Playing for Kicks - A profile of Michael Kiernan

I enjoy pressure. I remember Allan Clarke, while manager at Leeds, making a statement that he thrived under pressure. At the time I always wondered what he meant but now I think I know. Like him, I enjoy pressure."
Thus Michael Kiernan; the man behind that drop goal; the one that secured victory over England and with it the small matter of the Triple Crown and Championship. His memories of it, like all of it, like all of us who lived through it with him, will remain vivid for a long, long time.

"I remember Spillane winning the ball, I remember Lenihan driving and the next second Bradley passed the ball to me. I just saw the posts in front of me and that was it. The only reason I took the drop goal was that I felt it was the right thing to do. I was right in front of the posts and we needed a score."

Michael Kiernan, as we now know, is an extremely gifted footballer amidst an extremely gifted Irish backkline. By our very nature, we Irish tend to probe for the faults in such talents but even the detractors who highlight his much over-stated defensive work cannot dispute his undeniable alllround talent, nor the composure and self-belief which enables him to apply it in the demanding enviro'hment of international rugby. That temperaament demands that he remain philoosophical about his exploits. He seeks no accolades for them and replies, perhaps regularly, to the praise for, that drop goal by smiling: ''What would you have said if I'd missed it?"

Furthermore the grin suggests there is little sense of paranoia when he adds:

"In this country you'll always get a few knockers who'd say: 'Jesus, Kierrnan, if you'd run that ball we'd have won by more'."

First and foremost, Kiernan derives immense enjoyment from his chosen sport. Even that drop goal permitted a touch of self-indulgent humour. "Funnily enough, I had actually been talking to Trevor (Ringland) and Keith (Crossan) about it during the week. I was saying I'd love to get a drop goal against England. After it, I went up to Keith aDd said: 'There, r told" you,' and he just couldn't believe it."

Mind you, Kiernan has had more reason than most to enjoy his rugby career. Since winning Munster Schools Junior and SeniorCup medals (scoring

the match-winning try against CBC in' the latter), scoring a try against the Welsh schools in the Cardiff Arms Park and then undertaking his senior career with a kick everything approach in his first year at Dolphin as an out-half, Kiernan would be the first to admit that his international career has been 'decidedly fortuitous.

The broken leg which David Irwin sustained against Wales in Lansdowne Road in '82 not alone enabled Kiernan to win his first cap under less pressure than is the norm, but also precluded an initial three-match sequence 'in the Irish jersey which coincided with a first Triple Crown in thirty-six years. Dad's' Army must have been a mite envious.

Not surprisingly Kiernan's abiding .rnemory of that season had nothing to 'do with personal achievement. "I remember one incident about five .rninutes before the end of the Scottish match. We were winning 21-12 at the time, were well on top and most of the guys knew we had won it. Ollie Camppbell turned around to me and said: 'I. think we have it. Enjoy it and soak it up.' I remember listening for about thirty seconds to the crowd singing and that's one of the memories I'll .cherish for a long, long time. Just cockles and mussels ringing in your ears."

In between there have been dissappointments, most notably the Lions tour immediately followed by his -ornission from the Irish team for two matches at the start of Ireland's whiteewash last season. "We (the Lions) were, bad over there and to make matters worse we were losing matches which made the whole thing worse. There were a lot of criticisms from the press and so forth." While he thinks the exxperience was ultimately beneficial in many ways, Kiernan' also agrees that his own game suffered subsequent to that tour.

"I felt that when I came I'd had too much rugby at that stage. Although I didn't start playing again until Octo ber . I still didn't have an appetite for the game and I tended to go through the motions in some matches." While citing this as the main reason behind the selectors' decision to omit him from Ireland's matches against France and Wales, Kiernan is of the opinion that he didn't deserve to be dropped. "I still think I was playing well enough around January and I don't think I deserved to be dropped. But that's the selectors' prerogative."

Despite scoring Ireland's solitary try of the season against Scotland that sad culmination to the championship meant Kiernan derived little personal satisfaction from the encounter: "It was probably the one match I would want to forget quickest of all the interrnationals I've played in because it was probably one of the most spiritless displays Ireland had produced in a long time."

Come '85 and the spirit was back, first evident to Kiernan, and indeed the rest of us, during the Australian match. "It told us so much about ourselves that we didn't know. We had moved the ball well against Australia and we were able to go out on the pitch against Scotland confident in pursuing that philosophy." Kiernan was back from the start too, and what's more as a place-kicker. The appointment met with a general furore although perhaps more attention should have been paid to his placeekicking in an experimental Irish XV against Sunday's Well. Not having kicked since his schooldays, Kiernan landed thirteen out of thirteen.

"I was kicking them from the touchhline as well. Ringland was scoring out in the corners on purpose. Or at least, that's what I said to him anyway." Likewise, Kiernan had done no practiising prior to the Australian match when he landed those three seconddhalf penalties but shortly afterwards began daily, one hour, practise sessions at lunchtime with the help of Lanssdowne clubmate Mick Quinn and Ollie Campbell. Immensely tedious at the .time, Kiernan's dedication to the cause bore forty-eight points in the Internaational Championship. The jeroboam of champagne which he received for the Mumm/Observer Sporting Achieveement of the Month helped the celeebrations nicely.

The pressures of kicking in internaational arenas suited that temperament of his but his kicking at club level was markedly inferior. Predictably he rectiified this during last Sunday's Leinster Senior Cup encounter with Bective, scoring a try and four kicks out of seven for a personal haul of fifteen points. The points keep mounting up.

Meanwhile sports mad Kiernan @he enjoys soccer, athletics, tennis, a round of golf and a game of darts with Paul Dean, "He's terrible. I'd probably beat him nine times out of ten," Paspires to further enjoyment from the game and the pride he feels in playing for his country. One senses, his main preference would be to continue playying in the centre as opposed to the wing.

Granted, Kiernan with his ears· pegged back would be an undeniable asset on the wing, but this is one reeporter who hopes his performances this season have brought to an end such possibilities. It would be a shame to waste those long diagonal punts, incisive breaks, handling skills, and not least, those drop goals. •