The Parish, kid⌠Neither was I.
Mick Galwey was one of the most limited players ever to be capped for Ireland. He was too small for the second row and too slow for the back row. He did provide good on-field leadership and in a decade when Ireland were truly awful and had a dearth of on-field leaders, the reaction to just about every particularly bad hiding was invariably to recall Galwey - followed by another dropping soon after.
Neither Foley or Hickie went to the 1999 World Cup - both were well out of favour at that stage. Foley made his debut during the 1995 Five Nations, but after the 1995 World Cup, he only started two games for Ireland over the next four and a half years. He was recalled for the November 1996 international against Australia, when Eric Miller (who was meant to debut) cried off injured. Foley started in the next game after Australia, a defeat to Italy at Lansdowne Road and after that didnât start another game for Ireland until he was recalled for the inaugural Six Nations Championship of 2000. He was an ever-present from then until his last cap in Cardiff at the end of the 2005 Championship.
Dennis Hickie suffered a complete loss of form and confidence on the South Africa tour of 1998. Debutant Stefan Terblanche scored four tries off Hickie in the first test in Bloemfontein and it took Hickie a long time to recover from that particular ordeal. After that South Africa tour, Hickie didnât feature again until recalled against Scotland in 2000 - the day ROG, Stringer, Shane Horgan, John Hayes and Simon Easterby all made their debut.
It was a hell of a coincidence that Irelandâs fortunes invariably improved when Galwey was in the team compared to when he wasnât.
A regular for the 1991 championship when Ireland played some scintillating rugby.
Dropped for 1992 and the team turned in a series of dismal performances and were whitewashed.
Brought back in 1993 and 1994 and played a leading role in two memorable victories over a very good England team. Picked for the British Loins.
Inexplicably fell out of favour from 1995 on despite leading Shannon to dominate the domestic game, Irelandâs performances without him in these years were dire.
Brought back for the France game in 1998 and Ireland almost won in Paris for the first time in 26 years.
Fell out of favour again and Ireland resumed their usual dire level of performance.
Finally recalled again in early 2000 and Irelandâs level of performance, coincidentally, dramatically rose.
Useless fact, Foley and Miller are cousins
Was Halvey driving?
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Really? I cannot believe I never heard that bit of trivia beforeâŚ
Thatâs quite a sweeping statement and plainly wrong for the majority of Galweyâs 11 year Ireland international career. In the nine year timeframe covering the first 25 of Galweyâs 41 caps between 1991-2000, Galwey only finished on a winning Ireland team in 6 of his 25 appearances. Those 6 wins included wins over Japan in 1991, USA (as a replacement in 1994) and Wales (as a replacement at Wembley in 1999. The other three wins when Galwey started were against Wales in 1993 and England in 1993 & 94.
Whatâs your definition of âa regularâ? Galwey played in two of the four championship games in 1991. Galwey and Brian Rigney both won their first caps in the second row for the opening game of the 1991 Championship, the loss to France, when the first choice pairing of Donal Lenihan and Franno were both out injured. Galwey played in the next game, the draw against Wales. A fit again Franno was in for Galwey for the last two games against England and Scotland. The scintillating rugby was largely provided out wide from Simon Geoghegan and Jim Staples, who benefited from having an out half in Brian Smith who could get the back line moving. A feature of all four games in 1991 (one of which Ireland drew and three of which the lost) was the pack tiring badly in the second half.
Galwey started and played the full 80 minutes in three of the four games in the 1992 championship against England, Scotland and France. He also played in Irelandâs other three games in 1992, the two losses in New Zealand and the loss to Australia in the Autumn International.
Of the six Irish players who were there for the full duration of British Lions tours in the 1990âs, Galwey was the only who was truly out of his depth on the biggest of stages. Nick Popplewell in 1993, Keith Wood, Paul Wallace, Jeremy Davidson and Eric Miller were able to leave behind the shambles of an Irish set up and all play themselves onto British Lions teams as test starters (albeit in Millerâs case, he had to cry off through injury for the first test in 1997 after selection). Its not as if Galwey didnât have his chances, if he was up to it in 1993. Wade Dooley had to leave the tour after the first test in 1993 when his father died suddenly and Andy Reed played poorly in the first test and was dropped.
Galwey was selected for the opening game of the 1995 championship against England, which was played the week after Shannon all but ensured their first AIL title after beating Blackrock College at Stradbrook. He played poorly against England and was dropped. Ireland went on to win one championship game in each of 1995, 1996 and 1997 without Galwey, which was pretty much a par season for Ireland in those days. In the 12 championship seasons from 1988 to 1999, the two wins in 1993 marked the only season in which Ireland won more than one game.
Galwey was a late sub for Paddy Johns in that loss against France in 1998 you are referring to. Paddy Johns and Big Mal were the starting second row pairing.
Galweyâs only real sustained run as a regular starter for Ireland was over the last two years as a 33-35 year old veteran. In contrast to the 6 wins from 25 in his first nine years, Ireland won in 12 of Galweyâs last 16 caps over the last two years of his career. Galwey certainly played an important role as a veteran leader for a largely young team, but the upswing in results was largely down to Ireland for the first time in years having players of true international quality like Keith Wood, Malcolm OâKelly, Brian OâDriscoll, Dennis Hickie and Ronan OâGara to name but five.
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Thatâs a clamping.
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I remember hearing it around the time Miller got Foley sent off on the Celtic Cup Final iirc.
Was it not the other way round & it was Miller that got the road that day?
It wasâŚhe kicked foley in the balls
Can you clamp yourself?
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Welcome home Axel
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The indo are milking this for all its worth the horrible cunts
Ah yea that was it
Every site is and theyâd do it for anything
Very moving rendition of âthere is an isleâ as the hearse passed Thomond Park tonight.
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Yeah. Itâs carnage