Last night I was reminded of the story about the old English gentleman who had a dream. He said he dreamed he was making a speech in the House of Lords and then woke up to discover that he was!
I am in Dublin and last night attended the 40th anniversary of my Dublin University rugby team. Dublin University, or Trinity College as it is also known, has the second oldest rugby club in the world.
It was formally founded in 1854 and is second only to Guy’s Hospital in London in terms of longevity. Of this we are extremely proud.
In 1975/76 I was elected, at 19, as the youngest ever skipper of the club. There had been a disastrous year before but somehow, in that golden season, we turned it around.In the end, our band of bona fide students won the Irish University Championship, beat both Oxford and Cambridge and a strong Sydney University side and, to cap it all, we won the Club Cup Competition for only the second time in 60 years.
In the final we narrowly defeated a mighty Blackrock side in extra time after a replay, and their team included British and Irish Lions Fergus Slattery, Willie Duggan and Ray McLoughlin as well as a number of other Test and provincial players.
We have a reunion every five years and last night was it.I was on my feet, resplendent in dinner jacket, sharing memories of that magnificent season when, like the old British Lord, I seemed to wake up.
The faces in front of me were transformed from a sea of old, fat and bald countenances to the young, fresh and optimistic faces of four decades ago.
Accountants, doctors, lawyers and teachers were suddenly back as young students with their careers still in front of them.Some are now extremely rich and successful, others less so, but those facts did not count a jot.
We were, and still are, a team of brothers who went into the trenches and emerged successful in spite of the odds being stacked against us.We were organised and committed and vowed that season to give everything we could to rescue the honour of the club. We wanted to win again.In a way, the rugby is now incidental. The tries and conversions scored do not matter. I now see our club, and that team in particular, as a microcosm of society.
Any society. We replaced an atmosphere of resignation and the tolerance of low standards with one in which excellence would be pursued.W e realised that in a rugby season, as in life, there is much that cannot be controlled by ourselves.
We did not concern ourselves with that. Instead, we consciously and deliberately identified and concentrated on that which we could influence. Honesty was demanded in terms of fitness and effort.
Decency and sensitivity in the way that setbacks, like players being dropped, was employed.Feedback was given and attention to all sides, even the juniors in the club, was insisted upon.The result was a transformation in attitude and spirit and an enthusiasm for the game and the club which was palpable and almost surreal.
Yes, it was nice to win, but addressing that gathering made me realise it was not the trophies that are significant but the spirit and pride we created. That is what brought, and still brings, us together.Why was this such a revelation? How could such a basic premise of sport be forgotten?
In this age of the poaching of young players, temptations with illegal performance-enhancers, lack of respect for traditions and an emphasis purely on results, maybe others have forgotten what sport is really all about as well. It is about life.When you are involved, you can be blind to this.
That is why every school, club, province and country needs to have its priorities right. Sport is important and it is nice to win things, but victory can also be attained in other, more important ways.
Minnows can win as well.
Ask any old player.
* Robbie hosts the morning drive breakfast show on 702, weekdays 6-9am.JohnRobbieOf cabbages and kings
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