‘To say Cork can’t be the base for Munster is disingenuous’: Moss Finn on rugby's disconnect and closing his famous shop

It’s a major readjustment, he says, “but it’s early days yet.” Finn made his name as a prolific try scorer when 12-9 was an entertaining rugby scoreline, and the shop at Finn’s Corner was where the two streams crossed: sport and business.

“Ours was a bit different in that we had a niche business in rugby and GAA, and rugby in particular. Where we scored was in the practical side of the sport, if you like — boots and gumshields, studs and laces. Lifestyle Sports and these shops are more high street fashion, if you like.

“People glamourise owning a sports shop, but it takes graft. It’s enjoyable but it takes time and effort. It’s a job.” And subject to the vagaries of economics. He points out the difficulties of competing with large-scale chain sports shops: “Obviously the big sports companies give top players boots so people will go out and buy those boots.

“Take a Cristiano Ronaldo boot. That might cost €200, so you’re talking about an elite product. Jonathan Sexton is wearing a particular boot on Saturday, people want to buy that on Monday.

“But in recent years the big sportswear companies wouldn’t give us the elite product because we were an independent shop.

“They’d only deal with chains rather than independent shops, so it was getting a bit harder.

“Now, we were still doing well but it was getting tighter and tighter. And if big chains had products we couldn’t access, and the kids want the number-one product, well . . . going forward it would have been difficult.”

Circumstances change, too. Munster’s early European adventures sparked a huge interest in rugby, but Finn points out that economic realities trumped tradition.

“When Munster started going well then, as an indigenous rugby shop if you like, well established, with a long history, we did well.

“I remember advising adidas about the numbers we were selling, in terms of Munster products - and yet eventually they told us we couldn’t sell their products anymore, and Lifestyle took that over.

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“We also learned that down the tracks we’d have been precluded from selling the Irish jersey, which would be the preserve of Elvery’s.”

That tension, between the claims of heritage and the necessities of professionalism, brings us to a bugbear of his: centralising Munster’s activities in Limerick.

“Munster has traditionally been a twin-tower situation. In my opinion, two is always better than one, but some of the foreign players (with Munster) said you’d have to have one base, and for some reason we always listen to the foreign voice rather than our own gut.

“Limerick’s now the centre, the academy and so on is there — yet the population is in Cork. That’s cutting off a supply chain, particularly if a good student is a good player. In 1963 UCC won the Munster Senior Cup with seven doctors on the team, two of them among the greatest Irish players ever — Jerry Walsh and Pat McGrath. If they were around now they couldn’t play for Munster because they’d be precluded, as medical students, from joining the Academy. That’s farcical.

“I don’t understand why the base has to be in Limerick. Look at the results in Cork like 1967, beating Australia in Musgrave Park on the day Tommy Kiernan gave an exhibition.

“On a similar note, we beat Australia in 1967, the first northern hemisphere side to do so down there, with a player from every club in Cork on the team: Terry Moore from Highfield, Phil O’Callaghan from Dolphin, Tommy Kiernan and Noel Murphy from Cork Con, Jerry Walsh with Sunday’s Well and Pat McGrath from UCC.

“To say Cork can’t be the base for Munster is being disingenuous to Cork. I’m not suggesting Limerick hasn’t played a part, but Cork has played a fundamental part and there should be two centres rather than one.

“There’s a huge disconnect between everything that happened before 1995 and everything that happened since. That rankles with me.”

It’s no surprise to hear Finn advocate so strongly on behalf of the club, which he sees as “caught” in the modern rugby structure.

“If the club has a young lad whose dream it is to play for Munster, and they don’t let him do that, then his dream is gone.

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“I mightn’t be the most objective viewer, but if you want to improve as a player you must play matches. The academy approach is the opposite, it’s just bit parts in games here and there. And if they play a full game they can’t go past 60 minutes because they’re not used to it.

“We came from a situation where someone like Ollie Campbell played six or seven years as a ten for Old Belvedere before he ever played for Ireland. I think the IRFU are trying to create an elite group of clubs, playing at a level just below the provinces, but that’s like turkeys voting for Christmas. It’s an anomaly.”

The game’s entertainment value has suffered from outside influences, he adds: “One thing I don’t enjoy is that there’s less football played because there’s less space. With the advent of money you had coaches come in, then, from rugby league and they brought the defence to a different level.

“In our time we were taught to defend from the inside out, while rugby league coaches brought in defending from the outside in, in an umbrella shape.

“And the game isn’t as entertaining as a result. You get the odd good game, but you only see running rugby when a game is lose.

“If we had less of a rugby league influence the game might have stayed more open, perhaps.”

And driven by more native voices, perhaps. Finn points out that Irish accents are available for coaching, so why aren’t they used more?

“Last weekend when Ireland were in trouble and the camera went to Andy Farrell and Mike Catt— I’ve nothing against them but it rankles to see lads like that roaring for Ireland. Why aren’t Mark McCall and Leo Cullen there?

“Likewise with Munster a couple of weeks ago: the camera shows a South African, an Australian and an Englishman in charge of Munster. We’re inclined to listen to foreign voices too much in this country, I think.

“Fair enough, we had Eddie O’Sullivan and Declan Kidney as well, but you would wonder if coaching in Ireland is just a training ground for some of these other coaches before they get another job back home.”

A far cry from the men who won that Triple Crown back in 1982, though presumably he’s sick of questions about those two tries against Wales...

“Not at all. It’s great. Your colleague Barry Coughlan wrote up that story on the Monday night after the match, in the old Beecher’s, off Patrick Street. I’d spent the night in hospital after the game itself, so the first pint I had after the match was that Monday night back in Cork, and Barry came in.”

Concussion had put Finn in hospital, of course.

“I was out on the field in the second half, under the West Stand, and anyone who was ever concussed would empathise— I came out of it all of a sudden, it was like hearing everything again. The late Willie Duggan was just ahead of me and I asked him what the score was.

“‘Shut up you eejit,’ he said, ‘you’re after scoring two tries and we’re beating them’.

“‘Okay.’

“I think it was going over for the first try I got a bang on the head, so I didn’t really enjoy the experience as it was happening. And Duggan put me right in the second half. I didn’t get that many caps, so it’s great to be remembered.”

Was the balance right back then, between preparation and enjoyment?

“I think so. We prepared very hard, which not everybody appreciates now.

“The club was paramount — we often played for Ireland on a Saturday and came back to line out for Cork Con on the Sunday. No problem. The club was the most important thing in rugby, and if you look at it, we probably beat Wales and England just as often then. We enjoyed it more, certainly.”

So did we.