cats and Cheetahs in Johannesburg, the Bulls in Pretoria, the Sharks in Durban and the Stormers in Cape Town.
Whether he made improvements in their fielding techniques during his time spent there, he says he'll leave others to judge.
But the precision handling of the chief line-out jumpers throughout the tournament and the confident fetching of some of the backs, most notably the once sieve-like Percy Mont-gomery, may have had some small legacy to those few days when O'Sullivan imparted his knowledge. O'Sullivan was selected to undertake the coaching sessions after initial contact was made with former Irish full-back Conor O'Shea, once of London Irish, now of the English academy.
Impressed
O'Shea and Brendan Venter were team-mates at London Irish and Venter, who was part of the High Performance team, had always been impressed with O'Shea's fielding skills. As the son of a former Kerry legend, Jerome O'Shea, he had contacts and Mickey Ned was approached.
"My brief was to try to improve fielding on a number of fronts. The South Africans had always been aware of the Australians' ability to field above their heads which came from their AFL backgrounds. Many of the Irish have it from their Gaelic football backgrounds," said O'Sullivan.
"Out of pride, the South Africans didn't want to approach the Australians so they came to us," he recalled.
Kerry's 1975 All-Ireland winning captain says many of the South Africans were highly impressed with a clip of the 2005 All-Ireland final between Kerry and Tyrone.
"In Durban, when we were with the Sharks, I showed 10 minutes featuring some of Darragh O Se's catches and they asked to see the whole game.
"Ironically, David Campese was one of their backroom team back then. Very few of the South Africans had an awareness of Gaelic football but Campese had."
In Pretoria, home of the Blue Bulls, he recalls the receptiveness and willingness to learn of Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana. "Matfield had a hangover the morning we were there as his wife had given birth the night before, but he was a wonderful guy. So too was Habana. He had a great spring and took to fielding the ball over his head very naturally."
Opinion
"Some of the club officials I spoke to were of the opinion that Gaelic football matches could become a product for the world market.
"They felt there is a wide audience willing to watch every sport and that it was even more compelling that AFL," he said.
"The message I really wanted to get across was that good fielding in rugby can be as important to attack as defence. What I was trying to impress upon them was the type of try Shane Horgan scored in Croke Park against England some 13 months later," said O'Sullivan.
In January of this year Callard, now with Brian Ashton's England, contacted O'Sullivan again hoping he and his Limerick trainer Cian O'Neill could come over to dispense some of the same ideas and principles.
"I declined, because I felt that would be going behind enemy lines. But we did meet Jonathan for an afternoon in Cork airport and we went through a lot of drills and techniques. In time Callard expressed the intention that an England development squad would come over to UL for a week to specifically work with GAA coaches on aspects of catching and kicking."
Preparation
For O'Sullivan, "Gaelic football coaches spend a lot of time analysing the preparation and techniques of other field sports teams but there is a lot to be drawn from Gaelic football too.
"It was one of the points that the former Springbok coach, Rudi Straeuli, made to me when I was there. He spoke of 'cross fertilisation' of sports.
"I was continually quizzed on what conditioning GAA teams did. Many couldn't believe they were amateurs who attracted 82,000 people to their major games," he recalled.
- Colm Keys
Depending on your slant you may feel an Irish man, referee Alain Rolland, had an input into South Africa's Rugby World Cup success on Saturday night. Sections of the English media certainly felt he had, even overlooking the try that wasn't.
But if one or two of Rolland's more contentious decisions somehow contributed to Springbok glory, he wasn't the first Irish man to do so.
Back in early 2006 the current Limerick football manager and former Kerry player, Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, embarked on a whistle stop eight-day tour of their five Super 14 clubs, to explain the rudiments of catching a ball above the head, Gaelic football style.
O'Sullivan has fond memories of his sojourn, that helped to develop a keen interest in the Springboks' progress in France over the last six weeks.
He was invited there at the behest of the South African rugby union and their High Performance Programme aimed to hone specia list skills of the game. The former English full-back Jonathan Callard joined on the trip as a kicking adviser.
During the stay O'Sullivan visited five clubs in four cities, the Cats and Cheetahs in Johannesburg, the Bulls in Pretoria, the Sharks in Durban and the Stormers in Cape Town.
Whether he made improvements in their fielding techniques during his time spent there, he says he'll leave others to judge.
But the precision handling of the chief line-out jumpers throughout the tournament and the confident fetching of some of the backs, most notably the once sieve-like Percy Mont-gomery, may have had some small legacy to those few days when O'Sullivan imparted his knowledge. O'Sullivan was selected to undertake the coaching sessions after initial contact was made with former Irish full-back Conor O'Shea, once of London Irish, now of the English academy.
Impressed
O'Shea and Brendan Venter were team-mates at London Irish and Venter, who was part of the High Performance team, had always been impressed with O'Shea's fielding skills. As the son of a former Kerry legend, Jerome O'Shea, he had contacts and Mickey Ned was approached.
"My brief was to try to improve fielding on a number of fronts. The South Africans had always been aware of the Australians' ability to field above their heads which came from their AFL backgrounds. Many of the Irish have it from their Gaelic football backgrounds," said O'Sullivan.
"Out of pride, the South Africans didn't want to approach the Australians so they came to us," he recalled.
Kerry's 1975 All-Ireland winning captain says many of the South Africans were highly impressed with a clip of the 2005 All-Ireland final between Kerry and Tyrone.
"In Durban, when we were with the Sharks, I showed 10 minutes featuring some of Darragh O Se's catches and they asked to see the whole game.
"Ironically, David Campese was one of their backroom team back then. Very few of the South Africans had an awareness of Gaelic football but Campese had."
In Pretoria, home of the Blue Bulls, he recalls the receptiveness and willingness to learn of Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana. "Matfield had a hangover the morning we were there as his wife had given birth the night before, but he was a wonderful guy. So too was Habana. He had a great spring and took to fielding the ball over his head very naturally."
Opinion
"Some of the club officials I spoke to were of the opinion that Gaelic football matches could become a product for the world market.
"They felt there is a wide audience willing to watch every sport and that it was even more compelling that AFL," he said.
"The message I really wanted to get across was that good fielding in rugby can be as important to attack as defence. What I was trying to impress upon them was the type of try Shane Horgan scored in Croke Park against England some 13 months later," said O'Sullivan.
In January of this year Callard, now with Brian Ashton's England, contacted O'Sullivan again hoping he and his Limerick trainer Cian O'Neill could come over to dispense some of the same ideas and principles.
"I declined, because I felt that would be going behind enemy lines. But we did meet Jonathan for an afternoon in Cork airport and we went through a lot of drills and techniques. In time Callard expressed the intention that an England development squad would come over to UL for a week to specifically work with GAA coaches on aspects of catching and kicking."
Preparation
For O'Sullivan, "Gaelic football coaches spend a lot of time analysing the preparation and techniques of other field sports teams but there is a lot to be drawn from Gaelic football too.
"It was one of the points that the former Springbok coach, Rudi Straeuli, made to me when I was there. He spoke of 'cross fertilisation' of sports.
"I was continually quizzed on what conditioning GAA teams did. Many couldn't believe they were amateurs who attracted 82,000 people to their major games," he recalled.
- Colm Keys
