A highly-regarded coaching consultant with over half-a-century of experience to his name, Brian Ashton's brief stint in charge of Ireland's rugby team came at a time where neither party was perhaps ready for how the other behaved, as Bernard Jackman explained to Off The Ball.
In the thick of a period where Irish rugby was dealing with the transition toward professionalism, Brian Ashton's tenure as head coach was short-lived.
"I was actually in the squad then as a 19 or 20-year-old in 1997," recalled Bernard Jackman of the Englishman's arrival on Off The Ball's Sunday Paper Review, "and he didn't last very long.
"You know, he signed a six-year deal and in fairness I think he suffered from a bit of illness, but he did about a year."
Formerly the head coach of a Premiership winning Bath team in England, what Ashton found himself dealing with in Ireland was not what he had perhaps expected.
"They would have been much more professional than we were," noted Jackman of the difference between the English club and Ireland international team, "and his level of disdain for our skill level and fitness at the time was pretty obvious.
"It was a tough job for him because he wanted to play this open, free-flowing game and we just didn't have the skill set to do it."
The subject of an interview in the Sunday Independent, Jackman's reflection on Brian Ashton's period in charge of Ireland brought about recollections of a development tour to New Zealand that he considers himself rather fortunate to have missed.
"I had a groin injury," he explained of his absence, "and it probably saved my career.
"There was a lot of people who went on that tour who never recovered from the psychological damage that they suffered losing to third division NPC teams, and also Brian Ashton was very hard on them.
"He didn't tolerate a poor skill set, he didn't tolerate a poor fitness level and unfortunately the majority of Irish players were coming from an environment where they weren't getting that kind of coaching or doing that training.
"At the time, the game at club and provincial level was more of a set-piece and kicking game. He wanted us to be able to run from our own '22 if you saw it was on."
Opting out of the role not long after he had taken over, Brian Ashton would go on to be involved with England at various stages in the years to come, taking them all the way to a World Cup final in 2007.
Not without its own bit of controversy, you can watch Bernard Jackman and Sarah O'Donovan back on the Sunday Paper Review here.
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