Ciarán Fitzgerald: ‘The IRFU has produced a model the world of rugby envies’

Back in the 1970s when he was studying commerce and playing hooker in UCG, the former Irish and Lions captain Ciarán Fitzgerald assumed one of the roles as the team’s unofficial drivers along with Ronan O’Gara’s dad Fergal, and two medical students, Tony Lowry and Leo Dillon.
“UCG were always the underdogs,” recalls Fitzgerald. “In our day, we were always scrambling to figure out how we could get to a match. I was a young lieutenant at the time and I remember buying an old banger of an Austin A40. I think I paid 150 pounds for it off a fellah and I transported half the forwards to every match all over Connacht plus the jerseys in the back seat.
“The O’Garas had a garage in Ballysadare [in Sligo] and Fergal was the second one and Tony Lowry and Leo Dillon alternated with another car. So, we were the transport element of UCG carrying kit and players all over the country to play matches.”
Everyone mucked in with the washing of jerseys as well.
“Galway is really intimate at the moment but back then even more so because everybody knew everybody, and every faculty was involved in each other’s achievements and celebrations, be it rag week or sports.”
The rugby, hurling and Gaelic football teams all supported each other and Fitzgerald trained with the rowing team. The university had a family feel to it and, even with expansion, has tried to retain that. Born and reared in Loughrea, 35km away, Fitzgerald has long considered Galway his home away from home.
“We were students, so we were lightweights, and some of the friends I met then are friends to this day both in Galway and in west Connemara. There is a great affinity and a great bonding among people.”
Fitzgerald will hope to meet many of them on Saturday evening in the Galmont Hotel when he and another former UCG international, Dr Mick Molloy, will be among the speakers at a 150 year anniversary celebration of UCG rugby presented by Darragh Moloney.
Founded in 1874, which makes it the oldest rugby club in Connacht, UCG have won the Connacht Senior Cup 34 times and the senior league 16 times, but their senior team was relegated in 1996 from the AIL and they fell as low as J1C in the Connacht Junior league.
However, over the past decade they’ve fought back up to the J1A level of the Connacht Junior League. Their women’s team play in the Connacht Women’s Senior League, finishing second last season, and the men’s under-20′s play in the second Division of the JP Fanagan competition in Leinster. They don’t have any age-grade teams but are linked with Galway Bay Rugby Club, an underage club.
This celebration is in part designed to spark a revival of the rugby club.
“Like any club in Ireland, but especially universities, resources are a problem as are the transient nature of teams as players pass on, and the GAA are very strong in the west of Ireland,” says Fitzgerald. “But Connacht have risen to the challenge of establishing rugby as a go-to sport.”
As well as playing all his career for Connacht, Fitzgerald also briefly coached the province before he was promoted to Irish head coach from 1990 to 1992. In an overall sense, allowing for the 2016 Pro12 triumph, Fitzgerald cannot recall Connacht ever being in ruder health.
“They’re playing an excellent and very attractive brand of rugby which would entice young players to further their careers. The change from the old muddy grass pitch to a synthetic pitch is conducive to developing very athletic and skilful players. Fitness and skill are key for Connacht. They might not have the depth of the others, but they’ve always lived with that and a bit of luck with that will help.”
Having studied and played rugby in Garbally College, Fitzgerald began his senior career with what is now University of Galway RFC before going on to play with St Mary’s College, and captaining Ireland to the Five Nations and Triple Crowns of 1982 and 1985, as well as jointly winning the Championship in 1983.
The highlight was leading out Ireland at the old Lansdowne Road for the first time in the 1982 Five Nations opener against Wales. “I’d been injured the season before and we’d lost all six games narrowly. For the life of me I don’t know how we lost them all and the pack was being written off. But they were great players, many of them Lions, and here was yours truly leading out Dad’s Army. That was a day of redemption for everybody in the team,” says Fitzgerald of the 20-12 win that kick-started a revival.
Fitzgerald’s time as captain was a relative time of bounty for the Irish team following many somewhat barren decades, not to mention the difficult 1990s when he was head coach. But it was nothing like the successes of the last 20-25 years.
“What’s even more remarkable is the organisation and support structure that’s behind it in the provinces and at international level. Once the IRFU really embraced professionalism and put in the management structure at the very top, it’s produced a model that the world of rugby envies,” says Fitzgerald.
Not sounding remotely as envious as he might, Fitzgerald cites the supply lines from the provinces to the national team, and the financial health of the Irish game.
“I’ve always thought that the profile and physique of the Irish players is very similar to New Zealand, not like the South African, French or English. We’re the same body build, and skill is our key, and we have skill in lots of other sports, like GAA.
“There was no reason, if we could develop our skills in rugby, that we couldn’t match the best and I think that’s what Joe Schmidt and now Andy Farrell have done, as well as instilling in the players to go the extra mile.
“They have the physical conditioning and the skills but to go down to New Zealand and win there, and then win the second Test in South Africa, was remarkable.”
Compared to his own playing and coaching days, he might just as readily have said unthinkable.
“To win that second Test was very important psychologically for the whole Irish team because after the World Cup, understandably, there was a bit of a dip. Their first match against France was their best performance in the Six Nations and then they struggled a small bit. Maybe there was some fatigue.
“But that second match down in South Africa against that physical challenge was outrageous in some respects. Given South Africa were at home and on the crest of a wave, it was an incredible rugby achievement, and will give them a great lift this season. I’ve no doubt now that the progress will continue.”
No doubt this and much else will be discussed at length in the Galmont Hotel on Saturday, when Fitzgerald hopes to run into former team-mates, unofficial team drivers, old friends and more.
“I told some people three or four months ago that UCG was 150 years old and they didn’t believe me. That in itself is an achievement. To be able to stay on the pitch and still be playing, that’s great credit to them and why wouldn’t they have an ambition to go a bit higher again?”