We disrespected the Boks, we disrespected the All Blacks... now we look like idiots
Fans and media alike guilty of losing the World Cup plot
IT has been a horrible, interminable week. After four years of steady and confident ascent, Ireland made it right to the edge of World Cup history and then tumbled, mortally wounded, into the void. And what a void.
No offence to the GAA, but the club championships, while packed with parochial drawing power, are not exactly enthralling the nation as a whole. And while the shinty does have an international aspect to it, it is just a bit, well, you know…
The fact the Premier League was on a down week denied us the distraction of their hype and VARobsessed hoopla and instead it was back to watching the final, slow swirl of the Stephen Kenny era down the clogged drain of Irish football.
As for the URC’s return? Can’t be dealing with that yet.
To add to the desolation following last weekend’s quarter-final loss to New Zealand was the certain knowledge that this Ireland side (easily the best to have ever been sent out on World Cup duty) would put 20 to 30 points on the two semifinalists who emerged from the playground side of the draw.
The full reality of what a horlicks the organisers have made of this competition only hit them this week. Amid the ongoing struggle to secure the game’s financial future, rugby’s flagship tournament lost its host nation and biggest visiting spenders in 24 hours. Oops. Topping off this week’s darkness was the predictable pile-on from the anti-rugby contingent, their shrill glee at Ireland’s demise as tawdry as it was tedious. This time, however, the haters were way off.
No one can deny the elite roots of Ireland’s rugby story overall but Andy Farrell’s side did not fit the traditional bill of being above or removed from ‘ordinary folk’.
This team carried a compellingly broad appeal that drew in a lot of drive-by rugby followers (in the same way Munster did in the early 2000s), a team people felt they could identify with – typified by their no-frills, north of England head coach.
Aside from the usual elitism slur, ‘chokers’ was the other main accusation levelled at Ireland this week and that’s also wide of the mark.
It was certainly a fair charge for previous World Cups.
Aside from 1987 (woefully unready) and 1991 (when they surpassed all expectations to even run the Wallabies close) it could be argued that Ireland have choked at every World Cup – in the sense that when the pressure came on, they did not show up.
This team showed up. They may have wobbled against New
Zealand – in the setpieces, breakdown and in defence – but the All Blacks still could not shake them off, even after going 13-0 up, and Ireland came within a Jordie Barrett arm-width of victory.
You can call that Ireland performance many things – galling, disappointing, crushing – but you cannot call it choking. Not this time.
No, having digested it all over seven long days and nights, the biggest lesson to emerge from Ireland’s latest World Cup failure (aside from the need to change the draw format) does not involve the team or the coaches, but rather the rest of us. It is the lesson of respect – for your opponents and your own history. We spoke here after the win over South Africa about the thin line between celebration and triumphalism, but the Ireland supporters and large tracts of the media erased that line completely.
There was a lack of respect shown to New Zealand, to their heritage in this competition (three titles, eight out of nine semi-finals versus Ireland’s none), to their captain Sam Cane, head coach Ian Foster and especially to their assistant coach and chief strategist Joe Schmidt.
At the start of the year, we spoke here about how Schmidt was ‘waiting in the long grass’ for Ireland and how he would have been hurt by the sustained and dismissive criticism he has received here since departing as Ireland coach after the last World Cup.
Given the remarkable things he did for Irish rugby, the revisionism has been astonishing and after New Zealand’s opening loss to France, some of the stuff that appeared in the Irish rugby media defied belief.
There was always nothing between France and New Zealand when it came to Ireland’s preferred choice of last-eight opponent but suddenly our pundits were jubilant about the prospect of facing the All
Blacks in the quarter-finals.
Foster was pilloried, a place-holder running down the clock until the arrival of the breakdancing messiah Scott Robertson, while Schmidt, we were told, ‘knows how this is likely to end’ – a reference to his endgame in Japan four years ago, the culmination of a tense period which clearly still rankles with many of the Irish rugby pack.
Then there was the stats expert who, through his regular mind-numbing slot on Irish sports radio, bemoaned the lack of statistical analysis in our media coverage before producing ‘evidence’ to show that ‘Sam Cane does not know how to ruck properly.’ That went down well in New Zealand.
All of a sudden, Cane, the muchmaligned captain who had been called a ‘sh*t Richie McCaw’ by Peter O’Mahony during the series win last year, had the nation back on his side. O’Mahony is old-school, he knows how you dish out the verbals to gain advantage while fully recognising the Kiwis’ right to return the favour on the flip side. The nature of doing business.
But it is those on the periphery, media and supporters, who went too far. There was incredible arrogance on show from those possibly too young or too ignorant to have been scarred by Ireland’s World Cup history.
It was hot on the heels of the gloating that followed the pool win over the Springboks – a victory that achieved nothing tangible but was celebrated like a World Cup final triumph.
The South Africans have been at this far longer than us, with the success to back it up, and they let the Paddies enjoy their Zombie and their gifs and their puns and went on their way. Who is laughing now?
Last weekend was tough. It means 40 years of hurt by the time the next World Cup rolls around. But it was hard not to feel happy for New Zealand, Cane, Schmidt and Foster last Saturday.
We have no idea what pressure is compared to the New Zealanders – their national side going on a bad run can lead to economic collapse and government change.
And the Irish supporters and large sections of the media played into their hands by showering them with motivation through a level of easy arrogance and bullsh*t stats.
Rugby is still a visceral game. The All Blacks look reborn and fair play to them. We look like idiots.
This is a team people felt they could identify with – and they showed up