Ireland’s call

Duffy answers Ireland’s call

Rob Murphy

ON SEPTEMBER 9 in Bordeaux, 30 men will set out on a quest to bring the prestigious Rugby World Cup to Irish shores – and central to their plans will be a Mayo man who can’t wait to grace one of the biggest stages in world sport.
Readers of The Mayo News will have followed the career of Ballina’s Gavin Duffy up close for the last four years. He has documented the ups and downs of a professional athlete in his regular column in this paper, but on Monday when he spoke to us he was just relieved that the waiting was finally over.
“It’s a great feeling to have made the squad,” said Gavin, whose brave decision to leave Harlequins in the English Premiership and move back to Connacht just four months ago has reaped this huge reward.
“There was a period in February where I wasn’t making it into the Harlequins team and I was worried that my chance might slip away but the move to Connacht in March was crucial.
“That gave me a chance to play first team rugby again and Michael Bradley and Eric Elwood really were a tremendous help to me in the last few months. It’s great to be back with my home province and I’m delighted to be representing them at the World Cup,” said an obviously elated Duffy, who is now with his Irish rugby comrades in Capbreton in the south of France at a warm-weather training camp.
For Duffy, this is the beginning of a journey that could last as long as ten weeks and the end of a journey that has taken almost eight years of his adult life.  
Duffy returns home on Friday next and re-joins the squad in Belfast on Sunday in the lead-up to the warm-up clash with Italy on the following Friday.  A week’s training in Dublin will follow that before the squad departs for France for at least four weeks...and maybe more.
Duffy has been a columnist with The Mayo News since 2004.