With the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour well underway, we caught up with former Ulster and Ireland centre David Irwin (Lion #592), who was a tourist to New Zealand in 1983...
Can you describe the honour of representing the Lions?
Clearly it was the pinnacle of my career as it would be in anyone’s career. Your goals change.... when you’re at school you want to get on the Ulster team, when you’re on the Ulster team you want to be on the Irish team and potentially then progress onto the Lions, but you never think that you’re going to achieve that until you do.
Even though we lost the series 4-0, which on paper looks bad, realistically it probably should have been 2-2. It was a great experience and something that was really special to be part of.
What are your highlights from the ’83 tour?
So many. The first time you pull on the jersey is a fantastic honour. I remember hearing the selection for the first Test - there’s 4 centres there and you can only pick 2, and obviously you’ve a fairly reasonable chance, but until you actually hear your name you’re not quite sure. So when I got selected for my first cap, that was obviously a great feeling.
I think, as was evident at the reunion I organised a few years ago, it was the friendships that you built up with all the other players. To this day, John Rutherford, the Scottish outhalf, is godfather to my daughter and we stay with him in Scotland a lot, and he comes over here. I’ve seen a lot of the other guys like Bob Norster, who was CEO at Cardiff for a lot of years there, when I was away with Ulster. So we had a great camaraderie.
We’d a fantastic reunion as I say, up in Portballintrae three years ago and of the 40 management and players, 30 were able to come. The ones that couldn’t come were either on the other side of the world or one, unfortunately had passed on.
How have Lions tours changed since then?
Every time the Lions go to New Zealand it certainly brings back memories of our tour. It has changed a lot since then; we had 18 matches over 12 weeks and 4 Tests against the All Blacks. But that was with only 30 players, 4 in the management team and no Backs Coach. Now they have 40+ players, dozens of support staff and they play 10 games in 5 weeks.
It’s changed a lot, particularly in the professional era, but it’s the same place, same stadium, same type of rugby, particularly from New Zealand.
What was it like being away from home for 12 weeks?
It didn’t seem too bad. You’d never done it before. It was certainly tiring and from a rugby point of view, I think we had only four days off from either training or playing and that was the day after each Test. Even playing the All Blacks four times is difficult enough in itself.
And as I say, we only had 30 players. We picked up key injuries early on and 6 more players got flown out eventually. So 36 players for 18 matches, which compared to the squad they have now is mind-blowing. It was tough, but enjoyable at the same time.
Is a Lions tour to New Zealand the ultimate challenge?
Personally I think touring New Zealand with the Lions is the hardest place compared to maybe Australia and South Africa. You don’t get any easy games in New Zealand - the rugby is very hard. Obviously the weather maybe isn’t as nice as it is in South Africa and Australia, that can play a part in morale and other things like that.
The history is there over the years as we know and the spectators are very knowledgeable. Obviously New Zealand are the best team in the world and have been for a long time, so as a player it’s probably the toughest challenge you’ll get.
Can you describe the honour of representing the Lions?
Clearly it was the pinnacle of my career as it would be in anyone’s career. Your goals change.... when you’re at school you want to get on the Ulster team, when you’re on the Ulster team you want to be on the Irish team and potentially then progress onto the Lions, but you never think that you’re going to achieve that until you do.
Even though we lost the series 4-0, which on paper looks bad, realistically it probably should have been 2-2. It was a great experience and something that was really special to be part of.
What are your highlights from the ’83 tour?
So many. The first time you pull on the jersey is a fantastic honour. I remember hearing the selection for the first Test - there’s 4 centres there and you can only pick 2, and obviously you’ve a fairly reasonable chance, but until you actually hear your name you’re not quite sure. So when I got selected for my first cap, that was obviously a great feeling.
I think, as was evident at the reunion I organised a few years ago, it was the friendships that you built up with all the other players. To this day, John Rutherford, the Scottish outhalf, is godfather to my daughter and we stay with him in Scotland a lot, and he comes over here. I’ve seen a lot of the other guys like Bob Norster, who was CEO at Cardiff for a lot of years there, when I was away with Ulster. So we had a great camaraderie.
We’d a fantastic reunion as I say, up in Portballintrae three years ago and of the 40 management and players, 30 were able to come. The ones that couldn’t come were either on the other side of the world or one, unfortunately had passed on.
How have Lions tours changed since then?
Every time the Lions go to New Zealand it certainly brings back memories of our tour. It has changed a lot since then; we had 18 matches over 12 weeks and 4 Tests against the All Blacks. But that was with only 30 players, 4 in the management team and no Backs Coach. Now they have 40+ players, dozens of support staff and they play 10 games in 5 weeks.
It’s changed a lot, particularly in the professional era, but it’s the same place, same stadium, same type of rugby, particularly from New Zealand.
What was it like being away from home for 12 weeks?
It didn’t seem too bad. You’d never done it before. It was certainly tiring and from a rugby point of view, I think we had only four days off from either training or playing and that was the day after each Test. Even playing the All Blacks four times is difficult enough in itself.
And as I say, we only had 30 players. We picked up key injuries early on and 6 more players got flown out eventually. So 36 players for 18 matches, which compared to the squad they have now is mind-blowing. It was tough, but enjoyable at the same time.
Is a Lions tour to New Zealand the ultimate challenge?
Personally I think touring New Zealand with the Lions is the hardest place compared to maybe Australia and South Africa. You don’t get any easy games in New Zealand - the rugby is very hard. Obviously the weather maybe isn’t as nice as it is in South Africa and Australia, that can play a part in morale and other things like that.
The history is there over the years as we know and the spectators are very knowledgeable. Obviously New Zealand are the best team in the world and have been for a long time, so as a player it’s probably the toughest challenge you’ll get.