A sudden abundance of Triple Crowns cheers us
IRELAND'S TRIPLE Crown wins have in latter years become the norm, but spare a thought for those players that laboured for the first 48 years of the last century, throughout the 1970s and between 1985 and 2004.

Ireland have won 10 Triple Crown trophies since the championship began, the first in 1894, followed by 1899, 1948, 1949, 1982, 1985, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009.

We talk about the golden generation in Irish rugby and perhaps it is true.

Of the four recent wins, that’s one for Declan Kidney (and a Grand Slam) and three for Eddie O’Sullivan.

Whenever it comes up in conversation most people think of Brian O’Driscoll’s hat-trick as the one he scored against France in Paris in 2000. But he also scored a Six Nations treble in 2002 at Lansdowne Road against the team coming to Croke Park this weekend. The Irish centre ran in three scores as Ireland scorched to a 43-22 win over a bedraggled Scottish side.

O’Driscoll had not yet captained Ireland and would have to wait another two seasons before winning a Triple Crown with O’Sullivan.

But that hat-trick may well have been as sweet as the one in Paris as Scotland had denied Ireland a Grand Slam the previous autumn with a trouncing in Murrayfield.

Earls draws a bit of slagging

“I GOT a bit of slagging off the lads when it was out in the papers. I got a bit of a slagging alright. They asked me if I’d still got it and would I draw it again,” said Keith Earls last Tuesday in the team hotel in Killiney, Dublin.

The Munster express was reminded of a drawing he did when Ireland beat France 10 years ago, the match in which Brian O’Driscoll scored three tries. Earls recalled that Six Nations game, and in school he had drawn a picture with O’Driscoll in it and French players all around him crying. His error was in telling that story to the media.

NEWS that the Springboks will pick overseas players for Tests against Wales in June marks a departure from tradition, whereby a deal with a European club would cost a player his South African shirt.

While South Africa broke that understanding when they played in Ireland last November and used Ulster and Munster players after injuries hit hard, the policy had always been to keep players at home. With Argentina joining an expanded Tri-Nations, and Italian clubs coming into the Magners League, the Six Nations suddenly feels like a parish competition.

IRB forgets about the fans

ELITE REFEREE manager Paddy O’Brien told the media on Tuesday they were not part of his brief, yet he called a press conference in Dublin to explain just why the emphasis on the tackling rule has been changed mid-stream of the Six Nations.

“The fact the media were confused, they’re not really part of my brief and I’ll take that on board,” said O’Brien.

The media were confused.

But the obvious question arising out of O’Brien’s tack is how low down the pecking order does the

IRB put the fans of rugby, most of whom receive their explanations and understanding of the rules from television, radio and print media?

The wonderful scenario last Saturday was that, of the 80,000-plus fans in Croke Park, the 30 players playing, the millions watching on BBC, RTÉ and the Internet as well as the hundreds of thousands listening on radio, only referee Craig Joubert understood what was happening.

Vote early and often

TOMMY BOWE is the only Irish player to make it onto the shortlist for 2010 Player of the Championship.

Predictably, French players dominate the list, with captain Thierry Dusautoir joined by number eight Imanol Harinordoquy, scrumhalf Morgan Parra and bustling centre Mathieu Bastareaud.

Shane Williams, a former winner of the award, completes the list.

You can cast your vote at www.rbs6nations.com

Kyle to address charity evening

NERI CLINICS, a charity that runs a primary health-care facility in Lusaka, Zambia, are having a night in the Aisling Hotel, Dublin, tomorrow, where patron Jack Kyle, who is travelling to the match against Scotland on Saturday, will be speaking.

What people possibly don’t know is that, following the conclusion of Kyle’s illustrious playing career in 1963, he travelled to Africa to work as a consultant surgeon in Chingola, in the Zambian copper-belt district.

This was no gap year of taking some time out to travel the world, but a lengthy, committed career to the Zambian people.

Kyle lived away from Ireland and worked in Third World conditions for over 30 years from 1966 and 2000.

While his service is probably well known within his own generation, it is probably not known to the younger generation or the great many who have flooded into the game in the last 15 years or so.

More matches means more caps

PROFESSIONALISM HAS brought more than money to the game. It has also given fans many more international matches. In Irish rugby history, 28 players have broken the 50-cap mark, and six have won 75 caps or more.

Of the 28, 19 are either still playing or have played in the last eight years, and in the 75 caps or over club, all six – Malcolm O’Kelly, Brian O’Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Peter Stringer, John Hayes and Ronan O’Gara – are still contracted to professional teams.

No player who came before UCC and Cork Constitution’s Tom Kiernan, whose career spanned 1960 to 1973, gets beyond the 50 mark.

Modern rugby.