ABOUT TIME WE STOPPED PREPARING AS IF WE’RE UNDERDOGS
WIND SHRIEKED through a marquee that was no defence against a sullen winter’s night. It was a structure rattling out of place in an Irish gale, but it wasn’t the only incongruous feature of a strange occasion. Ireland gave South Africa a sound beating in Lansdowne Road on November 11, 2006, and as the clock ticked on, the coaches arrived into a glorified tent that flapped uselessly against the gusts outside. It was the setting for contrasting press conferences.
Jake White dealt with the aftereffects of a surprising loss. He had not brought his strongest squad to Europe, and players like Schalk Burger, Percy Montgomery and Os du Randt were at home as Ireland won 32-15, but this was still a humbling loss for a coach never troubled by modesty.
Eddie O’Sullivan had a different challenge to consider. His side stayed fifth in the world after the win, but would move up to third after beating Australia later in the month. That night against the Springboks, he encountered a very new challenge for an Irish head coach: expectation taking off like a startled stallion.
He was asked if his team, after winning a second Triple Crown in three seasons earlier that year, could now consider the 2007 World Cup as a plausible target. ‘Of course everyone would like to win the World Cup,’ said O’Sullivan.
‘As a union we have stated our aim is to get to the semi-final and I suppose if we got there you would say, “Let the devil take the hindmost” after that. Talking about that would be way too far down the track,’ he said, before adding, ‘although the World Cup is looming and it’s hard not to talk about it.’
That instance of an Irish coach accepting his team were contenders is being resurrected and waved like a yellow card at Joe Schmidt. Look what happened when one of his predecessors got uppity. Don’t say it ain’t so, Joe! In fact, don’t say anything, Joe!
Schmidt needs no encouragement when it comes to caution. In a country where the first language is the poor mouth, he speaks it with a fluency that makes natives blush.
During his time in Ireland, he has not sought to play down expectation so much as level like a combine in a
corn field. But trying to paint Ireland into some neglected, cobwebbed corner is not feasible now.
Not only that, to try and do it would be regressive and spiritless. Schmidt and his men should fight every instinct that tells them to deflect attention and keep quiet. They should acknowledge they are one of the best teams in the world – they do it on the pitch and they must start doing it off it.
Ireland blew up at the 2007 World Cup but not because the players believed they would win the tournament. Their preparation was ruinously planned: O’Sullivan sought to wrap up his best players and it was only in tournament warm-up games, after weeks spent away from the pitch and devoted instead to bulking up, that the coach realised the squad had not played enough games.
They failed because preparations were misjudged, not because of hubris. Ireland won another Triple Crown in the spring following the wins against South Africa and Australia in 2006. They were ranked third in the world. They believed they could win the Webb Ellis Trophy. They were not deluded.
There is a regressive notion that Irish teams in all sports do best when they prepare unnoticed. This argument goes that being favourites does not sit with the national character. But there was a time when playing with wingers did not suit Ireland’s rugby character.
There were years when the left and right wings on the Ireland team could have been used as relocation sites under the witness protection scheme, because they were among the world’s least-visited places.
ATTACKING rugby as played by France and New Zealand did not suit our character in those days. Ireland changed. Professionalism fostered a rugby society where ambition could thrive, and Ireland now play rugby comparable to any team outside of the All Blacks.
They are coached by imaginative and ruthless men who led the team to a Six Nations championship in the spring. The second-best team in the world has been accounted for and Australia will be met by the full force of a first-choice XV fuelled by enormous self-belief.
Ambition is the natural consequence of all of this. Paul O’Connell will not start trash-talking Michael Cheika or telling Richie McCaw that Ireland are coming for their crown, but confidence does not have to be hidden away like a shameful vice, either.
It is simply not sustainable for Schmidt or his team to present every opponent as a challenge akin to the north face of the Eiger. Beating the best in the world undoubtedly takes great preparation and demands unblinking concentration levels from the players.
The point is they are comfortable with those demands. They can not only survive but also flourish in those conditions. They are, whether they like it or not, an elite team now.
They will not make peace with that publicly, but nor should they shirk from it or seek to deny it. With England and France coming to Dublin next spring, Ireland will target a Grand Slam. That is certain, but it will never be publicly said, unless perhaps they achieve it and then it will be one of those details that emerge in the dreamy days after their success.
They will, like O’Sullivan, look to win through to the semi-finals of the World Cup. And if they get there, well, as O’Sullivan said, the devil takes the hindmost. It is an exciting time plump with possibilities – not that you will hear much talk of them.