Why I’m praying Irish World Cu p bid can pu ll off a miracle comeback
Never mind tourism revenue, we’ll be missing out on magic memories
IT felt like we were mere inches away when David Campese slid across the grass, and onto another scoresheet. If we had snuck any closer, we might have held him up in goal. We would have smelled the sweat too, but Campo didn’t seem to exert himself too much as he casually bagged a brace against a fairly rudimentary Argentina.
The year was 1991 in the old Stradey Park and the crowd of us were practically on the pitch, cheering wildly like over-enthusiastic substitutes engaged in a windmill warmup behind the posts.
We were just the local schoolboys on a minibus trip to Llanelli, but I recall lots of Aussies with their yellow jerseys and blue language – and a few Argentinians too, who seemed impossibly exotic and tanned, flapping their blue and white flags in the rafters of the old stand like pigeons coming to roost.
Down on the grass, we were face to face with heroes. These were true legends in the making, and at the white-hot point of forging. They were the Wallabies who weeks later were about to steal William Webb Ellis from under the noses of the English.
But this was far from the final – there were only 11,000 of us in the crowd that Friday in October 26 years ago.
Sport has changed its stripes substantially in the near three decades that have passed, and rugby union more than any. Professionalism brought sponsors and contracts, and an audience of 479 million for the last World Cup in England.
But memories of ‘91 flooded back as I bought into the dream that Ireland could still proudly host a global tournament. Our stadiums have been roundly criticised this week as we fell behind in the pecking order to France and South Africa. Yet for a country of this size, we have a remarkable array of grounds to choose from, thanks in part to the GAA.
Forget those shiny but soulless stadiums on the outskirts of cities, ours are renowned for their atmosphere. And yes, our towns and cities are not the largest – and would have been overrun with supporters on match day – but isn’t that what makes a World Cup special? To feel a slice of the globe has come and landed on your doorstep?
I have no doubt the welcome would have been warm and fans would have found their way to all corners of this isle.
New Zealand 2011 seemed to prove a smaller country could cope with hosting a modern tournament, and after the experiment that will be Japan 2019 I felt certain world rugby might want to restore some familiarity for fans in 2023.
The Irish trip is a favourite for Six Nations supporters, and Ireland has consistently been among the top teams in the world in recent years – but has never hosted a Rugby World Cup. It would have been a short, affordable hop for the hundreds of thousands of rugby fans in Wales, England and Scotland who will find their wallets sorely tested if they journey to Japan.
And despite all the talk about transport and tourism, infrastructure and air links, I still dared to dream that there was room for some good,
old-fashioned, heart-on-sleeve emotion in this great game of ours. Put simply – Ireland is a great rugby nation, and deserves a crack at hosting, whereas France and South Africa have done it all before.
RUGBY is already a fairly niche sport globally – it is a gloomy thought indeed, if the smaller countries that truly love the game are to be excluded from hosting in future.
Feeling part of the World Cup as a schoolboy was special, and that’s the greatest loss that we face if Ireland fails in its bid to host the 2023 tournament.
Foremost, I am not mourning the lost tourism revenue, nor the loss of face.
I am mourning the loss of friendships yet to be forged, and stories yet to be told.
I am mourning the loss of the lifelong memories I had already planned to make with my children.
So I must still pray for a miracle comeback on November 15.
Come on Ireland.