While they may have lost by only 12 points against England, the scoreline did scant justice to the hiding suffered by Ireland in Dublin last Saturday. Outfought, out-thought and bullied in their own backyard, they looked a shadow of the rugby juggernaut that had swept all before it for the previous 12 months. A team and their supporters harbouring realistic hopes of winning the World Cup this year were forced to endure the rudest of awakenings.
It was a timely boot up the backside. Ireland’s grand slam clincher at Twickenham last March preceded a series win in Australia that was followed by a rare win against the mighty All Blacks. These results and a subsequent clean sweep of the most prestigious gongs at the World Rugby Awards may have prompted alickadoos in rugby clubs the length and breadth of Ireland to get a little carried away. Following England’s invasion and subsequent occupation of the Aviva Stadium, Ireland’s second place in the world rugby hierarchy no longer looks quite as secure.
“I think there is a touch of panic actually,” says Simon Hick from the Second Captains sports podcast, upon being asked to gauge the public mood. “It was such a thorough emptying and we got worse as the game went on. We got caught at the start and it got worse and worse and worse. We’d completely run out of ideas and didn’t look dangerous at all. I think when we play England, especially in Dublin, there’s an assumption we’re going to be up for it and play like wild men and that just didn’t happen.”
Joining Hick for the post-mortem, the former Ireland scrum-half Eoin Reddan preached the need for patience. “We should really be giving everyone a bit of space here,” he said. “There’s been a long-term plan in place for a long time.” The Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley stressed that, while their humbling was a disappointing defeat and performance, “Ireland have not turned into a bad rugby team overnight.”
Speaking to the radio station Newstalk, the former Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan suggested that “England were on a bit of a mission and they ambushed us” in much the same way Ireland have subjected them to similar shock and awe tactics at Twickenham in the past. “The source of their tries was just putting the ball in behind us – forget about the interception and the other was an error by Keith Earls – so despite everything they’re all fixable,” he said.
The responsibility for coming up with solutions lies with Joe Schmidt, the head coach who has made five changes – three of them enforced – to his side for Ireland’s trip to Murrayfield. “We were very quiet before the game,” he said. “I didn’t sense the same energy levels I would have in November when the All Blacks came. I didn’t sense it, I didn’t feel it. You almost sense this sense of vibrancy from the group and we didn’t have it.”
The Irish Independent’s Rory O’Connor described Schmidt’s demeanour in the immediate aftermath of the game. “He didn’t take a huge amount of responsibility for anything himself,” he said. “Everything was other people. He was asked would you have done anything differently and he said no. Whether you agree with him or not, he’s very clear in his head about what went wrong.” Facing the press when Ireland reconvened at training, Tadhg Furlong declared there was no need for panic. “Losing games is never nice but it doesn’t mean you throw it all away either and start changing things massively,” the prop said. “If we get back the accuracy that we can bring, we’re confident we can bring a performance as well.”
While internet forums and message boards are not always the most accurate barometer of informed public opinion, Furlong’s seems to be a view shared by the majority of Irish fans. There has, however, been a clamour for the recall of Simon Zebo following Schmidt’s brief and unsuccessful experiment in switching Robbie Henshaw from centre to full-back, a position where Ireland lack strength in depth. “My phone is always on,” said Zebo, who is playing in France and therefore not being considered due to an unwritten rule that says home-based players are preferred.
Almost as shocking as the nature of Ireland’s defeat last weekend was the sight of the Aviva Stadium rapidly emptying despite plenty of time being left on the clock. “I was really surprised,” says Hick. “There is always a chance Ireland can come back and 10 minutes is a long time in a rugby game. It was completely flat and there was no sense of hope or excitement in the stadium. An awful lot of people left early.”
So many that it was perhaps those fans who stayed until the bitter end that beat the traffic.
