As part of our BOD's World Cup Memory Lane series, two Irish rugby legends, Brian O'Driscoll and Malcolm O’Kelly, sat down to look back on the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Brian kicked off the interview by looking back on a ‘Shoulder to Shoulder' magazine edition from that period, with little success for Malcolm in remembering his answers.
Brian moved on and asked Malcolm about the national anthem.
And Malcolm's response?, “(I) Absolutely loved it. If I could, I would have sung the other national anthem as well. It was just such a magical moment. It was a really special time for you as a player.”
The pair laughed about some of their former teammates who didn’t feel the same way about the anthem, before turning their attention to the World Cup they played together 20 years ago.
Malcolm felt that there was “a lot of potential”, and that the younger generation “were the leaders”. He also labelled Brian’s arrival in the squad as “massive”.
“Something we lacked was the ability to distribute across our backline", said Malcolm.
"With your arrival, suddenly we had that, and suddenly we had a threat out wide. It was at a time where that’s where the space was. I think there was a lot of optimism.”
The pair then looked back on the preparation for the tournament, laughing about practicing juggling being an exercise used to create belief that they could win the World Cup.
As they look back on the first game of the tournament, Brian remembers being stressed about the physicality of international rugby.
Malcolm felt more prepared. “I didn’t feel intimidated.
"Did I feel 100% confident in my ability to perform? Probably not. It was always a stress whether or not you would have that game that you wanted."
"I had two years under my belt. I had even gone through an injury as well. I was in good form,” said Malcolm.
The two Irish legends recognised the difference in physicality and officiating, citing “a lot of neck tackles”, and one, in particular, on Kevin Maggs catching their eye.
The game that included that tackle with Australia was noted as an “eye-opener” by Brian, with Malcolm not being too disappointed as he never expected to win that match against the eventual champions.
Malcolm felt pressure before the Argentina game, while O’Driscoll felt more confident going into the quarter-final.
The pair agreed that the hotel they stayed in as awful, which didn’t help them prepare.
As for the match itself, Malcolm was of the opinion that the team “gave it everything we had”.
Malcolm felt ‘shell shocked’ at the end of the game.
He feels now looking back on the loss that “maybe that low needed to happen” for the success that was to come for that squad to happen, even if it was “a hard one to take.''
Malcolm and Brian then looked further ahead to the 2003 World Cup, labelling it as ‘positive’, and, of course, mentioning the 2009 Grand Slam.
Finally, the iconic duo shared their thoughts on the upcoming 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Malcolm feels Ireland will make “outstrip” the Ireland teams they played in. He sees them making it to a quarter-final against South Africa, and Ireland winning that game, and feels that anything from there is a “bonus”.
You can watch the full interview on all of our social channels.
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