An engaging match for the many Irish fans in Twickenham (including me).
99 tackles, 4 chances, 3 tries, 1 win, no voice left after Tommy Bowe charged through for his match-winning try.
John Hayes is not the best prop in the world (I won't replay the
full Ringo joke) but he is the best prop in the Irish front row - he can't cover tackle like Gethin Jenkins (or scrummage like him), but he lifts like
Otis and his team-mates hold him in the highest regard.
He likes Kiwis too:
Dennis Hickie said this week
"following the Lions tour in 2005, on a flight from Wellington to Auckland, as everyone was sprinting to catch a plane out of the country following 10 weeks in the New Zealand winter, John casually mentioned to me that this year he was doing something different for his holidays. (No golf or beaches at the end of the season for this farmer.)
Instead of his usual stint on the farm, he was planning to head back down to freezing Invercargill – next stop Antarctica – to revisit friends he had made when Shannon sent him to New Zealand as a 20-year-old to learn his trade as a prop." Hickie went on to say:
"Leading the team out and having to take centre stage on Saturday is probably the last thing John wants to do. However, his team-mates will insist, so as ever, he will put the team first and just get on with it. Putting the team first comes more naturally to John then perhaps any player I have ever played with and it is perhaps that singular trait, more valuable then any amount of caps he has earned, that marks him out as one of Irish rugby’s true greats."Cheers
Megweya
