Don't forget Ireland snubbed Rice and Grealish before they snubbed Ireland

As is now part of history, each of the English-born players emerged through the FAI’s underage system, Grealish only defecting to the U21s in 2016 and Rice the seniors three years later.

Rice nearly never became part of the Irish system.

It was late 2013, well before the English FA began to seriously counter FAI approaches for dual-eligible players, and he was invited to an U15 trial day at a windy AUL complex near Dublin Airport.

Mark O’Toole, the FAI’s London-based scout, had set the ball rolling and so too had Aidan Tyrrell, Chelsea’s representative in Dublin, but the pair were soon left bewildered.

Despite Rice, then on the books of Chelsea, being widely considered by onlookers as a standout performer, wasn’t amongst a 19-player squad selected for a double-header against the Netherlands.

Nor was the tall defender worthy of inclusion in the panels that travelled to Turkey and Scotland later that season.

“It was a difficult time for me, going through a growth spurt, but I was disappointed not to make the U15 squad,” Rice would later reflect.

England’s failure to seize upon Ireland’s indifference, coupled by Tyrrell maintaining contact with the Rice family, resulted in the call eventually coming more than a year later.

U16 Ireland manager Tom O’Connor atoned for some of his colleagues’ mistakes by starting him against Austria in Dublin. That earned a first cap which the youngster was proud to present to his Cork-born grandfather Jack before he passed away in 2016.

“Although my grandparents moved to London, we’ve still got lots of Irish family left in Douglas,” he explained in 2018. “One of my aunts got in touch recently through Facebook, sending me pictures of my Grandad. It was surreal because she ended up on the phone to my Dad Sean for a long time sharing memories.” 

Rice had also recovered from the disappointment at club level, being released by his beloved Chelsea, to begin thriving at West Ham United.

Progression through the Ireland underage sides coincided, leaping quickly from U17s to U19s and eventually an U21 debut.

O’Connor is a veteran coach still working for the FAI as a coach education tutor and isn’t afraid to admit he wasn’t wholly convinced Rice would develop to his current peak as Arsenal and England mainstay. He’s just been nominated for the Ballon D’Or.

“Declan was a nice, ball-playing centre-back – someone I’d describe as a Steady Eddie,” he recalled this week.

“I went over to West Ham United to watch Declan on the recommendation of our scout Mark O’Toole. He was up against Glenn McAuley for Liverpool and I could see his qualities, plus the benefit he had of full-time training.

“My policy on English-born players was that they had to be better than what was at home. For example, I could have been Mr Popular to the late Eamonn Dolan at Reading and Martin Keown by selecting his son Niall but didn’t deem him superior to the Irish lads.

“Declan could bring something to our squad. What struck me about him during his time in camp was his manners and professional attitude. I felt he needed to add aggression to his game and that’s happened to make him one of the best holding midfielders in the world.

“Grealish was different. He was a superstar from when I laid eyes on him at 15.” 

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By the time Horst Hrubesch arrived in Belfast to face Glentoran in 1984, he was known as a 33-year-old journeyman. He’d lifted the European Cup as captain for SV Hamburger and scored a brace in Germany’s Euro championship final but his marker Harry McCue knew the powers of the Standard Liège battering ram were waning. “He was still able to put his elbows about,” joked the Irishman.

It was 29 years after that Uefa Cup meeting that the pair reminisced, clinking glass in, of all places, the Faroe Islands.

McCue was Noel King’s U21 assistant and Hrubesch the manager of a Germany side drawn in the same group.

“It was after we beat Faroes 4-1 and all he talked about was our 17-year-old who got on for the last five minutes.”

That introduction of Grealish in the barren northern Atlantic outpost of Toftir had a few hours earlier triggered a shouting match in the tunnel. Kevin Grealish, under the mistaken belief that the cap wedded his son to Ireland, suggested to King the belated ploy was strategic. The manager didn’t relent in his response, highlighting the value of any appearance to Irish natives.

All that cameo tied Grealish to was Ireland’s U21 campaign. The attacker appeared in six of them, soon nailing down a place, and was by his final appearance against the Germans in Halle an Aston Villa first-team player.

That was exactly 10 years on Thursday and goes down as his last outing for Ireland. As Grealish was being interviewed by this reporter, a yard away from Emre Can holding a microphone, Hrubesch interjected to brush the Irish player’s magnificent mane, stating in his broken English: “This boy is the future.” 

Unfortunately, that future was with his homeland. “Martin O’Neill should have capped both of them in qualifiers,” insists McCue. “Imagine the difference in our team if one, or both, were still with us.

“I honestly believe both were committed and we dropped the ball. Once the England senior managers met them, we’d lost control.” 

O’Connor concurs, especially in the case of Grealish. “I made a point of going to the Gibson Hotel before Martin and Roy Keane’s unveiling (in 2013) to tell the manager what a special talent Jack was and how worthy he was of a call-up. I did my bit.” 

O’Neill nodded, yet didn’t oblige, overlooking Grealish for the following summer’s trip to America.

At least he wasn’t brought along for the trip and left idle, as Paul Doolin did by selecting but not using Grealish in any of the three 2012 Euro U19 qualifiers in Macedonia.

Roy Hodgson worked his charm in a 2015 meeting in enticing him to England, leaving O’Neill looking foolish by eventually trying to call him up for the friendly between the nations. In Rice’s case, Gareth Southgate did the batting, speaking in similar terms to Hodgson about how his club's advancement was making a call-up a matter of time.

Both their former coaches don’t hold a grudge about them jumping ship. O’Connor had planned to meet Rice at Saturday’s Uefa Nations League match, only to suffer a stroke recently, from which he’s thankfully recovering.

“They were different types of characters, Jack needing to be minded more than Declan, but it was a pleasure to have them in our teams,” summarised the 64-year-old. “We’ll never know how much we missed them.” 

This weekend may provide a clue.