RUGBY : (
Let’s go back approximately 16 years to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4bn6StyxvU
That’s the closest an Irish team has ever come to the Semi – Finals of a rugby world cup. Stirring stuff eh (even with French commentary)? Of course, Australia rolled up their sleeves; put the head down – and went down the other end of the pitch from the restart to win the game. Because that’s what winning teams do. They win.
AN EIGHT YEAR CYCLE OUT AT SEA
Ultimately, Irish rugby has had many moments like Gordon Hamilton’s above try – small incidents of rebellion against that power which ultimately reigns all powerful over Irish sport on the world stage: the self defeating power of underachievement and failure. Eight years after the above game, an Irish team containing such willing - yet hopelessly limited - players like Tommy Tierney and Justin Bishop went down to a plucky and overachieving Argentinean side in Lens. Despite the Irish camping on their line for about 8 minutes before the ball went dead. Despite desperate phase and phase of picking and driving from the forwards, and despite the medieval tactic of the 15 man lineout: it was all to no avail and the blazers in the IRFU were jolted into the professional era – almost against their will.
Lens was undoubtedly a shockingly low point in Irish rugby history, but it should hardly have been unexpected. From 1991 to 1999 our international team was an absolute laughing stock. The likes of Geoghan and Galway were surrounded by players who defined the term “amateur athlete”. We beat England a couple of times of course (most famously when Geoghan barrelled over into the corner in Twickenham) – but such blips were vastly outnumbered by the times an Irish team would give a good 20 minutes before allowing the floodgates to open. Everything that stank about Irish rugby could be summed up by Nicky Poppelwell scoring a try against New Zealand in the 1995 world cup and celebrating by sticking up the fingers to the vastly superior opposition. Yeah, well done Nicky: Ireland went on to be trounced 43 – 19.
“THE GOLDEN GENERATION”
Professionalism was approved by the IRB in 1995. But it was not until the 1997 – 98 season that the provinces were allowed to contract full time players. The Irish team was packed with those that had headed over to the premiership to ply their trade. After Lens, the approach changed. Money was pumped into the provincial set up, and attitudes changed. Ireland went to Twickenham in February 2000 and had their arse handed to them 50 – 18. That was Justin Bishop’s last game for Ireland. Two weeks later Hickie was recalled; O’ Gara and Stringer started their first full International at half – back; O’ Driscoll came in as the “golden generation” took their first steps. We beat France in Paris for the first time since 1972. Then in April, Munster went to Toulouse and stuck it to them like only Munster could in a performance filled with passion, desire and no little skill – exemplified by Hayes’s finish of magnificent multi – phase team try that wrapped the victory up.
Inexplicably, Gatland was replaced by O’ Sullivan in November 2001. While it was probably undeserved, progress continued. And so we settled into six years of being competitive. The Grand Slam was close, but always out of reach. Surely next year we thought? Argentina was edged past in the 2003 world cup. We all enjoyed a great performance against the hosts – the highpoint being O’ Driscoll’s brave try. And it didn’t seem so bad that we never turned up against France in the quarter final – the future looked bright. England was beaten in Twickenham on the occasion of their triumphant homecoming as World Champions in 2004. And then was beaten the next three years in a row for good measure. At times we played wonderful rugby and looked really fucking special. On the provincial front, Munster performed the miracle matches. And eventually put it all together and won. Leinster could point to some scintillating performances away to Bath and Toulouse. 15 months ago we went down to New Zealand and should have won the first test; gave them a fright in the second. And the good times built up towards what we hoped would be a fitting crescendo as we hammered South Africa in the autumn internationals; and we kicked England around in Croke Park.
And yet? There was no Grand Slam. There was no Six Nations championship. Four attempts at New Zealand in six years yielded another four defeats. Munster, for all their courage and bravery, needed three cracks of the whip before they won the Heineken cup. They LOST the greatest European club match of all time against Wasps. Leinster LOST an eminently winnable semi – final against a half interested French outfit in 2003 – at Lansdowne road. While winning four straight games against England felt good – the reality was that English rugby spent the last four years mired in the doldrums. They waited two years too long to finally jettison the heroes of 2003; then spent the next two years playing every player and his brother in a frantic effort to rebuild. Yeah, we were competitive. Yeah, we played some nice rugby. But over the last six years this “golden generation” has done NOTHING that a previous Irish team hadn’t done.
What O’ Sullivan gambled on was the creation of a world – class 15 that could beat all comers. As opposed to reaching for squad depth over the past four years; he concentrated on identifying the first choice for every position – and giving them every chance to gel. The plan was that first 15 would arrive in France fit and in form. There was no plan B – but no – one really thought we would need it when plan A appeared so refined. And, despite some minor setbacks during the warm up games, they turned up fit. But in form? Not even a little bit.
O’ Sullivan noted in the RTE documentary on last year’s six nations campaign that had the agonising TMO decision in the France / Scotland game on Paddy’s day gone our way – Ireland would not have been a better team for it. We would be six nation’s champions sure, but that title would make no difference to the actual talent level of the team. Wise words indeed – but after the Irish team walked off the pitch in Rome, nothing has been right. The provinces went out of the Heineken cup with barely a whimper. A patchwork side were man handled by vastly superior hosts over two tests in Argentina. As much as we all wanted to put horrendous performances in the warm – up games against Scotland and Italy to one side as “blips”; the laboured performance against Namibia should not have been as much of a shock as it was.
The thing is this Irish team probably was not as good as it thought it was. And, no matter how good any rugby team may be in theory, when you don’t perform you just won’t be doing much at International level. During the Georgia game there was plenty of clapping and shouting – but the basics were not being executed to an acceptable standard. The passion was there against France, but every time something good happened and a platform was established – a lineout would be squandered; or a silly penalty conceded ala Wallace stepping on Chabal. And, despite the fact that the likes of O’ Gara, Darcy and Horan were wildly out of sorts – what could O’ Sullivan do? The plan was that O’ Gara would do what he had been doing for years in a green or red jersey (think Argentina at Lansdowne in 2004 or Leicester in Welford road in 2006). Paddy Wallace was not a real replacement – that wasn’t the way preparations had been carried out over the previous four years. As opposed to giving the necessary game time to Wallace at out – half; we were content to give him a run with the second string every so often. He doesn’t even play out – half for Ulster!! With the whole lot on the line against Argentina, there was some improvement. O’ Connell was furious in the loose. O’ Driscoll looked like the best player in the world at his position again. Hayes gave another solid performance. But overall there was no zing. No fluidity. No consistency. Kicks were overcooked; wrong options were taken; key lineout’s were disrupted; key catches were dropped (by the massively over hyped Murphy).
The reality is, as I have argued above, that our expectations may have been misplaced to some degree. Beating the hosts in Paris is not something Irish teams are good at. Argentina is a tough, professional and fiercely determined outfit. They carry an ever present chip on their shoulder over what they perceive as “second class citizen” treatment from the IRB. Beating them was never a given. And failure to top the group was always going to deliver us into the arms of New Zealand in the quarter finals. As such, a failure to progress beyond the group stages is not an unmitigated disaster in and of itself.
However, this Irish team has – to use one of the oft favoured clichés of it’s coach – “died wondering”. Even if the expectations of what could be achieved were somewhat unreasonable, the team failed to do everything in its powers to hit the high bars that were set in place over the past four years. That is unforgivable. And that is what frustrates and annoys. Yet again, an Irish team has buckled under the weight of anticipation and failed to perform. When ever the favourites tag is applied to Irish athletes, they squirm and squeal beneath it. What is different about this Irish team from previous failures is that they speak more eloquently about their shortcomings. They make losing neater and more of an art. They seem genuinely disappointed and hurt when they don’t do what they are supposed to do. Well fuck them.
GOING FORWARD – THE GRIM REALITY
There are now two choices:
1) We can persevere with the selection policies of the O’ Sullivan era for another 18 months or so. And hope that the “golden generation” finally does what it has long threatened by doing a Grand Slam in 2009 (when we will next have England and France at home). Let them have a last hurrah before we resign ourselves to the darkness of a painful rebuilding process.
2) Or we can rule out any player who is unlikely to make 2011 from future Ireland matches. Accept some heavy and painful defeats and sacrifice short term competitiveness in the hope of building a SQUAD who can compete in the next world cup; and maybe win the one after.
The unfortunate reality is that we cannot do both. Here’s something to think about: the players who will start for Ireland at key positions like out half and prop in our first game of RWC 2011 have probably never being involved in an Irish squad previously. O’ Gara will be 34; Horan and Hayes may not see too many more Irish squads before they retire from the international game. You can probably fit fullback, wing, and one of the second row positions in that same bracket. Paddy Wallace is 27, and has never bedded in at the out – half position for Ulster – because of the durability of Humphreys. It is extremely unlikely that he can morph into an international standard no. 10 at this stage of his career. As such, if we want to rebuild, we will need to gamble on the untried and untested. We will need to take chances and leaps of faith in potential and promise. This will hurt us on the scoreboard.
In all probability, no matter what is done going forward from this world cup – we will be unable to fashion a group of athletes who can realistically expect to win it all in four years time. We now must look forward to another uncertain eight year cycle. The club game has been left to rot over the past eight years as a trade off for provincial success. The majority of the successful U21 squad of three years ago has left the game behind. There is not an abundance of young talent straining at the leash for an opportunity to come through. It will be hard to manufacture the “golden generation” of tomorrow.
THE END OF AN ERA – A TIME FOR ASSESSMENT?
As I come towards the end of this rant, I realise that what really grinds my gears is the fact that despite all the talk, all the optimism, all the investment – we are in the exact same place as Lens eight years on. Eddie O’ Sullivan has overseen three quarters of that period. And while he cannot be blamed for all of the failings of this world cup (the players need to perform at the end of the day) – it should seem perfectly reasonable to every logical person that now would be the ideal time to reflect on where we are as a rugby nation; on what has been achieved in the O’ Sullivan era; and whether we think he is the man to take this team forward over the next four to eight years. Instead, the IRB in its infinite wisdom decided to deny them such an opportunity by extending his contract BEFORE this world cup began. In my humble opinion, a coach who had failed to win the six nations; do a grand slam; or reach a world cup semi final should have faced some hard questions from his employers at this point in time. And given that the core of this team will not be around in four years – it is not a time for a focus on continuity. We did not need to contemplate major rebuilding after 2003. Now that it is necessary, we should be wondering whether to go with a completely fresh approach.
Beware of the fancy talk we will hear over the course of the next six nations. There will be interviews where players stress how defeat will make them stronger. How they will aim to learn from this world cup. How we need to take two steps back to take one forward. That it all “goes in the pot”. Whatever is said over the coming years; whatever is done; and whoever gets to do it – the goal should be simple:
To not be where we are now in eight years time – a place we were in eight years ago. We need to aim for good performances and good results to be signs of real progress that take us forward - not for them to be nothing more than blips that tease us into believing that our sporting culture has changed. We need them to be more than meaningless acts of defiance.
Let’s go back approximately 16 years to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4bn6StyxvU
That’s the closest an Irish team has ever come to the Semi – Finals of a rugby world cup. Stirring stuff eh (even with French commentary)? Of course, Australia rolled up their sleeves; put the head down – and went down the other end of the pitch from the restart to win the game. Because that’s what winning teams do. They win.
AN EIGHT YEAR CYCLE OUT AT SEA
Ultimately, Irish rugby has had many moments like Gordon Hamilton’s above try – small incidents of rebellion against that power which ultimately reigns all powerful over Irish sport on the world stage: the self defeating power of underachievement and failure. Eight years after the above game, an Irish team containing such willing - yet hopelessly limited - players like Tommy Tierney and Justin Bishop went down to a plucky and overachieving Argentinean side in Lens. Despite the Irish camping on their line for about 8 minutes before the ball went dead. Despite desperate phase and phase of picking and driving from the forwards, and despite the medieval tactic of the 15 man lineout: it was all to no avail and the blazers in the IRFU were jolted into the professional era – almost against their will.
Lens was undoubtedly a shockingly low point in Irish rugby history, but it should hardly have been unexpected. From 1991 to 1999 our international team was an absolute laughing stock. The likes of Geoghan and Galway were surrounded by players who defined the term “amateur athlete”. We beat England a couple of times of course (most famously when Geoghan barrelled over into the corner in Twickenham) – but such blips were vastly outnumbered by the times an Irish team would give a good 20 minutes before allowing the floodgates to open. Everything that stank about Irish rugby could be summed up by Nicky Poppelwell scoring a try against New Zealand in the 1995 world cup and celebrating by sticking up the fingers to the vastly superior opposition. Yeah, well done Nicky: Ireland went on to be trounced 43 – 19.
“THE GOLDEN GENERATION”
Professionalism was approved by the IRB in 1995. But it was not until the 1997 – 98 season that the provinces were allowed to contract full time players. The Irish team was packed with those that had headed over to the premiership to ply their trade. After Lens, the approach changed. Money was pumped into the provincial set up, and attitudes changed. Ireland went to Twickenham in February 2000 and had their arse handed to them 50 – 18. That was Justin Bishop’s last game for Ireland. Two weeks later Hickie was recalled; O’ Gara and Stringer started their first full International at half – back; O’ Driscoll came in as the “golden generation” took their first steps. We beat France in Paris for the first time since 1972. Then in April, Munster went to Toulouse and stuck it to them like only Munster could in a performance filled with passion, desire and no little skill – exemplified by Hayes’s finish of magnificent multi – phase team try that wrapped the victory up.
Inexplicably, Gatland was replaced by O’ Sullivan in November 2001. While it was probably undeserved, progress continued. And so we settled into six years of being competitive. The Grand Slam was close, but always out of reach. Surely next year we thought? Argentina was edged past in the 2003 world cup. We all enjoyed a great performance against the hosts – the highpoint being O’ Driscoll’s brave try. And it didn’t seem so bad that we never turned up against France in the quarter final – the future looked bright. England was beaten in Twickenham on the occasion of their triumphant homecoming as World Champions in 2004. And then was beaten the next three years in a row for good measure. At times we played wonderful rugby and looked really fucking special. On the provincial front, Munster performed the miracle matches. And eventually put it all together and won. Leinster could point to some scintillating performances away to Bath and Toulouse. 15 months ago we went down to New Zealand and should have won the first test; gave them a fright in the second. And the good times built up towards what we hoped would be a fitting crescendo as we hammered South Africa in the autumn internationals; and we kicked England around in Croke Park.
And yet? There was no Grand Slam. There was no Six Nations championship. Four attempts at New Zealand in six years yielded another four defeats. Munster, for all their courage and bravery, needed three cracks of the whip before they won the Heineken cup. They LOST the greatest European club match of all time against Wasps. Leinster LOST an eminently winnable semi – final against a half interested French outfit in 2003 – at Lansdowne road. While winning four straight games against England felt good – the reality was that English rugby spent the last four years mired in the doldrums. They waited two years too long to finally jettison the heroes of 2003; then spent the next two years playing every player and his brother in a frantic effort to rebuild. Yeah, we were competitive. Yeah, we played some nice rugby. But over the last six years this “golden generation” has done NOTHING that a previous Irish team hadn’t done.
What O’ Sullivan gambled on was the creation of a world – class 15 that could beat all comers. As opposed to reaching for squad depth over the past four years; he concentrated on identifying the first choice for every position – and giving them every chance to gel. The plan was that first 15 would arrive in France fit and in form. There was no plan B – but no – one really thought we would need it when plan A appeared so refined. And, despite some minor setbacks during the warm up games, they turned up fit. But in form? Not even a little bit.
O’ Sullivan noted in the RTE documentary on last year’s six nations campaign that had the agonising TMO decision in the France / Scotland game on Paddy’s day gone our way – Ireland would not have been a better team for it. We would be six nation’s champions sure, but that title would make no difference to the actual talent level of the team. Wise words indeed – but after the Irish team walked off the pitch in Rome, nothing has been right. The provinces went out of the Heineken cup with barely a whimper. A patchwork side were man handled by vastly superior hosts over two tests in Argentina. As much as we all wanted to put horrendous performances in the warm – up games against Scotland and Italy to one side as “blips”; the laboured performance against Namibia should not have been as much of a shock as it was.
The thing is this Irish team probably was not as good as it thought it was. And, no matter how good any rugby team may be in theory, when you don’t perform you just won’t be doing much at International level. During the Georgia game there was plenty of clapping and shouting – but the basics were not being executed to an acceptable standard. The passion was there against France, but every time something good happened and a platform was established – a lineout would be squandered; or a silly penalty conceded ala Wallace stepping on Chabal. And, despite the fact that the likes of O’ Gara, Darcy and Horan were wildly out of sorts – what could O’ Sullivan do? The plan was that O’ Gara would do what he had been doing for years in a green or red jersey (think Argentina at Lansdowne in 2004 or Leicester in Welford road in 2006). Paddy Wallace was not a real replacement – that wasn’t the way preparations had been carried out over the previous four years. As opposed to giving the necessary game time to Wallace at out – half; we were content to give him a run with the second string every so often. He doesn’t even play out – half for Ulster!! With the whole lot on the line against Argentina, there was some improvement. O’ Connell was furious in the loose. O’ Driscoll looked like the best player in the world at his position again. Hayes gave another solid performance. But overall there was no zing. No fluidity. No consistency. Kicks were overcooked; wrong options were taken; key lineout’s were disrupted; key catches were dropped (by the massively over hyped Murphy).
The reality is, as I have argued above, that our expectations may have been misplaced to some degree. Beating the hosts in Paris is not something Irish teams are good at. Argentina is a tough, professional and fiercely determined outfit. They carry an ever present chip on their shoulder over what they perceive as “second class citizen” treatment from the IRB. Beating them was never a given. And failure to top the group was always going to deliver us into the arms of New Zealand in the quarter finals. As such, a failure to progress beyond the group stages is not an unmitigated disaster in and of itself.
However, this Irish team has – to use one of the oft favoured clichés of it’s coach – “died wondering”. Even if the expectations of what could be achieved were somewhat unreasonable, the team failed to do everything in its powers to hit the high bars that were set in place over the past four years. That is unforgivable. And that is what frustrates and annoys. Yet again, an Irish team has buckled under the weight of anticipation and failed to perform. When ever the favourites tag is applied to Irish athletes, they squirm and squeal beneath it. What is different about this Irish team from previous failures is that they speak more eloquently about their shortcomings. They make losing neater and more of an art. They seem genuinely disappointed and hurt when they don’t do what they are supposed to do. Well fuck them.
GOING FORWARD – THE GRIM REALITY
There are now two choices:
1) We can persevere with the selection policies of the O’ Sullivan era for another 18 months or so. And hope that the “golden generation” finally does what it has long threatened by doing a Grand Slam in 2009 (when we will next have England and France at home). Let them have a last hurrah before we resign ourselves to the darkness of a painful rebuilding process.
2) Or we can rule out any player who is unlikely to make 2011 from future Ireland matches. Accept some heavy and painful defeats and sacrifice short term competitiveness in the hope of building a SQUAD who can compete in the next world cup; and maybe win the one after.
The unfortunate reality is that we cannot do both. Here’s something to think about: the players who will start for Ireland at key positions like out half and prop in our first game of RWC 2011 have probably never being involved in an Irish squad previously. O’ Gara will be 34; Horan and Hayes may not see too many more Irish squads before they retire from the international game. You can probably fit fullback, wing, and one of the second row positions in that same bracket. Paddy Wallace is 27, and has never bedded in at the out – half position for Ulster – because of the durability of Humphreys. It is extremely unlikely that he can morph into an international standard no. 10 at this stage of his career. As such, if we want to rebuild, we will need to gamble on the untried and untested. We will need to take chances and leaps of faith in potential and promise. This will hurt us on the scoreboard.
In all probability, no matter what is done going forward from this world cup – we will be unable to fashion a group of athletes who can realistically expect to win it all in four years time. We now must look forward to another uncertain eight year cycle. The club game has been left to rot over the past eight years as a trade off for provincial success. The majority of the successful U21 squad of three years ago has left the game behind. There is not an abundance of young talent straining at the leash for an opportunity to come through. It will be hard to manufacture the “golden generation” of tomorrow.
THE END OF AN ERA – A TIME FOR ASSESSMENT?
As I come towards the end of this rant, I realise that what really grinds my gears is the fact that despite all the talk, all the optimism, all the investment – we are in the exact same place as Lens eight years on. Eddie O’ Sullivan has overseen three quarters of that period. And while he cannot be blamed for all of the failings of this world cup (the players need to perform at the end of the day) – it should seem perfectly reasonable to every logical person that now would be the ideal time to reflect on where we are as a rugby nation; on what has been achieved in the O’ Sullivan era; and whether we think he is the man to take this team forward over the next four to eight years. Instead, the IRB in its infinite wisdom decided to deny them such an opportunity by extending his contract BEFORE this world cup began. In my humble opinion, a coach who had failed to win the six nations; do a grand slam; or reach a world cup semi final should have faced some hard questions from his employers at this point in time. And given that the core of this team will not be around in four years – it is not a time for a focus on continuity. We did not need to contemplate major rebuilding after 2003. Now that it is necessary, we should be wondering whether to go with a completely fresh approach.
Beware of the fancy talk we will hear over the course of the next six nations. There will be interviews where players stress how defeat will make them stronger. How they will aim to learn from this world cup. How we need to take two steps back to take one forward. That it all “goes in the pot”. Whatever is said over the coming years; whatever is done; and whoever gets to do it – the goal should be simple:
To not be where we are now in eight years time – a place we were in eight years ago. We need to aim for good performances and good results to be signs of real progress that take us forward - not for them to be nothing more than blips that tease us into believing that our sporting culture has changed. We need them to be more than meaningless acts of defiance.
