Grand Slam

Finley Calder.

They're all Grand Slam winners, Dad.

Yeah.

Have I shown some players? Hello.

And he coached them from 2018 to 2020.

In 2019, they won a Grand Slam.

And in 2020, they probably would have won a Grand Slam.

They won a Triple Crown before the pandemic kicked in.

They had won three out of three matches.

And he invited, when he got the opportunity to coach in Bordeaux, he liked what he saw with Noel McNamara and he brought him back to Bordeaux.

So Noel has pursued with the young family, Sinead, his wife and three daughters, he's pursued a career in coaching and he's tried to make the, himself the best coach that he can be and there's nothing you can have nothing but admiration for that because that's that's living it rather than talking about it so he's he's been willing to to chase that and that's very important i think he's got an opportunity for again this is all presumption He's got an opportunity here.

Everything that he has done in the past has been relatively successful, whether you're looking at Clongos, whether you're looking at Leinster A, whether you're looking at the academy in Leinster, Grand Slams and Triple Crowns with 20s, you know, coaching Ireland Under-19s schools.

I think the Springboks do have a history of dropping games on their Northern Hemisphere tours every now and then, whereas I suppose in the past the All Blacks were known for not doing that pretty much at all.

So if the Springboks treat the Northern Hemisphere tour, and Kitsie can probably give us a better idea of this about the way that they see it, I always felt watching from afar that the end of year Northern Hemisphere tour for the Springboks was kind of second place to the Rugby Championship and it was used more in a way of development than it was to come out of there with a grand slam or, you know, having won every game.

Looking at the game and looking at the entire calendar season, if you look at 10 years ago, the Springboks would have loved to go to Europe and be four out of four, five out of five games and win the Grand Slam.

But in the last couple of years, especially under Rossi, it's been more of a feeding tool, like using it as an opportunity to bleed a couple of youngsters in it because the season's become so long and...

You're not sure what your players' minutes are by the time that happens because there's an entire URC still ahead.

He's 43 now.

Ireland under 20s coach, won the Grand Slam.

And then it seemed the Sharks gave him the attack coach job and he moved his family there for two years.

And Yannick Brew, who was there, was the guy who brought him to Bordeaux, where he is since then.

50 next year he's 49 he's in his 40s

yeah

Adrian Joyce wrote in why do you think O'Gara wasn't even spoken to it feels like his success in France has not been recognised at home an ex-player over 100 Ireland caps won a Grand Slam excuse me is this a fucking joke that the IRFU didn't have the decency to speak to him I find that disrespectful from a Connacht fan what do you make of it he stole my thunder there he did a bit he came in punchier than you

I was just putting it out there he's mugged you badly I've been mugged there now I know what it means

Well, yes, but also it feels like we can win it purely based on the fact there's a World Cup next year.

It's like the Grand Slam before the World Cup.

You do realise then we'd have to beat either South Africa twice or South Africa once and New Zealand once.

I know, but we're sick of it.

But this is the Grand Slam before the World Cup.

This is the 2023.

It's happening all over again.

[laughs]

... they're well recognized in New Zealand, you know, as rugby followers around, you know, that era of Scottish rugby when we, we were bloody strong, weren't we? When we look back, you know, we've always had some up and down years since then, and through the '80s in particular, and, uh, the Grand Slam in '84 and the, uh, the number of players that went in the Lions tour in '83 and, you know, the draw with the All Blacks.

Um, yeah, there was, uh, some good results, wasn't there?

There certainly was, and obviously, uh, having been steeped from, in rugby from the start, you, you were always gonna to play.

I think when you're young, so my first probably big injury would have been tearing my hamstring.

I didn't tear it completely off the bone, but partially tore it off the bone in the under 20s against England, the year we actually won the Grand Slam.

And that was my first kind of big injury.

And I was saying to myself, oh God, you know, bad timing.