Sean O’Donnell
On this day 49 years ago the first Irish players was sent off in an international match. There were no cards at the time and no sin bin. There was simply an instruction from the referee to leave the pitch for the remainder of the match followed by subsequent disciplinary action.
The player involved was Blackrock College and Leinster no 8, the late Willie Duggan v Wales at the old Cardiff Arms Park where the Principality Stadium now stands, with the old pitch at right angles to the current one.
Willie had been interfered with at the lineout from behind and turned around and hit Wales second row Geoff Wheel who promptly returned the compliment. It was actually Alan Martin who had instigated the whole thing but Wheel suffered from St Vitus Dance and was moving about animatedly so Willie had presumed he was guilty. In the event referee Norman Sanson of Scotland ordered Duggan and Wheel off while Martin played on scot free. At the post match function at the Angel Hotel Sanson was frozen out as sending off players in an international match was then clearly ” not the done thing old chap “.
The only previous sending off was New Zealand legend Colin Meads at Murrayfield 10 years earlier by Irish referee Kevin Kelleher. The next one was Paul Ringer of Wales by another Irish referee Dave Burnett.
I was present at the Arms Park on January 15th 1977 when we lost to Wales 25-9 with Mike Gibson, playing in his best position of 10 scored all our points from 3 penalties. Wales had 3 tries from Gerald Davies, JPR Williams and Clive Burgess.