What a day, what a day, But tonight I’m holding a wake !

Now, you might expect me to be roaring and clapping and jumping up and down and cheering and being sick, sore and sorry after that display of magnifence that took place this evening, I was but now I’M NOT.

And I’ll tell you why, I’m preparing a Wake.

A wake? A WAKE?

Why you might ask and for who?

The who is Munster Rugby.

Now, It’s not because the new Body being set up to run Munster Rugby is one of the final steps on the road to commercialism and a complete separation of club and province, instead of Branch and it’s team, That’s a given, It was always going to happen. Once the Crest changed from three crowns to a stag, the death knell for Munster Branch Vs. Munster Club had been sounded.

It wasn’t that the Hallowed turf of Thomond Park had to reworked, it needed it Even if the reason was to sell more seats for Heineken Cup games rather than make space for more people to see an AIL division one or two final between two almost “Parishlike” clubs, I understood that. It was always going to happen.

I didn’t argue or say a word when it was proposed to Rename the place, It’s a modern era, it was going to happen, they might say it hasn’t and won’t but someday it will, just maybe not now, it may still be too soon for it to be swallowed.

It wasn’t that a group of people who, it is claimed (in a lot of places and by people in the know I might add) have no official club affiliation with any team, other than they pay for membership to a supporters club, are about to be granted a say in how this new club will be run, and to be granted the “Status” of a club under the new regime from a ticket allocation point of view, and even possibly a higher status than the clubs;
This is commercialism, it was going to happen, I accepted it, once the game became professional this was just another logical step.

No Tonight, I’m preparing to hold a wake for Munster Rugby, because after today, we are going to lose one of the most influential people to have ever set foot in Thomond Park, My man of the match today, despite the doubts, the nerves that he wrought us over the last two nights, Today he played a blinder. He shocked us with his chess moves, until our eyes opened and we understood, he shocked us again before the kick off, again our eyes opened, and we understood, He had a man in a suit on the sideline ready, just in case, ready and waiting for the call, he came on, he played a blinder, he took him off, then we saw and we understood, during the game the shocks kept coming, we wailed, we cried and then suddenly we saw, and we understood. I have no doubt whatsoever that today he just walked into the post of the head of the Irish Management Team. The only man that can refuse him the job is himself (To use Corks’ Words tonight on the Heineken Cup highlights show).

No, Tonight I’m holding a wake for Munster Rugby, because today has cost us our coach.

Vive le Roi, Long Live Declan Kidney.

What are we going to do without him?