IT WAS A freezing January morning when the call came.
“I was on my way to work. I had come back into my house because the car had frozen so I boiled the kettle to defrost it. The phone rang and it was Ciaran Fitzgerald”.
Rob Saunders was just 22. A scrum-half, he had come through the Irish underage ranks - Ulster schools, Ireland schools, Queen’s University, the Irish Universities, Irish Exiles. Everywhere he went, he was a captain. He had that quality. He was a leader.
Fitzgerald had seen it up close when he took charge of the Irish U20s alongside Johnny Moloney and Saunders was again appointed skipper.
He had been on the periphery of the senior side. His club form with London Irish was excellent. But he was still waiting for his first call-up.
Fitzgerald took over as senior Irish boss in the autumn of 1990 and oversaw a necessary transitionary period. The ageing veterans needed replacing and new blood was required.
With the Five Nations the following month, Saunders felt he had a decent chance of making the squad. But, Fitzgerald had other plans.
“I’ve relived that total conversation about a hundred times in my head since it happened”, Saunders says.
Ciaran had seen me in action with the U20s and he just said, ‘We’re gonna bring you into the team, we’re gonna start you and we’re gonna start you as captain’”.
He went on, ‘We’ve thought long and hard about this and if we felt for any minute that you couldn’t cope or didn’t have the right personality or mental strength, we wouldn’t put you in this situation. Get your head around it. If you need to speak to me, give me a call’. And it didn’t last a lot longer than that. He was an interesting guy, Ciaran. You just had to crack on with it – that was it”.
Saunders put the phone down, went back to defrosting the car and headed into his job with engineering and construction firm M.F. Kent.
At the time, the uniqueness of the situation was lost on him. He was born in England to Scottish parents. He had never played for the senior Irish side before. And now, on his debut, he was entrusted with the captaincy too. At 22 years of age.
“Maybe it was the innocence of youth or naivety but I never really thought about it”, he says.
“It’s only when you look back on it and so many people still remember it. It is an interesting story because it’s highly unusual but I always felt I had the talent to play for Ireland – coming through the ranks and all of that.
I knew it was a risk to go to London Irish – it was a reasonably fashionable club but a club that was going through a lot of change. I happened to be very lucky and arrived at a time when four of us ended up being part of the Ireland backline that year. We were playing very well and the reports sent back to Ireland were good and I broke into a training camp over the Christmas period. I got myself into what was fourth position and around that time, I felt like I was in with a shot of being on the bench. Starting would’ve been the blue sky scenario – certainly not captaining the side. Usually you’d have been given some sort of hint. Someone would’ve taken you to one side at some stage”.
Ireland’s tournament opener was against France at Lansdowne Road on 2 February, 1991 and it said much that there were four debutants in total, including Saunders’ London Irish team-mate Simon Geoghegan on the wing.
But it was still very much a mix of youth and experience, something Saunders was aware of despite being the designated leader.
“No one was going to say anything to your face”, he says.
“I think there was a huge element of surprise but everyone was supportive. I remember what my Dad used to say to me: ‘Whenever you’re at school it’s all very well being the best of three years but when you turn 18, you need to be the best of 15 years’. It was hugely flattering. But a total surprise. And not just to myself! To 99.9% of the rugby population, I guess.
Back in those days, the captain had to deal with media stuff, you had to call heads or tails and then you just had to go about playing well. There’s not an awful lot of insight you’re going to offer as a 22-year-old with zero international experience. Like, with Dessie Fitzgerald who played for 10 years, you’re not going to take him to one side and say ‘Let me tell you what you should be doing, Dessie, in my experience’. That was never going to happen so you didn’t have to worry about it. You just had to try and cope with it as best you could. You had never been there before so you were kind of making it up as you went along”.
Ireland delivered an impressive performance that afternoon but still succumbed to a 21-13 defeat.
Still, Saunders gave an assured display and came in for plenty of praise. A fortnight later and it was Wales in Cardiff Arms Park, the Irish camp certainly buoyed by how they had kept in touch with France for long periods in Dublin and had led 10-6 at the break.
In the build-up, Fitzgerald reiterated that he was ‘building a new side’ and that the Irish camp was ‘starting from scratch’ – illustrated by more debutants in the backline with Jim Staples, David Curtis and Jack Clarke handed their opportunity.
Staples and Clarke both touched down, as did Geoghegan and Brendan Mullin but Brian Smith could only convert one of the tries and the game ended 21-21. A missed opportunity – something seemed a regular occurrence with Ireland at the time.
“It was an interesting time for Irish rugby”, Saunders says,
“A lot of the older players had begun to come to the end of their tenure and there was an exciting, younger generation coming through. Unfortunately, the results probably didn’t reflect the talent that there was”.
Ireland would avoid the Wooden Spoon – but only just. They were beaten at home by England and there was a 28-25 loss to Scotland too.
But there was a postscript.
The squad went on a summer tour to Namibia where Philip Matthews was reinstated as captain. However, he picked up an injury in the first test so Saunders enjoyed one final fling with the role in the following game.
And, despite not being skipper anymore, Saunders remained first-choice scrum-half and he started throughout the 1991 World Cup as Ireland made it to the quarter-finals. Infamously, in the direct aftermath of Gordon Hamilton’s iconic try, he failed to find touch with a kick and Australia forced a line-out close to the Irish line that resulted in Michael Lynagh rescuing a Wallabies win from the jaws of defeat.
Saunders remained part of the squad for another three years but lost his place to Fergus Ahearne in 1992 and then subsequently to Michael Bradley.
But, the game was changing. Professionalism was on its way and demands were increasing. Based in London, Saunders was building quite a career for himself away from the pitch. And despite having been tipped for long-term Irish success and identified as a possible Lion, he decided to walk away.
He doesn’t do regrets but still, more than a quarter of a century later, he still ponders whether it was the right thing to do.
“A lot of guys my age, maybe slightly older, combined jobs with signing a professional contact”, he says.
“I didn’t want to do that. My career had really begun to take off at that stage and my timing was already getting really strained, working for a US investment bank and trying to juggle taking Friday afternoons off if I had to travel with London Irish. My employer didn’t really ‘get’ that. Some players were able to marry the two but it wasn’t something I ever really wanted to do.
It was an incredibly brave decision, I felt. I could see where the game was going – the professional game – and I couldn’t afford to give up the day job. In many ways, I was lucky to be capped when I was. At 25/26, my career was taking off and I channeled my energies into that. With hindsight, I should’ve played for another couple of seasons. I would’ve liked to have done that. I should’ve played in two World Cups. If I turn the clock back…but, then again, maybe I wouldn’t have been good enough anyway? If I could wave the magic wand and go back, I would do”.
Saunders – whose son Niall is following in his footsteps as an underage Ireland international – remains incredibly proud of leading his country. He may only have 12 caps to show for a three-year stint with the senior team but he’s part of an exclusive captains’ club. And his story is certainly the most unique.
“I was thrust into the limelight at a pretty young age”, he says.
Getting the captaincy on my debut was as much of a surprise to me as it was for other people. But it’s undoubtedly my standout moment, that game against France in February, 1991.
When you’ve been dropped, when you’ve lost form, all the hardships you’ve gone through, the sacrifices you’ve made, that moment crystallises everything. It’s such a privileged position. Very few people in the world get to experience it. You become a member of a very elite club. You’ll never forget it.
I can still see it. No one can ever take it away from you. My father was a great rugby player but he never quite made it – so for him and my Mum, who invested so much time, it was special. I know as a parent that you live the pain even more when something isn’t going right and you just hope you can impart some advice. And a lot of the time, when you get an opportunity like that, it’s about the people who have helped you get there. You feel really pleased for them. None of these things are done in isolation. The support is always around you”.
