Modest Kidney A Man Worth Hailing

It’s a landmark that means little, but last week marked the fourth anniversary of one of my bigger breaks in radio.  I joined a national station, as a stringer, and for around a year I attended sporting events from Sligo to Cork, doing interviews and vox pops and compiling reports.

My first assignment came at an unremarkable Magners League game between Munster and the Scarlets at Musgrave Park in September 2007.  As is custom, I interviewed the winning coach after the match, and as well as getting his views on another Munster win, I decided to ask him about the story du jour in Irish rugby; the then-ongoing failure of Ireland at the Rugby World Cup in France.

The reply, in a word, was unremarkable.

“You’d have sympathy for all of them.  They’ve all burst their traps to put everything in place and, you know, it’s very disappointing the way it’s working out for them.”

“There’ll be no one more disappointed than the players and the management themselves.”

What makes those remarks relevant today, is that the man who uttered those words is the individual most responsible for the turnaround in the national team’s fortunes in the intervening four years.

I wonder when he spoke those words in the Dolphin Clubhouse in Musgrave Park, whether Declan Kidney thought for a moment that he could be best-suited to benefit from Ireland’s misfortune.  Would he have wished for it to happen?  No, I’m sure, but the Heineken Cup winning coach would have known that he would be a strong contender to take over the position in the event of Eddie O’Sullivan’s departure.  He could have stoked the fire, told me what he would have done differently, why things were going wrong.  He could have increased the pressure on O’Sullivan but he didn’t.  He spoke in generalities, in platitudes.  There was no criticism.  No headline.  Kidney kept his true feelings to himself.  That is how he operates.

Declan Kidney is humble and modest to the point of satire, but his ways do not change.  In his greatest hour, in Cardiff in March of 2009, he declined an invitation to stand with his players as they lifted the Six Nations Trophy.  He is not meek however.  Make no mistake, Declan Kidney is driven, focussed and determined.  This is a man who inspires those around him and without a doubt, has the full respect of those he leads.  Men are not as committed as Ireland were in the win over Australia, unless the fully believe in their cause.  Remember too, when Ireland’s preparations were in crisis after four losses in August, belief was never lost.  Just as there was no catastrophe, there was no delirium when Australia was dispatched.  The result was an opportunity, not an achievement in and of itself.

There’s no doubting, mind you, that Declan Kidney has been lucky.  There’s no Grand Slam if Jones’ penalty travels three yards longer, or if O’Gara doesn’t connect with a late drop goal.  And if Ireland’s defence were to relent late on at Eden Park, then it would be Australia who would have celebrated that night, and South Africa who we would be focussing on now.  But if he is fortunate now then he was fortunate in leading Munster to their success for so long too.  At some stage luck gives way to something more tangible than that, something more permanent.  Class, perhaps.

There’s no man I would rather entrust the hopes of a nation in at this moment in time.  That he is one of our own, that he is modest and self-assured in equal measure; both of these are vital.  Unlike Lefty Gomez, he’s lucky and good in equal measure.  There are question marks about some of his decisions – I’ve raised some myself – but for the first time in our history Ireland have a proven track record of form, an opportunity to shine and a management team to be confident in as we head into a World Cup Quarter Final.  

We dare to dream, as fans and as a nation, but our charges are grounded.  If Saturday goes wrong, we’ll all hurt, but “there’ll be no one more disappointed than the players and the management themselves.”

"The **** Had His Arse Out!"

If you happen to be easily offended by bad language then the video below isn't you, but if not then it's hilarious.  Mark Tapper was the leading Kiwi in last week's Rally New Zealand until he was distracted by a fan on the side of the road, and the subsequently crashed out.  Watch the video below, and then laugh.

I'll avoid the obvious jokes about being wary of any man distracted by another fella's arse...

Not Such A Bastareaud After All?

While Andy Murray and Michael Jackson continue to dominate the headlines in this part of the word, there is a very interesting scandal involving a rugby star brewing in France.

You may remember Mathieu Bastareaud from this year’s Six Nations. Very impressive in the win over Wales, Bastareaud brought a lot of positive attention to himself and it seemed that, at the age of 20, French rugby was looking at a player who could play at centre for the next decade.

More likely than that, however, is that Mathieu Bastareaud came to your attention approximately two weeks ago after France’s second test defeat against New Zealand in Wellington. Not for anything to do with the match itself but for what happened that Saturday night. The initial reports were that he’d been beaten up by “three or four men” while out on the town. Naturally, this provoked a media storm in New Zealand. Ahead of their hosting of the 2011 World Cup, the country was ashamed that a touring international rugby player could be beaten up by one of their own. Yet that’s not what happened.





Within a matter of a few days, the ‘truth’ had emerged. Bastareaud definitely returned to the team hotel in full health. It seems that he had fallen, drunk, in his room, and had lied to avoid getting into trouble with the team management. He returned home to France, disgraced, where it seems he was met with vilification in the national press. RTE reported this revelation with the witty headline Lying Bastareaud Comes Clean.

In the media storm that has erupted, rumour and conjecture have been flying around France. My French is not the best, so I must rely on second-hand reports, but among the rumours is that Bastareaud’s injuries were caused in a fight with other members of the French squad, a fight for which he was made a scapegoat and thus sent home.

So far, this is the tale of a player who, in either the official story (he lied, got caught, owned up) or the rumoured version (he got into a fight with teammates) did wrong and has righty gotten into trouble for doing so. But this is a story that has taken a new turn, one that could have been tragic. It was reported that Bastareaud attempted suicide over the weekend and is now under observation in a psychiatric clinic. Otherwise, he is said to be fine. Thankfully.

Today the French Prime Minister has written a letter to his counterpart in New Zealand, John Key, apologizing for Bastareaud’s actions. Key has termed this an end to the affair and hopefully that is the case, in terms of a public sense, even if it will not be for Bastareaud, who is left to cope with his now damaged career, and possibly also his life.

Today’s development, the intervention of Francois Fillon, most worries me. Bastareaud is one of the few French rugby players who has heritage outside of the country (Guadalupe I believe). This foreign heritage is something which has been seen with many French soccer players but, perhaps for class differences, not in the oval ball game. Would Fillon have intervened if, say, Cedric Heymans was the player involved? Was (if the rumours about the fight are true) Bastareaud made a scapegoat based on his ethnicity? I’m not qualified to discuss the intricacies of French society but to see how this can affect France, watch the Palme D’Or winning The Class from Laurent Cantet. This stunning film engages with the issue in a simple yet philosophical manner, giving an outsider such as myself an insight into everyday life in multi-cultural France.

Whether or not race is a factor, there is also no doubt that Bastareaud has been exposed by French rugby authorities. Little has been done to defend him after the incident and, it seems, next to nothing was done to care for him during the media storm that followed. He reportedly told friends he was feeling suicidal before this weekend but, again, nothing was done to aid him. He was hung out to dry; even representatives of New Zealand police agree with that much. “At least two French players, maybe more, know the truth,” said Peter Cowan, the police chief in Wellington. “One day it will come out.”

Until that day, let’s hope that Bastareaud recovers, and returns to the rugby field sooner rather than later.