Twickenham, 6 March 2004
By Gerry O’Sullivan, 16 March 2006.
Ahead of the match on Saturday, I thought I’d post my reminiscences of the last England-Ireland match in Twickenham, 6 March 2004.
I was invited to come to the match by a business contact, and having thought about it for all of about 0.005 seconds, accepted the offer. I’d never been to Twickenham before. There were about a dozen or so of us in the group, a good mix of Irish and English, so plenty of banter.
Game on. Ronan O’Gara misses a sitter of a penalty in the fifth minute and I think “Shit! It’s going to be one of those games.” But then Ireland start picking off the English lineout at will. ROG slots home two penalties, both more difficult than the one he missed earlier. Shortly afterwards, a defensive mix-up lets Dawson in for a soft try. A few more penalties on either side and we go into half-time 12-10 up. At this point, confidence is building up in the camp.
I was coming back from the jacks to my seat for the start of the second half, when I realised that play had already begun, and worryingly enough there was a pile of both white and green shirts by the corner flag of the Irish tryline. When the replay was shown we all knew it wouldn’t stand. Well, when I say “knew”, I mean “hoped”. “NO TRY” comes up on the big screen.
A short time later it happened. D’Arcy breaks and makes 50 metres. The ball comes back and across to the right. Horgan brings it into the 22. It changes hands a couple of times and a ruck forms five metres from the English line. Stringer to D’Arcy to O’Driscoll to Howe to Dempsey… It was at that moment when Girvan Dempsey took Tyrone Howe’s pass and we realised that he was going to get to the line before anyone got to him. “TRY” flashes up on the big screen. Irish euphoria all round. ROG nails the conversion from the touchline. 10-19. One more penalty for England leaves the score at 13-19, and the final ten minutes go on for what feels like ten years. Mark Regan, who has replaced the quivering wreck that is Steve Thompson, thinks he has scored in the corner, but thankfully big Mal O’Kelly has dealt with him and the magic words “NO TRY” flash again on the big screen. I’m looking at the score board counting up 40 minutes and at 39 minutes am thinking that there is going to be at least 6 or 7 minutes of stoppage time. I didn’t realise that they were stopping the clock during the game, so when it turns 40 and play breaks down, the ref blows time and Ireland have beaten the world champions in their first game in their own back yard since the World Cup.
Fair dues to the English fans, they weren’t shy about coming over to anyone in a green shirt and congratulating them. We all ended up on the piss in Soho till late, still wearing our green jerseys. What a night. What a win.
Let’s hope something similar happens on Saturday.