Ireland's Fall

Disclaimer: If you're as sick and tired of the rugby shenanigans of the last two weeks as Celia Larkin is of publicly propping up her ex boyfriend's financial rectitude, close your browser and have a cup of tay, or poke the Significant Other in the ribs while throwing a flirtatious wink in their direction. You might be glad you did.

Lads, as far as I'm concerned, Ireland's participation in the RWC amounts to about another eighty minutes of ramshackle incoherent display. I don't think I'm alone in that view.

The burden of blame has been placed on a few shoulders over the last 14 days, and the hunt for a hapless scapegoat was on before the final whistle blew against Namibia in Bordeaux.

The French media were their usual inconsistent selves, with such curtain twitching moments such as the multiple mistresses of a departed president barely meriting a line in a back page article, while unsubstantiated (although very persistent) rumours surrounding an Irish out half, and chasing errant British royals into concrete crash barriers around Paris become the subject of a veritable crusade by the Fourth Estate.

ROG in the dressing room, on Friday evening.


The IRFU got it in the chin too, for granting O' Sullivan another four years of meaningful labour, presumably on the back of the Six Nations campaign, and without consideration for the looming World Cup tournament.

Trevor Brennan, in the IT, tried to blame Phil Coulter's (admittedly more cheesy than Wensleydale) ditty, Ireland's Call, for failing to fire up the team, while blatantly ignoring the reasoning behind such a song's necessity in the first place.

EOS, for his part, has blamed referee decisions, lineout malfunctions, and lacks the balls to publicly admit to the shortcomings of Ireland's World Cup Campaign.

Storm clouds gather for Eddie O' Sullivan


All these people are wrong.

The team has in essence started to believe their own hype. Paradoxically, the Six Nations successes hindered, rather than helped the long term viability of O' Sullivan's merry men.

The team lacks any coherence. As the GAA boys would probably say, "They pulled hard lads, but they were pullin' agin' one another"

The team has been together in more or less the same form for four years now. It has stagnated as a result and some of the inevitable calls for new blood are justifiable.

That said, I'm probably wrong too. The difference is that my mistakes have smaller consequences.