IRFU president John Robinson (left) Tom Grace (centre) and Willie John McBride at the 1973 Ireland team's visit to the Irish Embassy in London. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Willie John McBride, followed by Tom Kiernan, leads out the Irish team ahead of the Five Nations game against England at Lansdowne Road on February 10, 1973. Photo: Sportsfile
Rúaidhrí O'Connor interviews Tom Grace of the 1973 Ireland team at the The Irish Embassy in London yesterday. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
IRFU president John Robinson (left) Tom Grace (centre) and Willie John McBride at the 1973 Ireland team's visit to the Irish Embassy in London. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Their number is fewer now and they’re a little slower on their feet, but the men of 1973 still stand tall as they recalled the day that England turned up and saved Irish rugby.
When they toasted absent friends, they knew who they were talking about, and they meant every word.
Some have passed on, others are too ill to make the journey, but for the 11 members of the Irish side and six English players, there was a special feeling in the Irish Embassy in London yesterday as they reflected on a game that made a real difference.
Tom Grace knows how important the opening game of the Five Nations was and not just because he crossed for one of Ireland’s two tries. In the wake of Bloody Sunday, the Welsh and Scottish unions had opted not to send teams to Dublin on safety grounds in 1972.
That may have cost a talented Irish side a Grand Slam, but Grace believes the damage that would have been caused if England had followed suit would have been terminal for Irish rugby and might have destroyed the Championship that’s still going strong half a century later.
“Having been the honorary treasurer of the IRFU for 13 years, I would realise how important it was that it did go ahead, not just for the IRFU but for Dublin as a town, the hotels and all of that,” Grace said. “It was fantastic that fellahs like David Duckham, Fran Cotton, Andy Ripley, God rest him, Christopher Rawlston – actually just came.
“The craic was mighty afterwards at the dinner, John Pullin standing up and saying, ‘At least we turned up’. The camaraderie in the room has continued for years. I toured with a number of them on the Lions and would regard them as friends. They had done Irish rugby such a service. They had the balls to turn up. You’re putting your life on the line.”
Pullin died in February 2021, but his words will echo through Irish rugby for a long time to come. Knowing the stakes, Willie John McBride called the hooker and England’s star winger David Duckham – who died in January – to make the case for playing the game.
The conversation with Duckham, whose fiancée Jean was nervous about him travelling to Dublin, was particularly influential. By the end of it, both David and Jean were coming to Dublin.
“England changed their team a lot in those days, but the one name that was always in there was David Duckham,” the 82-year-old Lions legend explained.
“If he cried off, it’s gone. I also spoke to John Pullin. I always said John should have been an Ulsterman because when he made up his mind, nothing in the world was going to change it. I knew he was coming.
Willie John McBride, followed by Tom Kiernan, leads out the Irish team ahead of the Five Nations game against England at Lansdowne Road on February 10, 1973. Photo: Sportsfile
Willie John McBride, followed by Tom Kiernan, leads out the Irish team ahead of the Five Nations game against England at Lansdowne Road on February 10, 1973. Photo: Sportsfile
“The rugby fraternity were quite annoyed about the whole thing because throughout all of those years, all of the clubs worked hard north and south to make sure no matches were cancelled.
“The reaction of the crowd didn’t surprise me, that was the feeling of the Irish people and their game. The Five Nations was a big thing, just like the Six Nations is now. If England had cried off, would the Five Nations have survived? I don’t know, we’ll never know, but thank God John Pullin and England made up their minds.”
The issue of travelling was a complex one for the English players, for whom the threat of violence was very real. Unlike the WRU and the SRU, the RFU had committed to playing the game, and the players were told that an English team would play whether or not they made themselves available.
Only Nigel Horton, a policeman, chose not to go. Each of them had their own reasons for making the trip, but after all of the warnings, the welcome they received was huge.
“It was my first cap. Your first cap is massive anyway,” scrum-half Steve Smith recalled. “I started really well. I was a young kid just out of university, and the Daily Express rang me up and asked, ‘Are you going to Dublin to play that game?’ I said the immortal words: ‘For England, I would play in a minefield’. Not the smartest words, you can imagine the headline the next day!”
Rúaidhrí O'Connor interviews Tom Grace of the 1973 Ireland team at the The Irish Embassy in London yesterday. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Not that it mattered when he got to Dublin. “We were all in the same hotel and on the Friday night, we got a phonecall to meet downstairs in the bar. We got down, there were 40 pints on the bar, and Willie John just said, ‘Thank you for coming over’,” Smith recalled. “We sunk the pint.
“The next day, we ran out for the five minutes of applause, and let me tell you five minutes is a long time, but when the whistle went, that stopped, and that’s the way it should be. That’s the way it was, and it was fantastic.”
Grace appreciates the risk the English players took.
In 1973, he was playing against New Zealand when he heard a bomb go off on Sackville Place off O’Connell Street, while a trip to Murrayfield to play in a centenary match between an Ireland/Scotland selection against Wales/England brought home the reality of the situation to the young Dubliner.
“Amateur days, we’re in the bar having a couple of pints and Willie John comes in and introduces us to the chief of police, who tells us there’s been a threat on our lives,” Grace remembered.
“Each of the Irish players was assigned a bodyguard, a policeman. I remember going up to the room, into bed and feeling, ‘I’m here on my own’ and going out to check if yer man is still outside the door, and there he was.
“We never thought more about it, the Scottish fellahs arrived and we trained.
“Then, on the Saturday, I’m standing on the pitch for the national anthems and looking around at 50,000 people there, saying to myself, ‘If there’s a sniper in the crowd…’ and genuinely believing it because there was a lot of trouble back home. But then I was able to comfort myself that they wouldn’t be shooting Tom Grace, they’d be shooting Willie John McBride or Mike Gibson!
“When you see that programme (The Team that Turned Up, broadcast last Sunday on RTÉ), about how they were picked up at the airport and taken by bus to the hotel. There was a realisation that, if someone was going to have a crack, no bother.”
For Mike Gibson, it is a fond memory from a tough time. “It was massively significant at the time. Life was very difficult during that period. For England to make a decision to honour their commitment… well, the very fact that we’re having a celebration 50 years on to commemorate it gives an idea of the impact it had on rugby,” he reflected at the Embassy yesterday.
“My memory of it was England being led out on to the field first. The noise from the crowd was maybe slightly in excess of the noise that was there when we came out. We felt that we would have to play well to get the crowd back to support Ireland because a lot of their sympathies and appreciations were for England’s gesture. It was a very good day, a good memory because we won.”
Of course, as they looked back, there was also room to look forward to Saturday.
“It’s an absolutely outstanding period for Irish rugby, the best I’ve ever experienced,” Gibson said as he sent a message to the team. “Please play well on Saturday,” he smiled. “I think they will respond.”
