February 4, 2012  Print Email | Ireland aims for clean sweep
Hopes to overcome the pressure in Six Nations Grand Slam
Posted by Agencies at 07:34 AM GMT on Mar 19, 2009 | LONDON (AFP): Ireland has been haunted by the weight of history in recent weeks, as it chases a Six Nations Grand Slam.
 Victory over Wales in Saturday's Championship finale in Cardiff would see Ireland complete its first clean sweep since 1948.
During the intervening 61 years there have been several occasions where Ireland have come close to having a perfect tournament.
The current side, captained by Brian O'Driscoll, contains several members of Ireland's so-called 'golden generation' but for all of them Grand Slam heartache has become a common occurrence.
In 2007, it beat the other Home Nations and Italy. But the team was undone in Dublin by Vincent Clerc's last-gasp try, which sealed a dramatic 20-17 win for France.
The year before witnessed another Triple Crown, the title awarded when one of the Home Nations beats all the others in a single Six Nations season, and a win over the Azzurri but France again prevented a perfect Championship for Ireland with a 43-31 second round win in Paris.
But even that wasn't as painful as the 2003 Grand Slam decider against England in Dublin.
Home hopes were high but England, who later that year would see captain Martin Johnson, now their manager, lift the World Cup, won by the crushing margin of 42-6 and Ireland's ability to cope with pressure was again called into question.
And yet for many Ireland fans the one that really 'got away' was in 2001.
Ireland had won its first two games, which included a 22-15 triumph over France in Paris, before an outbreak of the foot-and-mouth livestock disease in Britain led to a postponement of the tournament.
When the Championship resumed in October, Ireland was humbled 32-10 by Scotland, a loss made all the more inexplicable by their subsequent wins over Wales and England.
Not that the Ireland team of the 21st Century has been alone in its inability to match the achievements of their 1948 predecessors.
In 1985, when the tournament was still the Five Nations, they missed out on a Slam by the narrowest of margins after a 15-15 draw with France. But Ireland did have the consolation of winning the Championship, something that has eluded it for the past 24 years.
Three years earlier, Ireland had a perfect played three won three record when it travelled to Paris only to lose 22-9 on the final weekend.
An Ireland team featuring two of the country's greatest players in centre Mike Gibson and lock Willie John McBride won its first two matches of the 1972 Five Nations.
But the refusal of Scotland and Wales to travel to Dublin because of terror threats meant the Championship was never completed and Ireland was left to think of what might have been.
The 1960s were a largely fallow period for Irish rugby. But they threatened to end with a flourish when, in 1969, Ireland won its first three matches only to lose 24-11 in Cardiff in a fixture now best remembered for a punch by Wales captain Brian Price which felled Noel Murphy.
In the years after the Second World War, the Triple Crown had a lustre it now lacks. So rather than mourn the loss of back-to-back Slams, a 1949 season where Ireland's only defeat was against France was celebrated.
The Grand Slam beckoned again in 1951 only for a 3-3 final round draw against Wales in Cardiff to dash Irish dreams, a scoreline, whatever else happens, unlikely to be repeated this weekend.
|
|
| |
|