Sport Matters 8th February 2012
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A GREAT DAY IN CARDIFF RECALLED
By JOHN FALLON
Connacht will return to the scene of one of their most memorable triumphs on Friday night when they take on Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park.
The game has been switched from the new multi-million Cardiff City Stadium as the Welsh return to their old home in a bid to see if they can garner more support after playing most of the season in a stadium less than half full on a good day.
The first Celtic League game Connacht played in was on a Saturday afternoon in August 2001 in Cardiff. They had done well in a few European Challenge Cup campaigns — or whatever it was called them —but it was a real step into the unknown against the Welsh and few gave them any chance against their illustrious opponents.
The likes of Ebbw Vale, Caerphilly and Neath were in the competition back then but playing Cardiff was really taking on the big boys.
It was a typical summer’s day in Wales — a wet, windy, dark afternoon with drizzle and puddles.
The game matched the greyness of the weather, a real slugfest where neither side was prepared to give an inch.
Connacht laid down a marker that day that they would not bend the knee to anyone and there were wild celebrations afterwards, even if it was confined to players, management, a couple of alicadoos and the odd journalist. Connacht supporters were as rare that day as open rugby, but anyone that was there will remember it for many a day, even if it was one of the worst games in living memory.
Gavin Duffy and Michael Swift started that day and Johnny O’Connor was on the bench; so too was Eoin Reddan and Damien Browne, who are now with Leinster, but the playing days are over for the others.
Eric Elwood kicked both penalties that day while Connacht team manager Tim Allnutt was in the centre and assistant coach Dan McFarland was loosehead.
The result and details of the match are hard to find as the creation of the ‘Blues’ tag for Cardiff has hidden away a day the Welsh would rather forget.
More of the same on Friday, especially with last Sunday still gnawing away, wouldn’t go astray.
SIGHT OF THE WEEK: Painful, but the look on Stephen Ferris’ face when he realised he had just cost Ireland victory at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.
THEY SAID IT: “Hodge scored for Forest after only 22 seconds, totally against the run of play,” TV commentator Peter Lorenzo quickly spots a trend.
IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY: 8th February 1983: The most infamous kidnapping in sport happened when Shergar was stolen from a stable in Kildare, never to be seen again.
Sport Matters 1st February 2012
A NEW BEGINNING
By JOHN FALLON
Anthony Cunningham’s hurlers swung into action last weekend with an emphatic victory and Alan Mulholland’s footballers open their national league campaign next Sunday away to Derry. It is a new beginning for Galway hurling and football as the victorious U-21 managers from last year bid to make their mark at senior level.
The vibes coming out of both camps are very encouraging. There is an acceptance that it will take time for success, but the new managers seem to be going about their business in an encouraging fashion and the style of football and hurling that will be played will be attractive.
Neither of the new bosses or their management teams are afraid to crack the whip and both know what it is like to experience success and defeat wearing the maroon of Galway.
Those who went before them also gave it their best shot and had intentions every bit as good as the new men, but it is to be hoped that the fickle Galway supporters will get behind both sides in the weeks and months ahead. And give them a bit of time develop their teams.
It looks like there will be weekly press conferences prior to national league and championship games and that is encouraging, as a mature attitude to the media would also be helpful in the months and years ahead.
I can, to a degree, understand GAA managers being reticent to ‘being in the media’ but the reality is that unless GAA players and their managers come out and talk up their sport they can’t expect people to come out and pay good money to follow something they are being kept in the dark about.
The vast majority of players and managers in the GAA are intelligent and articulate people who can deliver good yarns about their hobby, their hopes, their dreams, their fears and their heartbreaks …. all of the things that make us interested in sport in the first place.
And, as the GAA has found to their cost, if the players, managers, officials and administrators don’t get out and promote their games, there are plenty of other sports out there who are more than willing to engage with the media and deliver the strong message that makes up the minds of the punters who are wondering where their scarce few euro is going to go.
SIGHT OF THE WEEK: Clifden Community School played Rice College in Westport in the Connacht schools senior cup quarter-final on Thursday. The game was played in driving wind and rain on a pitch that was just about playable. A player got a knock at one point but neither set of mentors went to his aid — he was so wet and covered in mud from head to toe that they did not recognise him! By the end it was hard to tell one team from the other.
THEY SAID IT: “John Bond has blackened my name with his insinuations about the private lives of football managers. Both my wives are upset,” Malcolm Allison on his successor at Manchester City in 1980.
IT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY: 1st February 1958: The ‘Busby Babes’ played their last match on British soil, edging out Arsenal in a 5-4 thriller at Highbury. Five days later the heart was ripped out of the Manchester United team in the Munich air disaster.
