It starts at a line-out on the left side, just inside the French half.
Moments later, the ball is in the hands of Fulgence Ouedraogo on the other side of the pitch, steaming towards the Irish line. Quick passes zip it left again, Sebastien Chabal thunders on a few yards, and Imanol Harinordoquy crashes over for his try in the corner.
Croke Park, February 7, 2009. Today marks the first anniversary of that try, and the bad news for Scotland is that Harinordoquy is still every bit as blisteringly effective as he was that day in Dublin a year ago. As he has been, in fact, since his spectacular emergence in 2002, the year he destroyed England almost singlehandedly with a 20-15 victory in the Stade de France.
That match, Harinordoquy’s second Test, told the rugby world that a major new talent had arrived. With the Basque No 8 slotting in alongside Serge Betsen and Olivier Magne, it also gave the sport one of its greatest back rows. Betsen and Magne have passed into rugby legend now, but Harinordoquy is still writing his own folklore.
Quiet, intelligent, intense and enigmatic, Harinordoquy is also a rugby renaissance man. He retains a day-to-day involvement in his family’s cattle-trading business, a commitment acknowledged in his club contract at Biarritz. He is a skilful pelota player and he enjoys running with the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona – which must rate as one of his lighter workouts from the way he humiliates the carthorses of international rugby.
“He is a great footballer, with great skills, who can do things that some backs must wish they could do,” purred John Barclay the other day. “He has that ability to do something out of the blue, which makes you that bit more wary.”
Barclay draws on recent, painful exper-ience. Harinordoquy was immense as Biarritz beat Glasgow 41-20 in their final Heineken Cup pool match last month. But he wears his brilliance lightly, for his conjuror’s skills are never paraded just for show, always for the good of his team.
Staggeringly, France coach Marc Lievremont thought he could live without Harinordoquy when he took over the team two years ago. That folly lasted only a few matches. France spluttered through that year’s Six Nations championship (in fairness, their splutters included a 27-6 victory over Scotland) and Harin-ordoquy was soon back in the side.
At 6ft 3in, he must be the shortest line-out legend in the game today, but he more than makes up for his lack of height with the guile and athleticism that make him such a devilishly effective ball-winner. Rangy and improbably quick off the mark, he is just as much of a handful blasting off the back of the scrum.
Which is exactly where Scotland won’t want to see him. If the Scottish forwards can tie Harinordoquy in and keep him busy in the set-piece then they will have the upper hand in the battle of the packs. But if his lose-cropped head is bobbing about in the loose, the scoreboard will almost certainly be clicking in France’s favour.
As it generally does when he is rampaging around the park. Harinordoquy was the Six Nations’ leading try-scorer in 2004, with four touchdowns, although he is more often a provider than finisher these days.
If he went off the boil for a couple of seasons, he was still France’s star player of the last decade. And at just 29, he has the years left in him to be their star of the new decade as well.
