Double disappointment on Louth’s soccer front
AFTER more than seven weeks and almost fifty matches, the marathon 2019 Rugby World Cup finally came to an end last weekend with South Africa steamrolling favourites England 32-12 to complete their third World Cup triumph.
Much of the British media had predicted a comfortable English victory, but they were guilty of overlooking South Africa’s proud rugby heritage.
Arriving to the stadium 20 minutes late, English coach Eddie Jones and indeed many of his players may have taken the Springboks a little for granted. They seemed to think they had done the hard work already when beating tournament favourites the All Blacks the previous week.
Despite all the recent rule changes and new-fangled coaching gurus, rugby is still first and foremost about establishing dominance from your front five.
Former Munster coach Rassie Erasmus kept his tight five fresh throughout the six-game tournament, regularly substituting each of them after 40 or 50 minutes. England, on the other hand, looked completely shot up front, with their scrum in particular falling asunder.
The post-match interviews really summed up the significance of how much this tournament meant for the South African nation and its people.
The sport of rugby was long associated with the South Africa’s white dominance and the apartheid regime. When Nelson Mandela presented captain Francois Pienaar with the 1995 World Cup trophy there was only one coloured player, Chester Williams, in the side. Twenty-four years on and over half the 23-man squad are non-white, a true reflection of the nations diversity.
However the significance of Siya Kolisi, a black man from the impoverished Port Elizabeth townships, raising the Webb Ellis Cup aloft as captain of his country is a beacon of hope for the new South Africa.
Winners South Africa and hosts Japan were the big winners from this tournament, with most of the other nations returning home disappointed.
Despite their final collapse England are still in a good place and their young side look set to dominate Northern Hemisphere rugby for the next few seasons. Wales have overachieved under the Warren Gatland stewardship and it’s hard to see that continuing, while Scotland had a poor tournament which is a fair reflection on where they are currently at. France and Australia also had tournaments to forget.
Ireland enjoyed a tremendous period under Joe Schmidt’s leadership, but the World Cup probably came 18 months too late for his team. Apart from the Scotland game, there weren’t too many positives to take from our performances and new coach Andy Farrell faces a difficult job trying to re-ignite the fire for the 2020 Six Nations.
It was a poor week also for both County Louth teams in domestic soccer. After a magnificent 2019 season Dundalk fell short in their attempts to capture the domestic treble when losing agonisingly on penalties to Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup final at the Aviva.
A sweet Michael Duffy left foot strike in the 94th minute drew Vinny Perth’s side level, but extra time failed to produce a winner and Rovers prevailed 4-2 in the shootout before an attendance of 33,111.
In Ballybofey, a battling Drogheda United lost out 2-1 on aggregate to Finn Harps in the Promotion/Relegation playoff final to consign Tim Clancy’s side to another season in the First Division.
With Drogheda leading 1-0 from the first leg, Finn Harps drew level in the opening period, with the tie finishing level after 90 minutes, sending it also to extra time.
Unfortunately for Drogheda United, it was the home side who took the lead and despite some late chances Finn Harps held on.