They managed to have a great year but both can enjoy a glory March in 2017
THIS is a day to be vague and indistinct, to make big promises and to talk fuzzily about what the future may contain. Happily, there are precise reasons to get excited about sporting affairs. Instead of broad pronouncements about what might happen, we can say with certainty that the month of March will be one of enormous importance for the two most popular national teams.
Never in the modern age have the two sides been sources of such excitement at the one time. The rugby team, thanks to the advances wrought by professionalism and the consequent success of the provinces, thrived for half a decade between 2004 and 2009.
This was at a time of great flux for the soccer representatives, as the veterans who led at the World Cup in 2002 left and the effects of fewer Irish players reaching the highest levels of the English club game were felt.
Rugby players became the boys in green. They were celebrated and soccer players traduced.
The dogged, exhaustive improvement managed by Giovanni Trapattoni brought Ireland heaving to Euro 2012, just as decline was eating into the Declan Kidney era and the provinces were starting to slip from the heights they occupied in European rugby. One team seed, the other sawed. There is the ambition of matching success now, and the high standards sought by our soccer and rugby representatives could bring a rich dividend come March. Martin O’Neill’s team lead Group D in World Cup qualifying, their ten points leaving them two ahead of Serbia in second place.
Third are Wales on six points, with Austria fourth on four. The Welsh, Serbs and Austrians would all have been confident of finishing ahead of Ireland in this race, but an outstanding autumn, concluded with that doughty victory in Austria, has put Ireland in a remarkable position of strength.
Four points from visits to Belgrade and Vienna constitute a priceless haul, and Austria and Serbia have to come to Dublin, in June and September. However, the arrival of the Welsh in March gives Ireland the chance to scuttle one of their three rivals for the sole automatic qualifying position.
Four points ahead of them now, were Ireland to beat Wales on March 24 they would cast them adrift. The Irish schedule concludes in Cardiff on October 9, a date that seemed decisive when the draw was made. A result then could still be vital for Ireland but they can end Welsh interest seven months before then if they defeat them in Dublin.
In an arduous qualifying process it is not often that single matches seem so significant in advance; it is usually in retrospect that certain contests are given more weight. This game is already, obviously, a critical one.
The most impressive feature of O’Neill’s side is their durability. That is not a characteristic that makes romantics swoon but from that base other possibilities are permitted, as the win in Austria last November illustrated.
Pragmatism is too often underrated in sport but, overseeing a side of limited abilities, O’Neill understands its importance. Wales were magnificent at Euro 2016 but they have not maintained those levels. They will understand that their match in Dublin is about surviving, and it will be a sharp challenge for Ireland.
Authentically ambitious teams meet such tests.
The Welsh figure in a defining month of March for Joe Schmidt and his rugby side, too. Wales are not the force of yore in the game, with their coach on loan to the Lions and his deputy trying, to modest effect, to introduce a new style of play.
Ireland visit Cardiff on March 10, by which point they will have travelled to Scotland and played Italy and France in Lansdowne Road. By the time they reach Wales, they will be expected to have won three matches out of three.
And victory at the Principality Stadium would then leave the fixture that many are relishing and one that would pulse with promise: England in Dublin on March 18.
If there are hopes Ireland could reach that match having won all their games, then the confidence among English fans regarding their team’s ability to be four wins from four by that point in the season is bullish. They have become quite the force under Eddie Jones and they would not fear Ireland or the Aviva Stadium.
It has been some time, though, since catching sight of a white shirt and a red rose sank Irish spirits. In fact, thanks to the gifted Schmidt, there is now no country in the sport that Ireland should fear. The win against New Zealand last November – seven days, incidentally, before the soccer team won in Vienna – was one of the stories of last year, but trumping Australia three weeks later was as valorous a feat.
Imagine the excitement and the noise in Dublin were Ireland to win the first Grand Slam of the Schmidt era against England on a bright March evening. And think how such a result would set up the soccer team against Wales six days later.
This year can’t move quickly enough.
IT was sensible to allow Jaco Taute, pictured, to stay at Munster for the rest of the season. The interests of Munster or Irish rugby would not have been improved by refusing an extension to his stay in the province.
The issue of foreign players in rugby remains live and that is proper, but cases need to be understood on their individual details. In this one, Taute has been vital to the improvements brought to Munster by coach Rassie Erasmus.
They can challenge for titles this season, and depriving them of a class player halfway through would have made no sense.