Rugby’s recurring nightmare is fascinating

MANY of us will be familiar with the experience of a recurring dream or nightmare: standing on stage but unable to speak, being chased by something or someone but unable to walk, or going into a big exam having done zero preparation.

Recurring dreams can often mean there is some sort of stress or problem in your life that you are failing to acknowledge. The dream or nightmare will repeat because you have not corrected the problem.

So while these nightmares are based on a reality in your life to a certain extent, they remain an abstract experience, a fantasy of your complex mind – we might wake up in a panic, but we are not actually being chased by a big black dog as you lose the ability to move your legs.

So spare a thought for anyone who is living through a recurring nightmare, and top of the list this week has to go to the powers that be at the IRFU. Because once again, their big black dog reared its ugly head last weekend, this time in the form of Japan. Different World Cup, same sinking feeling as yet again a team packed with pedigree has fallen flat on its face when it mattered most.

The Ireland rugby team are really making a habit of fluffing their lines at the World Cup. Seasoned supporters will remember Dublin in 1991 when we had the mighty Australia beaten in a quarter final only to somehow throw the game away in the dying moments. Fast forward to 1999 and we had the debacle in Lens, France when a physical Argentina trampled all over our dreams, and our entire front eight, to dump us out of the tournament before the quarter-final stages.

Another quarter-final exit in 2003 was followed by the calamity that was France 2007. Eddie O’Sullivan’s swashbuckling band of superstars rocked up at the tournament being touted as one of the favourites, yet we failed to get out of our pool.

In 2011 we top our pool by beating the Aussies, and a giddy nation is starting to expect. We get the ‘easier’ quarter-final draw against Wales, but lose nonetheless. Move forward four years and our recurring nightmare is back – again we top our pool only to be beaten out the gate by Argentina at the quarter-final stage.

Same as it ever was. Something strange came over me while watching Ireland being schooled by a second-tier nation last Saturday – as the game wore on I felt compelled to shout for Japan. It was the oddest feeling, as I certainly don’t make a habit out of going against the national team, whatever the sport.

In the hours and days after the game, I realised I wasn’t alone either, and it got me thinking about where exactly rugby stands in this country.

Rugby has enjoyed a massive surge in popularity in Ireland over the last 15-20 years – well support of our provincial and national teams anyway. But is this surge based on solid foundations or the result of some slick advertising campaigns? If you are to believe the marketing slogans, ‘this is rugby country’ and we are all part of the ‘team of us’. But are we really?

Despite the relatively recent successes of Munster and Leinster in Europe and Ireland in the 6 Nations, there is still a sizeable cohort of the Irish public that either don’t care about rugby or actually despise the game entirely.

Apathy I understand. Some just don’t get rugby and they will neither bask in the glory of a Six Nations win nor wallow in a World Cup meltdown. Some people have the same outlook on soccer – which is fair enough.

However, people revelling in Ireland’s defeat at the weekend I find a little odd. Do you really hate a sport so much that you find joy in watching a team that represents a 32-county Ireland lose spectacularly?

I found no joy in Saturday’s horror show, but I do find Ireland’s capacity to continually implode on the biggest stage utterly fascinating. What is it about our rugby team and the World Cup? How do we consistently get our timing wrong in the four-year cycle between World Cups? What is the root of our mental fragility that is exposed every four years for the whole world to see?

This is why I ended up rooting for Japan. The plucky host nation played the bogey man in our recurring World Cup nightmare. The rugby-loving corner of Ireland is now waking up covered in cold sweat, mumbling ‘here we go again’.

This living, breathing nightmare makes for compelling viewing, it really is the only show in town.