Eight years…
It’s been eight years since that monumental day when Ireland won the Grand Slam against Wales at the Principality Stadium (formerly known as the Millenium Stadium).
It’s a day which has been firmly etched into Irish sporting history and one which many of us will never forget.
Of course, the win was special but the manner of how things transpired on the pitch that day added an extra layer of heroics to the whole story.
Let us just bask in the moment when Ronan O’Gara slotted over that sumptuous drop goal.
Us Irish like to do things the hard way, however, and that score from O’Gara, just 150 seconds from full-time, just wasn’t enough to scratch our adrenaline seeking itch.
Just moments after, Paddy Wallace infamously got penalised for allegedly coming in from the side at a defensive ruck which led to Stephen Jones having an opportunity to score a long-range penalty to win the match and break Irish hearts.
It is clearly a harsh call from Barnes, as Wallace begins his attempt to disrupt the ball by coming through the gate initially.
Unfortunately for Wallace and for Ireland, the referee decided to award a penalty to Wales and Irish hearts were firmly in the mouth.
As we all know the story has a happy ending but that doesn’t mean that Wallace was simply able to forget about the incident, it was something that played on his mind for a long time after.
Jerry Flannery and Paddy Wallace were both on the latest episode of The Hard Yards where they spoke about that famous incident.
The former Munster and Ireland legend admitted that he didn’t even realise the turmoil that his colleague was going through in the months after the match.
“I was actually off the field at the time and I was watching and I just went ‘ah god, I hope this kick doesn’t go over’ and when Stephen Jones struck it I thought it was good.
“But because your constantly on to the next thing every week in rugby I never even realised that thing might sit with Paddy and I think it was the following Six Nations and we were over in Paris and Paulie said to me afterwards ‘man, that was like a big thing for Paddy’ and I didn’t even give it a second thought because we won the game.”
For Wallace, the pain could have been avoided if Barnes had made the correct decision and to be fair to the English referee, the next time he officiated a game in which Wallace was involved in, he apologised for the mistake.
“He tapped me on shoulder a couple of months later when he was reffing another match and we were at a dinner or something after the game and he said, ‘Listen, apologies, I checked that on the video and probably, if I got to the ruck a couple of seconds earlier, I would have penalised the Welsh man for holding on but my view was slightly blocked at the time. Whenever I arrived you looked like you had come in from the side so sorry about that.’ And I was like yeah, thanks!”
We can’t imagine Wallace would have have been so kind to have accepted Barnes’ apology if Jones’ kick had gone over.
Just look at how close it was…
You can listen to this great discussion below in the latest episode of SportJOE’s rugby podcast, The Hard Yards.
https://soundcloud.com/thehardyardssportsjoe/episode-5-the-real-nigel-owens-alternative-tactics-ireland-v-wales-and-grand-slam-memories
