Look Beyond (Lo sguardo oltre: Look Beyond)

Get on his shoulder!

Alright, you're okay.

Uh, champion? No. I don't--

Honestly, I don't think of myself as a champion. I just think of some--

I think of myself as someone who wants to just give it their all.

Someone who knows that rugby is not there for the rest of your life as a player,

so you got to maximise your time, realise how fortunate you are

to be in this position, to be able to do what you love doing,

and just follow your passion.

And I don't like losing.

- -

- We saw a bandage and... - Mummy.

- We got the second half. - Come sit.

- Come say hi to Uncle Ian. - Who is it you're playing?

- Um, how's South Africa? - No.

- - How's the hand?

- Look at the finger. - Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth.

Well, it was a long nine hours.

- Um... Hello, princess. - Lallie, look who it is.

- Hello. - Now what do you say?

I think if I'm-- 'Cause we've lost in the last eight minutes.

- Aw. - Yes.

But I thought you looked tired coming off. No?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, next game, I think is my 50th as well.

Oh, brilliant.

Did Philip tell you

that he was always late for school?

Philip would always say that it was our dad's fault

and that Dad would drive too slow.

Thing is, driving to school

would only take us two minutes.

Philip would always wake up ten minutes before the first class of the day...

- - ...and blame our dad.

My daddy was gonna be-- Mum's in Italy. They were following me.

- Mm. - So, yeah. It's a...

I don't mind, I just like to see them. I don't care.

They're building a ramp here.

There's no parking.

I think people are gonna get public transport.

My family is too important for me.

I am the youngest of four children.

My brother Philip and I are ten years apart.

I've been very lucky to be brought up

by not only my mother, but also by my sister Emma.

Emma has been incredible

and she helped me a lot when I was a child.

I feel very lucky to have an honest and kind family.

Um, they all keep helping me, I feel them close to me.

My mother texts me before and after every game.

Family is something I could never forget.

- -

On the morning he was... he was born,

Dad, uh, came to collect us from June's house,

uh, to tell us that we had another, um...

...baby brother.

- -

And I was absolutely over the moon with my little brother.

Um, he was a very good baby.

Um, he didn't sleep very well.

Well, we're all a bit older than Ian. He's the baby so I was...

You know, well remember him being born and being very young,

and I think one thing that really sticks out for me actually is--

And kinda linking with what he ended up doing later,

is that he used to have this...

You remember these, like, harnesses that you'd attach to the top of a door

and the baby would jump in them? And, um...

He loved it.

He was in it for hours every day and he was amazing.

He was maybe only five or six months old

but he used to kind of pull himself back and go swinging really, like...

like just go backwards and forwards really fast.

And I think it was probably even clear at that stage that he was really sporty

and really kind of agile and really physically very able.

She's walking there...

- - Well, Ian concentrates on what...

Uh, no. Pamela concentrates on walking

- but Ian concentrates on being giggly. -

- - Mm, isn't that nice?

Isn't that nice?

- Here you go. -

Yes. Well, Ian, as I say, is nine years younger than Philip,

so Philip actually was not very impressed when Ian was born.

Because Philip had been the baby.

And now there was another baby, so, um...

Philip was a little bit put out, but he got over that.

My older two children absolutely doted on him.

My son Andrew just adored Ian, still does.

In fact, he's Ian's godfather.

Um, and Emma, my daughter, just became another mother to him,

because she was 12 when Ian was born.

Philip used him as a bit of a toy.

He tied him up and threw him around

and played with him in the garden,

but forgot that he was only six months old.

Yeah, I remember we were watching--

Uh, it was myself, my brother Andrew, my sister Emma and myself,

we were watching Home and Away , a famous Australian television program,

and my mother and father-- I can vividly remember--

called us in, just after dinner had finished, into the kitchen,

and they announced, "We're gonna have another baby."

And of the three of our siblings,

with three radical different responses,

my brother Andrew broke down, wept in tears,

hugged my mother and embraced-- thought it was the most wonderful news.

My sister I remember being a little bit more cautious, but still very jubilant.

And me, I ran out of the house in utter disgust.

I had been on the pinnacle.

I had my throne created as the youngest child.

And suddenly, this--

After a long gap, this impostor was arriving to take my throne.

And I was in denial for quite some time.

- -

There's the famous story now, that after three days--

And I remember it very vividly. I am...

He was in the living room with me, and I got some skipping rope

and I decided to tie him up.

And, uh, my family came in, in horror,

at this three-day-old baby at home tied up with a piece of rope.

Throughout 1993,

the Republic of Ireland was right on course for World Cup qualifications

when Spain jams the script at Lansdowne Road in October.

Now the Republic have to go to Windsor Park,

where a win would guarantee safe passage to the stage.

The situation began...

Yeah, Dad was a very talented sportsman.

Mum used to play hockey up until about the time when Ian was born.

I remember going to her hockey matches.

And the two have very natural abilities.

And definitely that funnelled most strongly into Ian

out of any of the four children.

Uh, but I remember we would play in the back garden

and I remember just one day he did a little move--

And nobody taught him this--

a little chip through my legs.

And it was just seeing the world and seeing sport

in a way that you just can't teach somebody.

So, that natural ability was very evident and very strong early on.

Ready, steady, go!

Good boy.

Come on, just run to Mummy. Run to Mummy. Quick!

Right through. Right through!

Yeah!

Papa. Papa. Papa.

- Papa. - Yes?

Almighty God. Praise the Lord.

- Papa. - Say your prayers, Ian.

Amen. Praise the Lord.

Uh, my good wife, Pam, is from Dublin,

born and reared in Dublin.

I'm from the heart of rural countryside Ireland,

a very famous county called Tipperary.

And it's a beautiful agricultural county.

My dad was a church vicar and rector,

the same as I am, a church vicar and priest.

Uh, my half-brother was also a priest, which had already died recently.

And then there's myself.

So that's three of us ordained within one family.

We got together and we got married in 1974.

And, um, we were about two years in the parish that he was in then,

when he was cured.

And then we moved to a suburb of Dublin,

a place called Whitechurch, which is simply beautiful.

We're very close to the city centre, we're beside the mountains.

We're not far from the coast.

That's where we are.

He'd... He had lovely, long, curly hair.

He didn't want to get his hair cut.

And we would say to him, "Ian, when will we get your haircut?"

And he would say, "No, not get haircut. Not get haircut."

Ian, when will we get your haircut?

- Tomorrow. - We'll get your haircut tomorrow.

No, not get haircut.

- Will we? - No.

- But I want your hair cut. - It's no.

Um, I am just so incredibly proud of Ian

and I am so glad that he's my brother

and best friend.

What's a family? Well, family for me is my family.

So, my parents, my three amazing brothers.

Um, and I think that we're all very different

and we've all been fostered to grow in different ways

and we've ended up doing really different things.

And so, while Ian is a professional sports person, I'm not sporty at all.

I can't catch a ball. But that's the beauty of family, I suppose.

That we're kind of a patchwork quilt of different things.

They say the cold is good for you.

It gets rid of all those deadly diseases.

Oh, is he going in again?