A night of excitement and tension as rugby dream ends

For the Irish rugby team, the dream is over. A team that has captured the imagination of the country over the last two years failed to smash through the glass ceiling and reach a World Cup semi-final. This time, it felt like it would be different. Fans believed in this Irish team in a way they hadn’t in the past.

This wasn’t a case of delusion or hype either, as has been the case during previous World Cups. However, when it came to the crunch they couldn’t beat the sport’s aristocrats, New Zealand in what was a classic encounter.

The timing of the Irish matches has been ideal for pubs so it was a surprise to read last week that monthly pub spending was down 19% in September from August with outlay in restaurants falling by 17% and in fast food outlets by 14%.

Many people have chosen to watch the matches at home, which is reflected in the astonishing TV ratings which have approached Late Late Toy Show levels. It has also been estimated that up to 60,000 fans made the trip to Paris for the matches against South Africa, Scotland and New Zealand. This was reflected in Irish consumer spending in France rising by 9%.

However, on Saturday night Roscommon Town was buzzing. The hostelry I went to was packed long before kick-off and the tension skyrocketed as the action developed.

The south Dublin, elitist image associated with the sport rubs some of the non-rugby public up the wrong way. Others feel their own sports are threatened by the rising of popularity so a small minority of Irish people won’t be too sorry we lost to the All-Blacks.

That mindset is peculiar. If devotees of a particular sport are confident about the attractions and qualities of their own sport why should they feel threatened by another? Gaelic Games flourished in the years following Italia 90.

Surely the actual way the game is being played is a bigger problem for Gaelic Football than the growth of rugby. It’s the same with hurling: the inability of the sport to spread beyond nine or ten top counties over the last 130 years hasn’t anything to do with Ireland having a good rugby team in 2023.

However, the vast majority of people across the nation were fully behind the team. As the Irish soccer team had plumbed new depths under Stephen Kenny, the rugby team has replaced them as the nation’s leading flagship international sporting representatives. Irish fans flocked to France to cheer on this team with the same passion that they supported the soccer teams at major tournaments in the past.

At a grim time in world affairs, the team has lifted the nation's spirits. This World Cup wasn’t quite rugby’s version of Italia 90. Nothing could be ever quite like that again, but for the generations who weren’t around in 1990, this was a thrilling adventure. It would have been fascinating to see just how high rugby fever would have soared if Ireland had reached the final.

In a sporting world where top teams have psychologists and analysts, and prepare meticulously in the most minute detail, tradition shouldn’t really play a role.

This was, by general consent, the best rugby team Ireland has produced, the world’s No. 1 side. Yet, last Saturday they were uncharacteristically nervous for the first 20 minutes, falling 13 points behind. Ireland recovered magnificently and contributed to an absorbing match, but they could never get the lead.

Did the spectre of the past, of never having reached a semi-final before weigh on their minds? New Zealand remembered their heritage as three-time winners and played like a team who did not countenance losing to Ireland.

It’s the same in all sports. Tradition is a help if it’s on your side and a hindrance if it’s not. Growing up, I heard the saying that another team, particularly a non-traditional county, would have to be six or seven points better than Kerry footballers or Kilkenny hurlers to be sure of beating them.

I saw it myself on a few occasions. In the 2012 All-Ireland football quarter-final Donegal were far superior to Kerry but just scraped through by a point; in last year’s All-Ireland hurling final Limerick, who have morphed into the sport’s leading team, were much better than Kilkenny but needed two late points to get over the line. Last Saturday, Ireland needed to be six or seven points better than New Zealand to be sure of winning; on the night they weren’t.