‘No quarter given’ for Ireland as Rugby World Cup looms

By Gerry Buckley

“In my time I’ve had my knee put out, broken my collar bone, had my nose smashed, a rib broken, lost a few teeth, and smashed my ankle but, as soon as I get a bit of bad luck, I’m going to quit the game!”

Unlucky Irish prop forward Cian Healy could easily have uttered a more frustrated version of the above quotation by JW Robinson as the Ireland head coach Andy Farrell announced the 33-man squad for the upcoming Rugby World Cup last Sunday afternoon in the Shelbourne Hotel. The Leinster man’s hopes of a glorious career swansong in France had been dashed in a relatively innocuous ‘friendly’ against Samoa the previous evening, his misfortune allowing Jeremy Loughman to step in at the 11th hour.

Those of us who grew up thinking rugby was a very physical game, basically watching just four matches per annum (Ireland’s games in the then-Five Nations Championship) but admiring the skill of wingers such as Gerald Davies and David Duckham in avoiding would-be tacklers, now cringe at the sight of massive men bulldozing each other into submission with apparently very little emphasis on side-stepping an opponent when demolishing him is an alternative!

You can’t but fear for the physical and mental wellbeing of top players when their careers end.

Of course, at least now there is an element of financial security involved in the professional era, albeit way short of the insane money paid to soccer ‘stars’ who roll over at even the prospect of imminent contact. Long gone are the days when rugby match programmes listed players’ ‘ordinary’ jobs since the game went professional in 1995, many of them in mundane employment managing to doll up their career paths in an era when there was far more snobbery in the game than is now the case.

How wonderful now it is to see Irish players from a plethora of counties, including Westmeath’s very own Robbie Henshaw.

In bygone amateur days, it seemed to us uninitiated youngsters that countries such as New Zealand were in a position to operate a system which allowed the best All Blacks to have less ‘ordinary’ work demands than their counterparts in this neck of the woods. Due to the dreadful effects of apartheid, South Africa was a mysterious place for years, but they also seemed to have vastly superior teams to the likes of Ireland.

In our innocence, we felt that the advent of the professional era would surely level the playing field, but the reality of it is that the ‘big two’ have won six out of the previous nine World Cups between them (two for Australia and one for England makes up the roll of honour). Of the Five/Six Nations countries, only the aforementioned England, in addition to the often-unlucky France, have reached the World Cup final.

Indeed, a quote from David Campese, the multi-talented, if overtly arrogant, Australian poster-boy winger in 1991, when his country won the second World Cup (after surviving an almighty scare against Ireland in so doing), says a lot about the double-standards in the game: “I’m still an amateur, of course, but I became rugby’s first millionaire five years ago!”

In this regard, every dog on the street is all too familiar with the depressing stat that, unlike Scotland and Wales (the latter would surely have been serious contenders for ultimate glory in the 1960s and 1970s – the competition only started in 1987), Ireland have never got past the quarter-finals. Several very promising teams in green have been tipped to alter that depressing statistic, but all have failed. And, as often as not, miserably!

So can Andy Farrell do in rugby what his countryman Jack Charlton did in soccer and take an Irish team to unprecedented heights? Many experts think so and most ‘Ordinary Joes’ in vox-pops agree. However, this Doubting Thomas is still struggling to envisage a scenario where Ireland will defeat New Zealand or hosts France in a knockout quarter-final.

Indeed, caution is also advised in relation to the widespread assumption that Farrell’s troops will saunter out of the group. Holders South Africa are certain to be formidable opponents in what will undoubtedly be a bruising encounter in the third pool game. To a lesser extent, Scotland in the final game are never straightforward opposition.

Much has been made of the strength in depth of the current Irish squad, but there are a number of key positions where the incumbent is well ahead of the number two. Injuries are inevitable and Farrell will be praying for some help from the 34th squad ‘member’, Lady Luck.

In a nutshell, if Ireland can get over the quarter-final ‘hoodoo’, they can go all the way and win the William Webb Ellis Cup. But that is a gigantic ‘if’.

As for this ‘pundit’, I can only wholeheartedly concur with the words of Welsh legend Jonathan Davies on BBC’s iconic ‘A Question of Sport’ programme in 1995: “I think you enjoy the game more if you don’t know the rules. Anyway, you’re on the same wavelength as the referees!”