NOT ONLY HAS Ben Kay played in two World Cup finals, he has also enjoyed a long history with Lansdowne Road.
Certainly longer than most beyond these shores.
Despite only visiting with two Six Nations teams, the lock carries fond memories of his youth when his Waterloo club would make an annual visit to Wanderers RFC.
Those amateur outings in the 20th century would have been much more cordial than the storm he became enveloped in on March 30 2003.
Looking back now, it seems like a mountain made from a mole-hill, but the surrounding mood was unbearably tense.
Both sides were playing off for the Championship and a Grand Slam. Martin Johnson and England has already been foiled on the old ground in 2001 and watching green ribbons go on the trophy just wasn’t in his itinerary for that day.
“I can tell you, it wasn’t a planned thing at all.” Ben Kay told TheScore.ie yesterday.
“It was all caused by Clive Woodward. England had obviously tripped up at the Grand Slam stage in the previous few seasons and Clive would say how welcoming the Irish were, but warned about ‘little things they do to try and put you off your game and little hassles that you’ll experience at the stadium and don’t let anything get in your way and don’t get distracted’.”
With Johnson leading the line, single-mindedness was never likely to be an issue. Kay maintains that the protocol of having designated sides was overlooked or forgotten by the visitors. The second they stepped over the white line, they were in game mode.
“We were asked to line up by the officials, so we did.” Kay says. “They sent a gentleman over to Martin Johnson and said ’you’ve lined up in the wrong place’ and he used the advice that Clive Woodward gave us and said: ‘Too late, we’re stood here now.’
“It was only about two minutes into the incident that we actually realised it was quite serious. But Jonno said, ‘Well, we’ve done it now. We can’t back down.’”
Had it been planned, it could not have worked out better. Ireland’s readiness to line up on the grass away to England’s left was a symbolic backward step against a side who didn’t need a second invitation to inflict a demoralising 6-42 defeat.
“Even if you speak to the most ardent Irish fan who really took offence,” Kay adds with pride flowing back into his voice, “they probably all say our performance afterwards was backed up by the fact that we weren’t going to get pushed around and it did us a favour.
“It upset a few people in Ireland, but it wasn’t a planned thing, it just happened. The actual manner of our performance afterwards was probably one of my favourite games for England. Winning the Grand Slam in the old Lansdowne Road.”
Aware of the lay of the land, that evening Kay was able to guide team-mates to the Wanderers clubhouse to celebrate post-match. There, his story gets a little hazy.
YouTube credit: EllliotJackRussel2
By Kay’s second visit in an England shirt, the balance of power had tilted in Ireland’s favour. The World Cup was a distant memory and Ireland were able to play within themselves in 2005 to take a 19-13 win thanks to a trademark move finished by Brian O’Driscoll.
“It was a massively strong Ireland team and the atmosphere was just…. there was a momentum around Irish rugby at the time.” Kay recalls, the crackling phone-line unable to muffle the shake of his head.
“They were moving in the right direction and as soon as the scoreboard started to go against us it was very difficult to recover.
“That’s the challenge that England face this weekend. It was a problem two years ago, the scoreboard kept ticking over and got too far away from England and once that happens, with the atmosphere at Lansdowne Road, it’s very difficult to turn the tide.”
Ben Kay will be pitch-side at the Aviva tomorrow, providing analysis as RTE bring live coverage of Ireland v England in HD.
