Ireland aim for one last cracker

Ireland coach Declan Kidney reckons it would be “huge” if the team could end their temporary stay at Croke Park by beating Scotland to claim the Triple Crown on Saturday.

Ireland’s residency at the home of Gaelic sports, while their traditional base across Dublin at Lansdowne Road has been redeveloped, has already been “huge” in more ways than one.

Until five years ago the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the owners of the imposing 82,000 capacity Croke Park, refused to let ‘foreign’ or ‘garrison’ games such as football or rugby union, products of the British state that once ruled all of Ireland, be played on any of its grounds under its Rule 42.

And the thought that rugby or football would be staged at Croke Park, where British forces shot dead 14 Irish civilians on November 21 1920 - the original ‘Bloody Sunday’ - during Ireland’s war of independence would have horrified generations of GAA stalwarts.

But all that changed when the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Rule 42 was achieved at the 2005 GAA annual congress.

That rule change was a momentous event for the largely Catholic and Nationalist GAA. It was also hailed as evidence of Irish modernity in the age of the Northern Ireland peace process and the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom in the southern Republic.

However, it was influenced by the knowledge the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) were looking for a new base.

The IRFU had decided to bring Lansdowne Road, rugby’s oldest continually used international ground, whose history as a Test venue dates back to 1878, into the 21st Century, with a 50,000 all-seater stadium.

But with Lansdowne also home to the Republic of Ireland football side, there was talk of the nation’s two leading sports teams playing their home matches in Scotland or Wales if the GAA did not relent.

But relent they did, much to the benefit of the GAA’s finances.

Last week the association announced a 21.5 million euros (19.4 million pounds) profit for 2009, a figure owing much to capacity Croke Park crowds for rugby and football.

And a recent report in the Irish Independent estimated the 28 rugby and football internationals which will have been played at Croke Park since 2007 after Saturday’s match will have generated more than 30 million euros for the GAA.

Croke Park’s time as a rugby venue - Ireland have won nine out of the 13 Tests played there thus far, with three defeats and a draw - has coincided with the most successful period in Irish rugby history. Last year saw the Ireland team which, unusually, still draws players from both the Republic and the British-controlled province of Northern Ireland, win only its second Grand Slam and first since 1948.

Victory over Scotland on Saturday would give Ireland the prize of a fourth Triple Crown (when one of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales beats all the others in a single Six Nations season) in seven years.

There are those who say the Triple Crown is not what it was, although anyone doing so with an English accent is reminded quickly it is a prize England haven’t won since 2003.

“It’s a romantic ending that couldn’t be orchestrated - our last match at Croke Park with a Triple Crown to be won,” said Kidney.

“A genuine sports supporter would never become blase about winning a Triple Crown.

“Just look what happened to the (Irish) economy,” said Kidney in a reference to the Republic’s financial downturn.

“We took it for granted, then it was gone.

“The situation of winning a Triple Crown may also be gone in the future.”

“It means a huge amount to the players to have been able to play at Croke Park.

LONDON, AFP