By his own admission, Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, is a history buff. This week he invited the club’s Irish strength and conditioning coach, Eamonn Hyland, to give his players an “incredibly powerful” lesson in the cultural and historic significance of becoming the first English side to play at Croke Park. Players were moved to goosebumps as the size of the challenge that awaits against Leinster on Saturday became all the more acute.
It is 104 years since the Croke Park massacre, in which 14 spectators were fatally shot by the Royal Irish Constabulary and, as Dowson points out, Croke Park is “a landmark of [Irish] independence”. Having spoken recently with Donncha O’Callaghan, the former Ireland and Munster second-row, Dowson is only too aware that when England played at Croke Park in 2007 the result was “almost a foregone conclusion”. Ireland duly swept England aside by 30 points and while Leinster have played there before, against Munster in 2009, Saturday marks the first time an English rugby club will set foot at the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association.
