The last football match between England and the Republic of Ireland was billed as a friendly, yet turned into a riot. I remember getting on the pitch and telling the troublemakers to 'get home' and telling the police 'get them home'. Due to the strength of flanker Ruben Kruger and No. It was a shameful evening caused by a minority who have hopefully been pushed out by court orders and the vast majority of fans making it clear they don't accept this violence. GOAL:John Sheridan picks the ball up in midfield and threads it through to Wolves striker Kelly, who runs onto it on the left hand-side of the box and shoots across England goalkeeper David Seaman into the far corner of the net. While at Motherwell he formed a close relationship with Billy Davies and has followed him as an assistant manager to Derby and Nottingham Forest. I follow newcastle utd home and away but would never go to watch England play - team full of average half wits and 10 % of fans are same. I was furious about what had happened. He also said, however, the trouble could have been avoided had the Irish police acted on information about Combat 18 travelling to Ireland and accepted assistance from the National Criminal Intelligence Service in Britain. EM: "It has taken a long time for the two countries to face each other again. On the way through the streets, we had tremendous support as normal. ", Alan Kelly, Denis Irwin, Terry Phelan, Alan Kernaghan, Paul McGrath, Eddie McGoldrick, Andy Townsend (captain, inset), David Kelly, Niall Quinn, John Sheridan, Steve Staunton, David Seaman, Warren Barton, Graeme Le Saux, Paul Ince, Tony Adams, Gary Pallister, David Platt (captain), Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer, Matt Le Tissier, Darren Anderton. When we got to Lansdowne Road, I was just concentrating on the game and my own performance. ", "We can still attain the target of second place, so there's still a heck of a lot for us to gain individually and collectively.". ", BOB: "We were very lucky to get away with it. He was in the Euro '88, Italia '90 and USA '94 squads playing all four games in the latter. There were at least a couple of hundred other people sprinting out as well. It was the best atmosphere I had experienced. There had been a lot done on the British police's part in terms of looking at who was travelling to games. From the moment we were back in the dressing room, nobody thought that it was going to end up with iron bars being thrown onto the pitch and people being injured. The match kicks off at 18:15 and the atmosphere in the stands is tense, after some of the home and travelling fans drown out the national anthems with boos and whistles. Even in the most sporting sense, England are 'the old enemy' and that's why we hope that - despite the fact that our team is relatively lowly ranked and have far less ability than the England team on the face of it - our players will rise to the occasion. They had such a strong team and we had some fantastic players in our squad, so it was a super fixture. We are a little bit vulnerable because we have already been crowned champions and we had a big win against Scotland, so for us it's about getting the right mind-set for the game.". I just wanted to impress and try to get a place in that squad. The goalscorer on the night, and one of the eight England born players in the starting line-up, David Kelly was statistically one of Ireland's most prolific strikers, with a nearly one in three games to goals ratio and a debut hat trick against Israel. We just kept running until we were well clear of the ground. He spent many years on ITV referring to the England team as 'we', forging one of the more succesful media careers of the players on the field that night, but has recently been sacked from the station. To be honest, I'd felt more disappointed than frightened. ", "When we got back to the hotel, we put the news on and saw exactly what was going on. These are special games. And if the best you can do is winning titles and winning records then that's important. Lets hope it is a good friendly and the Irish are given a very warm welcome. My dad and I just ran through the tunnel. England 61-21 Scotland (Twickenham). There was a sense that the English fans that came over were a little more hard core. Even in the most sporting sense, England are 'the old enemy' and that's why we hope that - despite the fact that our team is relatively lowly ranked and have far less ability than the England team on the face of it - our players will rise to the occasion. South Africa defeated Western Samoa in the quarter finals, and then France in the semi-finals to reach the final; the All Blacks defeated Scotland in the quarter-finals, and England in the semi-finals, a game in which Jonah Lomu famously scored four tries. Ireland have slotted their last 19 kicks at goal in the Six Nations with Paddy Jackson making his last 14 in a row while Johnny Sexton has landed his five attempts off the tee so far; Sexton is the only player yet to miss a kick in this year’s tournament. ", JC: "My feelings turned from concern to anger. Kelly was a journeyman striker who played for eleven clubs in his career. Football statistics of the country England in the year 1995. It was a game of football and a few silly buggers had turned it into this. Im half English and Irish born here in England. Republic of Ireland national football team - Results 2000-09 References [ edit ] ^ Rioting, violence and shame – memories of Ireland v England in 1995 The Observer, 2013-05-25. I was furious, but there was nothing I could do about it. The last football match between England and the Republic of Ireland was billed as a friendly, yet turned into a riot. That wasn't nice and it wasn't normal for something like that to happen before a game. Joël Dumé (France). I find Gary Pallister's comment about the "environment that existed" offensive - Dublin was not a "powder keg" in 1996. ", "They were acting in animal-like behaviour and couldn't have cared less if they'd killed someone that night" - Bernard O'Byrne, JC: "People were coming forward onto the pitch to get away from the trouble, some of them with bloodied heads. The journey over to Ireland and the stay at the hotel were all pretty normal and there wasn't any abuse as we travelled from the hotel to the stadium. How would you feel if your son, brother or father was innocently caught up in something like this ? "I didn't realise there was any trouble at first, because I had my back to what was going on. Six Nations England v Ireland preview. He was a firmly established international even then and was working his way towards his eventual haul of 102 caps. Ireland have made England come unstuck a few times and it will be a good test for Roy Hodgson's men, different from playing most other European teams. DK: We started the game very brightly. We were playing well and winning games, but we weren't as confident. That would have probably caused more trouble and made things even worse. Ireland had caused England a lot of problems in the past and we knew a lot of their players from the Premier League. even as an england fan i always want ireland to do well. We were also coming up to a big tournament in our own country and everyone was desperate to be in the squad for Euro '96. ", "My feelings turned from concern to anger. 30 November – American President Bill Clinton and his wife, 1 December – 80,000 people cheered Bill Clinton at College Green in Dublin. "The mood in camp has been positive. Many of the Irish fans were shocked and very frightened by what happened.