Back when it all started the consensus was that Ireland would be good at World Cups because they were good at touring. This was not to say that Ireland’s history abroad was studded with great results, rather they had a reputation for mixing well, going with the flow and not moaning about being away from home. So in 1987, when New Zealand and Australia would jointly host the first World Cup, it was viewed in Ireland as a tour under a different banner. But a tour nonetheless.
It was not a great success. Four years later there was the incongruous experience of the tour that had three of its four games at home. And that was not a success either. Indeed Ireland’s relationship with this event has been of love unrequited.
Here are a few snapshots of scenes from the doorstep when the plan had been to be invited inside.
1987 Ireland are emptied by Australia in the quarter-final in Sydney. By half-time they trail 0-24 and the game is effectively over. They outscore the Wallabies 15-9 after the break. Their coach Mick Doyle puts great value on the fact they “won the second half”.
1991 Again it is Australia, and again it is the quarter-final. This time Ireland take the lead with a stunning try a few minutes from the finish. It turns out the Wallabies are less stunned than their hosts, and calmly work their way over the finish line courtesy of Michael Lynagh.
1995 Another quarter-final, another defeat. With South Africa hosting their first World Cup the management of travel from altitude to sea level, and the other way round, was always going to be an issue. Ireland ignored the professional advice and looked leaden-footed against France, who had heeded the same advice.
1999 One step short of a quarter-final – a play-off, against Argentina, to make that stage. Warren Gatland was coach and fond of resorting to a 12-man lineout, which would then be mauled. When he first pulled the trick, in Galway the previous year for Connacht against Australia, the Wallabies were gobsmacked. And it had worked. The Pumas unfortunately were not buying it, and defended their line with utter commitment. In Tom English’s book No Borders, Gatland describes the devastation at the final whistle, confirming Ireland’s worst World Cup showing.
“I remember sitting in the stand and before I even got out of my seat there was a reporter from RTE in my face. You feel so isolated. Guys on the [IRFU] committee were having little chats and you’re thinking, ‘Here we go.’ I went back to Galway and I didn’t get out of bed for three days. I was that down about it. I took it really, really hard. The IRFU could have made a change at that stage. The person who really fought for me was Donal Lenihan. I always appreciated that.”
That defeat was a turning point in the IRFU’s attitude to the professional game. Thereafter it embraced it meaningfully. By 2007 Eddie O’Sullivan’s squad for the next World Cup “tour” was heading to France with ambitions of coming home with the trophy.
To this day, the exact nature of what went wrong – remarkably it featured Argentina, again – is filed in the same drawer as the disappearances of Lord Lucan and Shergar. Certainly O’Sullivan got the preamble wrong and his team were short of a gallop going to France. Even so, the speed with which the confidence drained from the side when it became apparent how far they were off the pace was scarcely credible.
“I’d swear on a Bible at my mother and father’s grave that there was nothing else going on at that World Cup other than guys trying their guts out to overcome a lack of confidence and me being unable to turn it round,” O’Sullivan recalls in No Borders. “We lost to France and Argentina and we came home with our tails between our legs.
“Looking back on it now, Ireland was in the throes of the greatest economic boom in its history and the biggest problem people were facing was whether to buy another investment property, take a second holiday or buy a third car – those were the big issues in life. Rugby was the hottest ticket in town and everybody was set up for a trip to France and ‘Olé, Olé’ moments in every bar in Ireland and we came up painfully short. We crashed and burned. The vitriol that was unleashed was like, ‘How dare you do this to us?’”
One wonders if this is what informs Joe Schmidt’s fear of rising expectations around the current crew. His own CV is remarkable: between Clermont (as assistant), Leinster and Ireland he has been a part of seven trophy wins in six years. That affords him unique status in Ireland’s sporting hierarchy. A recent interview with Schmidt in a Dublin hotel was interrupted by an elderly man pleading that he run for president. Why would he want to do that when he wields far more power where he is?
The issue is whether his influence can translate into going farther than any other Ireland side in a World Cup: the semi-final. A largely amateur Canada are the first speed bump in the road, and if Schmidt’s team – minus the hamstrung Robbie Henshaw – have to drop too many gears to deal with this then the poor form in the last two warm-up games will seem more serious.
“Coming so late it is a disruption,” Schmidt said of Henshaw’s injury, which is likely to sideline the centre until the third game, against Italy. “I think you all saw the progress Robbie made in the Six Nations and how valuable he became. Luke [Fitzgerald] had already run in there a few times through the pre-World Cup Test matches – therefore he slotted in well. He’s a player I’ve had playing No12 in the past and have confidence in.”
If Ireland are going to break new ground in this tournament that confidence will need to be visible from the start.
