Rubbing our hands with glee can lead to a slap in the face

RUBBING their hands with glee after last Wednesday’s World Cup 2019 draw was a strange form of exercise for Irish rugby fans. After all, we’ve ultimately failed to ‘man up’ for any World Cup played anywhere on the planet since the first tournament was played Down Under in 1987.

Finding ourselves in the weakest of four pools next time around, with only hosts Japan, the beatable Scots, and possibly Romania and Tonga, should make a semi-final place easypeasy. Or maybe not?

The advantageous position of being one of the top seeds meant that Ireland had no immediate worries about England, New Zealand or Australia – and then we fortunately avoided South Africa, France and Wales (all second seeds with the Scots). So, are we already more than halfway to a last four place for the first time in Irish rugby history?

Joe Schmidt does not seem to think so. The Irish coach does his maths as fast as anyone. Before speaking to the media after the draw, he knew that standing in the way of Ireland’s likely path to a semi-final is South Africa. And meeting the Springboks, who know what it feels like to rule the world of rugby once upon a time, is as good a reason as any to remain extremely cautious even at this far remove from the tournement. ‘They are all good, bad and ugly really,’ Schmidt assessed of the four groups. He had not made the 9,500 kilometres journey to Kyoto to do hand-stands. Instead, the Irish coach remained steadfast in his enormous respect for everyone else. ‘It’s very hard to assess where teams are going to be in two years’ time,’ he added, and no doubt he is including Ireland in such thinking. Schmidt has watched an Irish team turn from men into mice upon entering a World Cup quarter-final. It happened on his watch two years ago when Ireland were thumped by 17 points by Argentina. In fact, it has been a recurring metamorphosis and one that Irish teams have pretty much perfected. In a World Cup we should stay scared... very scared.