2007 - A year in Irish Rugby
Do you remember the day you witnessed God Save the Queen played inside the GAA headquarters, followed by Amhrán na bhFiann? It was a moment that moved many and went far beyond the rugby field.
A crowd of 82,000 were there to see this symbolic game, O’Driscoll kept his cool, but many including John Hayes and Jerry Flannery, were moved to tears.
A few protesters had turned up (it wouldn’t be Ireland if they hadn’t), as the English anthem rang out the Irish supports remained silent, followed by a cheer and applause rippling around the GAA fortress. This comes as no surprise to some rugby followers, but the fact it happened at Croker was considered important enough for Martin Corry to acknowledge this with a clap of his own.
Ireland went on to win 43-13, nailing their ghosts and burying the English in the words of one supporter.
O’Driscoll put it so well, summarising the victory as a repayment of gratitute to the GAA for the use of their stadium.
The Six Nations drew to a close with Ireland only just missing out on the championship by the narrowest of margins in that nail-biting game against France.
Is your hair standing on end yet? Feeling the goosebumps of that day all over again?
Crash back to the end of the World Cup in October when just 15 people greeted the Ireland squad back in Dublin. O’Driscoll speechlessly moved through the Arrivals Hall, accompanied by his girlfriend Amy Huberman - unable to find the words to discuss what had happened in the previous weeks.
Did we choke under the pressure of not being the underdogs? We were no longer the Irish minnows, and people cheered on Namibia and Georgia as they brought the game to us with the nothing to lose and everything to gain - could that really make us falter, or were the problems deeper than that?
2007 draws to a close on a low note, changes afoot at the IRFU - but that one night back at Croke proves what a year we really had!