“Turn Coat” Kirwan joins Northern Ranks
John Kirwan is going to switch hemispheres and join Dean Ryan on the coaching team for the Northern Hemisphere XV. The New Zealand legend has a rugby foot in both camps given he is a former coach of the Italian national side as well as having scored 35 tries in 63 Tests for the All Blacks, but he can’t wait to meet up with his squad and plan the downfall of a Southern Hemisphere side whose team manager is one of his World cup winning team mates from 1987, Sean Fitzpatrick.
“It’s pretty easy to get involved when it’s such a fantastic cause. I’m really looking forward to coming over and helping out. When you see some of the things the game is raising money for, and what some of the guys have been through, it’s pretty easy to help,”
The switch of hemispheres has already made Kirwan a marked man in the Southern Hemisphere camp with Fitzpatrick branding his former colleague “a turn coat”. ”Sean Fitzpatrick has already called me a turn coat for being involved with the Northern Hemisphere team, but I’m looking forward to getting one over on Fitzty. It’s going to be a great game, there will be big name players and we will be playing a Barbarians style of rugby,”
