When Luke Fitzgerald made his Test debut, in 2006, the senior squad had serious plans to get him drunk. The 19-year-old was too quick for them. He was too quick and evasive for most.
It was a long tradition in the Irish senior squad for each of a debutant’s teammates to buy him a drink at the post-match dinner.
The tradition had gotten the better of Geordan Murphy, Ronan O’Gara, Neil Best and more [many more] over the years but the senior squad had three players to fill up in November 2006. Fitzgerald, all of 19 and five months out of Blackrock College, had made his Test bow at the same time as Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip.
Eddie O’Sullivan was well aware of what was planned for the young Leinster winger. He stuck a member of his backroom staff on ‘Fitz Watch’ and he was bundled out of the function as soon as dessert was cleared.
Leaving the party too soon.
There was a sense of that this morning as news filtered through that Fitzgerald’s rugby career was over at the age of 28.
The shame is that Fitzgerald’s demise has not been an exclamation mark ending. Rather, it was a series of commas and brackets. Ifs and maybes. Injury updates, fitness boosts and bad news delivered before kick-offs.
If feels like it has been years since we have seen Fitzgerald at his best it’s because it has been. 20 of his 34 Tests caps came between November 2008 and August 2011. During those 33 months, he scored his first Test try, won a Grand Slam, toured with the British & Irish Lions and won two Heineken Cups with his province.
He was the man we all expected to take over the famous 13 jersey – blue and green – from Brian O’Driscoll. He excelled on the wing, though. He was a silver-streaking sensation. It was a good problem for Declan Kidney to have.
When O’Driscoll’s time was coming to an end, however, Fitzgerald was recovering from knee and neck injuries. Twice he was counselled to seriously consider stepping away from the game he loved. Twice he clung on to the low percentages and nurtured them. Made the numbers grow.
He featured in the 2013 Six Nations and copped another injury in that disastrous campaign. He came back from that knee injury too and looked so impressive, against the All Blacks, as he replaced a stubborn yet concussed O’Driscoll.
The 13 talk resurfaced but Fitzgerald’s body betrayed him again. Groin and abductor issues plagued him in 2014/15. He had his name scribbled off three team-sheets, just before kick-off, three times that season. He kept fighting. Circling dates on the calendar and living for them.
His selection on the left wing for the must-win, and must win well, Six Nations game against Scotland surprised most of us. It was a pleasant surprise though. It was hard not to pull for the lad. Before that game, Fitzgerald commented:
“I did (fear for my future) actually. I felt there was no escaping it really. The guys were unbelievably patient with me. There were a couple of times when I just walked out and said ‘I can’t, I can’t do this. I’ve done months of rehab and I still feel like I’m going nowhere’.”
Against Scotland, he shone. He made line-breaks, stepped his man, offloaded in the tackle and brimmed with attacking intent. Ireland won 40-10 to clinch their second successive championship.
There was another season left in Fitzgerald. He gave us hope against Argentina in the World Cup quarter final and helped Leinster to another Guinness PRO12 final. As it now stands, his career finished at Murrayfield, where he had celebrated that 2015 Six Nations triumph. A comeback, like them all, that promised so much.
I don’t know if he shared a can of Tennants with Paul O’Connell as England fell agonisingly short at Twickenham but I hope he did. And I hope it tasted like everything he could have ever dreamed.
He didn’t know the party would be over so soon but that’s what made it so enjoyable.
10 years at the top yet it feels like we have lost a truly special talent. That’s because we have.
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