Defeat of All Blacks still a hit in Ireland

A play about the day the 1978 All Blacks lost to Munster is proving a huge hit with theatre critics and audiences in Ireland.

For those who care little about rugby or want to forget a black day for New Zealand sport, the Irish provincial side rolled the All Blacks 12-0 on October 31, 1978.

Those 80 minutes of glory are now part of Limerick folklore, with more than 70,000 fans claiming to have been at Thomond Park, a ground that has a capacity of 13,000.

Only brief news footage exists of the game, as TV bosses chose not to televise the complete game. They could not see the point in filming ragtag Munster being torn apart by the mighty All Blacks.

In two years, Alone It Stands, the first play John Breen has written, has become a huge sleeper hit, playing to more than 80,000 people and drawing critical acclaim.

With six characters playing 60 roles, the feel-good play has had an 18-month run of success that has taken Breen by surprise.

At present playing to packed audiences in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre, it has ventured as far from home as Tasmania and is bound for the Sydney Opera House next year. There are plans to take it across the Tasman.

"I'd like to take it into the heart of enemy territory," Breen says.

Initially he wasn't sure visiting New Zealand was such a good idea.

"I was a bit hesitant taking it down there, but I think the passage of time has anaesthetised the wound," he says. "Kiwis who have seen it have loved it. It was 22 years ago and Munster was the only side that beat them.

"There are a lot of cultural ties between Ireland and New Zealand - we're both small nations with big neighbours and I think our senses of humour would be similar."

All but three of the Munster side have seen Alone It Stands and loved it. As far as Breen knows, no 1978 All Blacks have seen it, but he is sure those who played that day - and he can reel off the whole team, starting "Mourie, Ashworth, B.J. Robertson, Stu Wilson" - would love it too.

"It's not like we are painting New Zealanders as the bad guys, you know. We do honour their achievements and their skill, but we beat them. Ha, ha, ha."

Alone It Stands has appealed to Irish theatregoers and rugby fans alike, in the way that Foreskin's Lament by Greg McGee did in New Zealand.

"People who know the game loved it. Other people who have come to see the play have never darkened the door of a theatre before," Breen says.

The actor playing All Black Stu Wilson is poleaxed in a re-enactment of the famous tackle by Munster hero Seamus Dennison, who lowered the flying winger as he burst into the attacking line.

Breen is in awe of that moment, as if 22 years later he can still hear the crunch. "Stu Wilson was about 15 stone [95kg], and he nearly killed him. It turned the game. Jesus Christ, these guys will do anything to win! The All Blacks were kind of on the back foot after that."

The teenage Breen wasn't at the ground but the victory captured his imagination.

"The clash has taken on a mythic quality for me, something which it might have lacked had I witnessed it. It can't possibly have lived up to the eulogising that followed," he told the Irish Times.

"You've got to consider the state of the country at the time. We were deep, deep in the doldrums. We didn't have a Jack Charlton or a U2 or a Riverdance.

"We were plucky losers. We never actually won anything. For a side of underdogs, of civil servants and bank workers, to overcome this colossal New Zealand team was unbelievable, unthinkable."

Breen spent nearly a year researching the match, interviewing players and officials, reading newspaper reports and imagining.

He found the father of Munster captain Donal Canniffe died during the game, after suffering a heart attack as he followed the drama on radio.

"That was the final piece of the jigsaw. It was a terrible tragedy but it provided a crucial dramatic twist. It allowed me to elevate the play beyond the realm of sport."

Breen wrote and directed Alone It Stands in 1999 to mark the 21st anniversary of the victory.

It won him an Irish Times/ESB Theatre Award for best director and helped him to secure a job as artistic director of Yew Tree Theatre Company, based in Ballina, County Mayo.

- NZPA