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Brian O'Driscoll was passed over for the IRB's top gong
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Tony Ward fumes at Richie McCaw's selection as the IRB's World Player of the Year ahead of Brian O'Driscoll in The Irish Independent.
"In amateur times, rugby union was always promoted as the ultimate team game. Certainly, given its nature, it had the facility to cater for all body types. A place could always be found for little Jimmy Blobby alongside long Johnny Beanpole in the same starting XV. Few competing codes could offer the same equality of opportunity.
"The team ethic was the core principle, guarded almost jealously by the game's administrators. Then, in 1979, the first Man of the Match awards came into being for the Five Nations, as it was then known.
"Following the opening Ireland game of that season (against the French in Dublin), I was named the recipient of the inaugural award. At training at Lansdowne Road the following weekend I was presented with a carriage clock by Paul McWeeney on behalf of the rugby writers. It was engraved with the sponsors' name, Thwaites and Matthews (to this day I couldn't tell you what they sold), and on the following Monday morning the picture of Paul (sadly long since passed away) presenting me with the award appeared in all the different papers.
"No big deal and all with the approval of the IRFU -- or so I thought! To cut a long story short, within 48 hours I had received a typically frosty and impersonal letter signed by Bob Fitzgerald on behalf of the IRFU."
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