Ryan Bailey reports from Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay
COLWYN BAY, THE seaside resort on the north coast of Wales, doesn’t offer a whole lot for the passerby at this time of year, but the celebrations of last Friday night will live long in the memory of 23 players and their families.
Pockets of green pervaded the home crowd at Parc Eirias, making themselves heard throughout a nail-biting and compelling 80 minutes, before the pressure valve was released by Colm Reilly’s sweet, sweet try.
Relief, joy and utter exhaustion on the pitch and in the stands.
Noel McNamara — a picture of calm despite the nerve-wracking drama unfolding in front of him — clenched his fist and exhaled. As he said during the week, never let the highs be too high and the lows be too low. But this was special, these were special moments.
The players, barely able to digest the scale of their achievement, could be heard but not seen under a cloud of champagne as Charlie Ryan and David Hawkshaw lifted the U20 Six Nations trophy to the delight of those who had lived and breathed every second of this incredible journey.
Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, girlfriends. All there, all sharing in the delight.
The players hugged each other, drowned each other and celebrated together like the band of brothers they have become over the last eight weeks, the injured party of Hawkshaw, Craig Casey and Harry Byrne in the middle of the pandemonium.
“It’s huge. I can’t even describe it,” an ecstatic and emotional Dylan Tierney-Martin said.
“You’re coming off the bench [at full-time] and you don’t realise it. It seems like you are meant to be jumping around and you’re meant to be ecstatic but you haven’t even had time to absorb it yet.
“The biggest moment for me was walking over to see my mother and seeing the tears in her eyes. That was when I realised ‘Jeez, this is huge, this is absolutely massive.’
And my dad, this just means everything to him. When it means that much to your parents, it has to mean that much to you.
In victory, McNamara’s side not only added the Triple Crown and Grand Slam to the Six Nations title they had won a week previous, but became just the second Ireland U20s side to complete the clean sweep, emulating the achievements of Eric Elwood’s charges 12 years ago.
It was a hell of a campaign, starting with the rollicking win over England in Cork on the opening night and finishing with an equally dramatic away victory here in round five, with plenty of highlights and memories squeezed in between.
“It’s such a good feeling, it’s amazing,” Tierney-Martin continued. “Especially with a group of guys in there, it’s what I would describe as a brotherhood.
“To do something like that with lads who you are that close to makes it extra special. Even though it probably is a once in a lifetime opportunity, it’s even better when you are that close.”
The bonus-point finish on Friday night capped it all off, even if the performance wasn’t Ireland’s best. Jonathan Wren’s try just before the break proved to be a crucial moment in the game, as was Tierney-Martin’s score not long into the second period.
Having trailed 10-7 at the interval, the Connacht hooker’s fifth try of the campaign handed Ireland the lead for the first time on the night and while they would have to come from behind again later in the contest, it was a pivotal intervention.
The 19-year-old showed excellent awareness on the far side to collect the loose ball after Ireland’s lineout maul had been sacked and dart for the line for a TMO-awarded score, which Ben Healy would brilliantly convert from the touchline.
“The boys obviously mauled and they got hit in the air,” Tierney-Martin, whose former life as a back rower was evident in his dynamism around the park, explained. “It was sacked and all the momentum kind of fell forward.
“It just landed on everyone in the maul and to be honest, I was sitting there with the ball and I was looking at the Welsh lads and I thought there going to absolutely smash me but but they didn’t so I was like ‘I better get up.’
“So I got up and started running and got hit but all of a sudden I was over the line. I wasn’t being stopped going over that line. There was nothing going to stop me.”
It also meant the Galway native finished as Ireland’s top try-scorer.
“I am a bit cheeky like that,” he laughed. “I have been told before that I have a bit of an attitude about myself.
“I was waiting around for the boys to do a bit of work and then I peek in and get the easy ones.”
Needless to say, Friday’s was his favourite.
“Just the magnitude of it. It felt so good to get over that line. You’re not thinking about anything else but just getting over to score that try.”
Ireland’s resilience and heart was typified by their totemic hooker, whose reputation soared throughout the course of the championship, not only because of his penchant for getting across the whitewash but his role in the pack’s set-piece dominance.
With the medal proudly dangling around his neck, Tierney-Martin cited the team’s unity, character and self-belief as key factors in their success, particularly in those moments when their backs were against the wall.
“When we looked at, nobody doubted that a realistic goal was to win the Grand Slam,” he added. “So from the moment go, that was it — that was all we wanted.
“You can go out and hope to win a Grand Slam or win a tournament, but we knew that was a realistic goal for us and that we went and did it.
I think that’s what got us through when we were 14-3 down against England. There was no panic. There are dips and peaks in games and that was their peak, we were going to get them when it was their dip.
“We knew it ourselves, we never panicked in any of the games. I said it to the lads during the week, we have been through it all.
“We have been through holding a lead, we have been through chasing games. It is just about having that patience and knowing and trusting in that guy beside you to go out there on the pitch and do the same again.”
The class of 2019, Grand Slam champions. They’ll never forget that night in Colwyn Bay.
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