Interview: Hector and Risteárd
What happened to Ireland at France 2007? Brendan Cole meets Hector O'hEochagáin and Risteárd Cooper who, as makers of the documentary 'Chasing The Blues', which followed Ireland's progress (or lack thereof) at the tournament, have more insight than most...
Brendan Cole: You were keen to work together after 'Chasing The Lions' (a documentary they made that followed the Lions Tour of 2005)?
Risteárd Cooper: 'We had a great time on 'Chasing The Lions'. Given the fact that the rugby was so bad, there was a tragic/comedy element to it as well. It was a little less pressurised for the Irish boys as well, so we had the opportunity to get to know them a bit and have a bit of crack with them. In terms of the Tests, Brian O'Driscoll's tour was over early and they were a little bit more relaxed about things.
Hector O'hEochagáin: 'It's a long way to go to play rugby, and they let off steam after every Test. 'Chasing The Lions' worked because right at the end we had the players and the crack...
'Going down there for five weeks to see the All Blacks was a privilege for any sports fan and it was great because there were so many Irish lads in the team and in the squad.
So 'Chasing The Blues' was another one, we knew it was coming up and we said 'right, lets do it.' Go to France for a couple of weeks; Bordeaux back in January, that sounds very attractive!
RC: 'It was brilliant only for the fact that the rugby was crap'
HO'h: 'The rugby was sh*te! The foie gras and the wine was super. The entrecote... I was going to the intermarche - getting all the fresh veg and fresh salad and bottles of Saint Emillion wine. It was super. The food was good, the weather was good but...
Together: 'The rugby was sh*te!'
BC: Would you take France over New Zealand?:
HO'h: 'New Zealand was spectacular. We had so much fun. We had six or seven on the crew down there and we really had fun in the back. We had a trailer on the back of a Hi-Ace and we were able to just load all the gear and go to Palmerston, Roturua, up to Wellington, Auckland. Wellington was super! We were going out every night having bottles of wine, and there were six or seven lads just talking rugby and having the crack. For six weeks that is an ideal thing, it's a beautiful country, and watching the All Blacks as well was a privilege.
RC: 'A Lions Tour is a different thing. There was more of a sense of fun. There were so many of us there and you all have the same objective - following the Lions and all that. But the one thing with a Lions Tour is that your very much treated as British - and English specifically. It almost became a habit to say, when the New Zealanders would ask us if we were English - to instantly react and say that we were actually Irish.'
Click here to see Hector and Risteárd on 'The Tubridy Show'.
HO'h: 'The only bit on that jersey that's Irish is the hint of green on the sock! That's the only bit of green on it! I suppose look, Ireland winning the Triple Crown, Munster winning the Heineken Cup and having the likes of O'Driscoll and D'Arcy in the team, we just felt that everyone was feeling the same.
Mothers, housewives, people who were never into rugby before knew that Ireland were going to the World Cup and they could name five or six of the players. Rugby has never been in that position before. People used to know just one player on the team - Ciaran Fitzgerald or Tony Ward - normal people anyway - now everyone knows everybody on it. So there's all that hype and you have 50,000 or 60,000 fans going over there. It was the best supported team in the world.
RC: 'Everything was set up for them so perfectly. It seemed like all the planning and preparation had been done. We came out of a very good Six Nations, the warm up games went badly - although sometimes that can work for you - but nobody predicted that it was just the beginning of the slide. I wonder - it hasn't been raised really - if the fact that they didn't win the Six Nations had a terrible effect on the team.'
BC: So..... where does the rugby come in for you both?
HO'h: 'I started at Butlins, Community Games, under-nine mini-rugby. Then, at under-12s I missed a tackle one day when we had a guy called Dick Brady training us. He was like a sergeant major, it was freezing cold and I had to tackle each of the team. I kept feeling my ear was coming off. Afterwards, I sat into the car and said 'that's not for me'."
RC: 'Hector just wanted the easy life you see. - I played the game, I'm a ''goy'' - ah no, I played in school, at St Michael's. Actually, my nephew was the out-half on the JCT team in Michael's last year, and he is now on the SCT squad, and my brother played for Old Belvedere as well.
HO'h (to RC): 'Rugby is your first sport isn't it?'
RC: 'I''d have to say I'd be passionate about soccer as well... although I probably am more passionate about rugby.
HO'h: 'You'd want to see it: in rugby, he knows every call before the referee, and he knows what's going on before it happens, as in, before it comes up on the screen, he'll tell you exactly what it is. "That's illegal offside, yeah! Illegal maul left hand side! And a minute later - up on the screen: 'illegal maul'."
RC: 'He came in from the soide, loike... completely there ref!
RC: 'The truth is I just have the ref link in my ear. I'd have always had a very strong link to it. My uncle also played for Leinster and from a very early age I would have gone to matches in Lansdowne Road. But I have to watch myself now, because if I'm watching matches at home with my son, who is nine, and I actually get really carried away, and I actually get depressed for a few hours afterwards.
'After the Ireland Georgia match, which I actually watched at home, the house was miserable. And then in France, the depression after the French match was... I mean, regardless of what had happened up to then, people still thought that they could pull it around. I genuinely believed that they could - because France were lacking confidence, they were nervy, and it was a great opportunity for Ireland's backs to kick in...
HO'h: 'We woke up over there on the morning of the French game, and we were PSYCHED! We went and had our coffees, and were there checking the odds, and bantering and getting in the van in 'Come On Ireland!' mood.
RC (Eddie O'Sullivan): 'Unfortunately Andrew Trimble thought he was playing out-half for the French try. That was a bit unfortunate. But it was a good idea to drop Denis Hickie I think. That worked out well.
Next question: Which brings us to what we're going to see in 'Chasing The Lions'..
'Chasing The Blues with Hector and Risteárd' will air at 10.10pm on Thursday (RTÉ 2); the DVD is available from November 16.
