On Irish Storytelling and Character

On Storytelling and Character

Our office staff here at Wisconsin Girls Rugby subscribes to several overseas newspapers. One of the more enjoyable is the Irish Independent. The writing style of their sportswriters is different from our American newspapers; a wee bit of that celtic gift for storytelling is infused in the retelling of the games and the opinions on the great people involved with sport. They seem to love their stories and anecdotes and people more than the plays and the stats. Maybe that’s part of rugby’s charm. We don’t keep a lot of statistics. It’s more about character and people.

One excerpt from “Laying Down a Marker” by Hugh Farrelly describes a team’s reaction to being scored on:

“Paul O'Connell stood tall as the players gathered behind the posts. Between injury and suspension, Munster's second-row and captain was featuring in only his fourth match of the season, but the gravity of the situation was not lost on him.

That ignominy of another defeat, the silent despair of the Thomond crowd, the ebullience of their opponents and the trials of a tough week forced Munster to a dark place behind those posts and a communal conclusion -- enough is enough.

When the Munster forwards jogged back to half-way for the restart, there was a different air about them. The bitterness, frustration and anger (absent in Toulon and the equally damaging defeat away to the Ospreys) was back and London Irish bore the brunt.”

Coaches and players have probably all faced a moment like that.

The article that caught our eye early this morning came from Brendan Fanning speaking with chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald about where Munster Rugby is headed. Munster is both an Irish Province and one of the more famous rugby teams.

Fitzgerald said: "The strongest aspect of Munster rugby, and always had been since before I was heard of, are the people. Our success has been built on having excellent people on and off the field, people with great character who have grown up in a slightly different culture given that lots of our areas of support are more rurally based than you'd get elsewhere. Those people run everything from schools rugby to club rugby to supporters and the professional staff and up to the overseas players we've been very lucky with. It's a different culture and those people have been our success. And the cross-sport support is a huge thing in Munster as well.

The weaker area is our facilities. I wouldn't be happy with them generally. Up to 20 years ago, rugby was seen as a Cork and Limerick thing but now it's right across the five counties. I'd like to see us improve our facilities across the board, not just stadiums. All the young players are honed in the domestic game in clubs and schools and I'd like to see us improve them. Personally, I think a lot of our underage rugby should be played in the better-weather months of the year. In Ireland, we try and train our kids in the worst months of the year and it's an issue for our skills and enjoyment of running and passing. I'd love to see us play into May and even have 10-a-side rugby for kids in August and September. Our competition model for our young players needs to improve also. “

I found this an inspiring reminder. Somedays we at WGR wish our facilities were a little better or that we were further along in our game development. Yet, here’s a perfect example of how one of the best rugby teams in the world, lacks some material things. Anyone who has ever played on the sloped pitch at DSHA, the one that used to have a tree in the field of play, would agree.

Or, just look at the Butler Bulldogs collegiate basketball team. They aren't a huge school, yet they just made it to the national championship game, and they play in the Butler Fieldhouse, built in 1928. If you’ve ever watched Hoosiers, it’s where they play the state championship game. It’s one of the older and smaller facilities in major college basketball. If you want to get an idea of how they’ve been able to be successful, look at some of the things Butler’s coach, Brad Stevens says. He’s only 34 years old and already he’s coached in two final fours.

Fitzgerald’s second comment also appears worthy of discussion around here. Our spring seasons are always such a challenge, with miserable weather affecting the ability of teams to develop skills and enjoy the game. Most teams gave up trying to schedule matches in March a few seasons ago. Should we wait even longer in the future? Start after Easter?