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Rugby Focus - 27th February E-mail
Written by Staff Reporter   
Thursday, 28 February 2008
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Rugby Focus - 27th February
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Tony Ward and Ollie Campbell have remained good friends over the years but when they were in their rugby playing days the country was virtually split down the middle as to who was the better out half for Ireland.

Wardie was the first pin up boy of Irish rugby and was adored by the ladies but he was also a genius on the pitch and constantly produced a little bit of magic with his brilliant side step and dummy to set up a scoring chance for his team.

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In the early 80’s Ireland went on a short tour to Australia and it was a tour to hell as far as Wardie was concerned.

Tony Ward stepped onto the plane as the top man in Irish rugby and European player of the year.

He returned a much-chastened young man and as he told me at the time
“my confidence was shattered and I don’t think I ever got back to where I was before that tour”.

Noel Murphy, who was the Irish manager, decided to pick Ollie Campbell for the two Test matches against Australia and leave Wardie out.

Ollie at that time had won 3 caps for Ireland but his form had been indifferent.

The whole of Ireland was up in arms with everyone looking for Noel ‘Noisy Murphy’s’ head.

The rest as they say is written in the history books as Ollie Campbell steered Ireland to a great Triple Crown victory in 1982 and was man of the match on so many occasions and became one of Ireland’s best out halves.

Back then substitutes were only allowed when a player got injured and on a few occasions the selectors tried to play both men with Campbell going to centre and Ward at out half but the experiment never really worked.



 
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