A different ball game

Alan Lewis, former Ireland cricketer and now a Rugby Union referee, was at the Ireland training session before their game against Australia in Dublin last year. He wasn’t there to impart tips or share experiences with his younger countrymen, No sir, there was more serious business at hand. Two groups of quarrelling, argumentative Irish national cricketers didn’t trust their support staff to do a good job officiating, so they got Lewis to stand in a game. A game of rugby. That’s how serious and competitive these games before nets sessions and before matches are.

Of course they play the milder version, touch rugby (they wouldn’t want to get injured through proper tackles), but the games are every bit as competitive as their cricket in international matches is. “If you lose, the boys will take it out on you for the rest of the day, or the next couple of days,” says Niall O’Brien. “If you win, which we are doing at the moment in the Green team, I am letting the Blue team know, and giving them plenty of stick.”

O’Brien should know, for he was on the losing side in the 2007 World Cup. Back then the teams were not unimaginatively named Green and Blue. The divide ran deeper. The Oldies played the Youngies, and O’Brien’s Youngies lost. Trent Johnston, Boyd Rankin’s new-ball partner, would never let him hear the last of it. Rankin, though, played rugby at school, and although he didn’t get a chance to exact revenge on this trip because of the new teams, he is at least on the winning Green side on this tour.

William Porterfield, one of the best players in the side, is not too impressed with Rankin’s claims, though. He tells the team stories of how Rankin used to trample all over his feet and his size-15 shoes. O’Brien thinks along the same lines. “I am not sure how good a player he was,” he says. “I think he was pretty useful in the line-out. I think he was handy enough there, Boydy, but I think he has chosen the right career path in being a quick bowler.”

Back to winning or losing then. It’s not an easy job to determine. Every city they travel to forms one leg of their rugby tour. For example, this is the third leg of the World Cup tour, after the Dubai leg and the Nagpur leg. There will be Bangalore leg after this, and so on. And there is no fixed number of legs, it all depends on how far they reach in the tournament.

As of now, both the teams have won one leg each, with Green leading two games to nought in Dhaka. They expect to take the lead here. On paper, Blue seem to be a stronger side, with Jonhston, Porterfield and Ed Joyce in. However, they also have the services of Andrew White, not something Rankin and O’Brien are particularly envious of.

“Definitely the worst player,” says O’Brien, “is Andrew White. Comfortably. He coaches rugby, he has played rugby, but he just goes for the glory, tries the interceptions, and opens up the defence. He is the worst.” Ireland famously were a motley crew of a painter, truck driver, postman, farmer, electrician and more such work descriptions, in the last World Cup. Now, though, White is one of the only two players to have not turned pro. He is a schoolteacher, and says that job too was important to him.

Ask Rankin about White, and he says, “Andrew White is on the other side, he is not very good.” Sounds like a popular player in the side.

They are not playing not for nothing. At the end of every tour, there is a formal presentation, and they have a trophy to go with it too, a tradition that started in the Caribbean. It was called Snip Du Jour in 2007, a name Paul Mooney came up with. Mooney is not playing this World Cup, but in his memory, this year's trophy is called Snip Mooney.

The next time Ireland are in your city, make it to the game earlier than you normally do. For this naturally entertaining side gets down to business before they actually start playing cricket.