Ireland v France can live up to hype and seize rugby back from stattos

Sport was a joyous business for the great Frank Keating: let’s all hope for an uplifting Dublin classic in his memory

Sporting miracles do occasionally happen. And when they do the vivid memories cascade down for years and years. Think of dramatic Six Nations games between Ireland and France, say, and it is impossible not to be mentally transported back exactly a quarter of a century. Baggy cotton jerseys, Irish underdogs and – magnifique! – a young Brian O’Driscoll scoring a hat-trick in Paris to beat France 27-25 in 2000.

Not only was it Ireland’s first win in Paris for 28 years but that evocative mid-March weekend sticks out for a different reason. It also proved to be the final overseas rugby assignment for one of the great oval-ball chroniclers, the Guardian’s own Frank Keating. Frank adored Ireland and its revolving cast of quick-witted rugby characters and that night, once the two of us had finally located our hotel down a tiny street on the Left Bank, we duly raised a glass to the most lustrous of green days.

Because what Frank loved even more than Ireland winning was the story-telling romance of sport and all its twinkling possibilities. “What’s auld Gaelic for ‘Incroyable’?” began his match report in the following day’s paper. “This result will leave a winking asterisk in emerald neon in history books all down the new century.” And the almighty “BOD”? “In an age of played-for midfield collisions and narrow-eyed and relentlessly grinding body charges by over-muscled half-robots, O’Driscoll shines out like the full-beam Fastnet light does off the Cork coast.”

Ah, what a man. What a writer. And what a scene-setting genius. How about this for a description of the annual pilgrimage made by French supporters up from their sud-ouest heartlands to watch the national team in the big smoke? “Berets, rough cognac, live cockerels in the luggage rack, La Marseillaise in gruff, proud throats …” Or the glorious quote he attributed to the French forward Jean-Luc Joinel after Les Bleus were deprived of a grand slam by Scotland at Murrayfield in 1984. “We had thought of everything,” sighed Joinel. “Except for the possibility of a referee who has only the one eye.”

In the world according to Keating – and how we miss him – winning was just one part of the sporting equation. It was also about humour and fellowship and finding the joy in things that might otherwise be grimly serious. His first hero as a first-time Ireland watcher at Twickenham in 1960 was the visiting captain Tom Kiernan but the collective spirit of the entire team equally captured his imagination. “He had a blinder and in front of him his colleagues fizzed about in a hotchpotch of jinks and jigs and darts and delicate invention and wild-make-do-and-mend – all the time maintaining the most furious gusto imaginable.”

Not surprisingly he also had an especially soft spot for the charismatic French captain Jean-Pierre Rives – “the cascading hair of Pernod yellow ...” – who also summed up the “vim and swagger” of Les Bleus in their pomp. “The whole point of rugby,” Rives told Keating one day in a Toulouse cafe, “is that it is, first and foremost, a state of mind, a spirit … the game’s very name is a magic word.”

Which leads us neatly to this Saturday’s new testament version of the same ancient story. How Frank would have loved the enticing, tantalising frisson of it all. Ireland looking for a third Six Nations title in a row, a feat never previously achieved. And France cast as the musketeering sous-chiens with the brilliant Antoine Dupont leading the charge. To quote Rives again on the subject of big international days: “It will be excitement all round, movement and an atmosphere that sets you quaking and stands your hair on end. The struggle is in keeping an inner balance in the middle of the tempest.”

There are only two small snags for sporting romantics everywhere. The first is the mathematics of this season’s championship run-in. Yes, it would be a grand Irish story if they effectively secure the trophy with a week to spare. But how truly special might it become if France win and set up a classic Super Saturday with everything still on the line?

The second caveat? Modern Test rugby matches, as seen at Twickenham last month, are not necessarily won by the side playing the most effervescent rugby. For all their fancy offloading in Rome, France picked a 7:1 bench against Italy with the aim of pounding their hosts into submission. They may seek to do something similar in Dublin and take on Ireland at source, as England successfully did for a while on the opening weekend.

Either way the visitors will also have to shake the uneasy memories of their last visit to the Aviva Stadium in 2023 when they were beaten 32-19 in a pulsating game. France simply could not escape the clutches of a focused, purposeful Irish side, even with Dupont in Superman mode. Remember when Mack Hansen looked certain to score and the scrum-half somehow stopped him with a scarcely-believable tackle? The French certainly will.

But you never know. Maybe this will be the match that lives up to the hype and drags both rugby and sportswriting back out of the grip of the stattos. “For Frank it was always a joyous business, about lovable people doing beautiful things with the ball on the field and having fun afterwards,” wrote Matthew Engel in his wonderful tribute following Keating’s death in 2013. “When it started to be grim-faced and serious and unsmiling – even rugby, especially rugby – the jollity drained out of it.” Twenty-five years on from O’Driscoll’s fabled treble, here’s to a similarly uplifting game in Frank’s memory.

One to watch

Three giants of modern Irish rugby – Cian Healy, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray – have announced their intention to retire from international rugby at the end of this Six Nations. There is a bit of pride involved – “I don’t want to get to the point where I’m maybe not selected or not picked for a squad; I didn’t want that to happen,” said O’Mahony – and why not? All three have been outstanding servants and deserve to bow out at a time of their own choosing. The question is whether the collective desire to give them an emotional send-off in Dublin this weekend helps or hinders Ireland? France will hope it is the latter but, when it comes to galvanising a team prior to a game, there have been few more reliable motivators than O’Mahony over the past decade and a half.

Richmond’s progress may shape game’s future

The ideal rugby day tends to be a subjective concept. But try this one for size: a beautiful clear sunny day, men’s and women’s rugby being played on the same afternoon, plenty of skill and endeavour and a highly convivial post-match atmosphere. All of the above was on offer at the Athletic Ground in Richmond on Saturday and, sitting in the stand, it felt like a snapshot of everything club rugby should be. The next day saw the club host their second mini rugby festival of the season, a spring follow-up to a similar autumn event that attracted 120 teams and over 1,000 youngsters. Of course Richmond are lucky in terms of their location and a well-stocked catchment area. But they are also a prime example of the growing dilemma in English rugby. What constitutes best practice these days? Running a thriving club for all ages or risking it all in order to satisfy the extra financial requirements for would-be participants in a reimagined ‘second tier’ below the Premiership next season? Richmond currently sit top of National One, want to go up and are understood to have met with senior Rugby Football Union officials last week. But having gone bust once in the professional era the club are utterly determined not to do so again or be pressured into spending beyond their means. Do they “lack ambition” because they wish to prioritise running a solvent business for the benefit of the many rather than the few? Or are they the model everyone else should be copying? In terms of the future shape and direction of the English club game, a fascinating few weeks lie ahead.

Memory lane

French spirits were high in 1999 as they chased a third successive Five Nations grand slam. Optimism for that record achievement grew with a famous 10-9 victory in Ireland in their first match, with Thomas Castaignède scoring a last-gasp penalty to seal the tightest of wins. The French captain, Raphaël Ibañez, admitted afterwards that it was probably the hardest toughest match he had ever played in: “The intensity was extreme as hard as I have ever known it and the Irish really deserved a result but Thomas held his nerve and we still have our dream of the third in a row alive.” It proved to be a false dawn, however, and France’s only win of the 1999 tournament with Les Bleus finishing bottom of the table after four three subsequent defeats (including an epic loss to Wales, with Neil Jenkins man of the match). The record for three successive grand slams remains unclaimed.

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