Players deserve our gratitude, not criticism
Our Irish rugby team did not win the Triple Crown at the weekend.
They did however win the Grand Slam of our torrent of criticism when they failed to make our sporting dreams come true. That criticism has been sharp and unceasing ever since. There are many elements of it which are unfair and reek of ingratitude towards a mighty band of warriors for what they have achieved. Shame on us. Our memories are far too long in relation to our political history and far too short in relation to our sporting equivalents.
I admit to not being an expert but I am not alone I think in making the case that the Irish players, outgoing Grand Slam champions, went afield against Scotland for their last game in Croke Park, not just to win the Triple Crown but to enhance what has been a special tenancy there by playing a brand of rugby that would garnish the occasion.They went out to play champagne rugby on a historic sod which has been the scene of some of their most memorable victories in recent seasons. There would have course have been the normal planned tactics and strategies but I believe they went out to mark a special occasion with a special display.
It was manifest in the first quarter that this was a day to turn the back on the pragmatic porter rugby of rucks and mauls and close-quarter combat in the tight and kick for territory and grind out a Triple Crown with blood, sweat and tears. From the first seconds they were throwing the ball around with flair, flamboyance and skill. They were thrilling to watch. It was great stuff.
Those players in that quarter sought to flow across Croke Park in the fashion and style of the best Gaelic football teams that ever displayed their wares there. They sought to soar like the O’Connells and O’Sheas of the Kingdom of Kerry, like Heffo’s Heroes, like the stars from the Red Hand, like Gooch Cooper and Peter Canavan and Willie Joe Padden and spring heeled Vinnie Murphy and all the great GAA stars who fashioned great victories there in the past. They sought to garnish the day. They sought to leave Croke Park with a good wholesome taste in its mouth in relation to rugby.They wove their attacking patterns across the pitch in the fashion of the great Down teams of the Sixties, the Kingdom of today, the Antrim hand passers of the forties.
They scored a glorious try in that passage of play. They gladdened the hearts of all who saw them. It was as thrilling and beautiful to the eye as a good game of hurling between Cork and Tipperary. That try was the pinnacle of it.
But that kind of champagne rugby is high risk. It was throwing caution to the wind.
It was fingertip stuff. When it goes astray it goes astray badly even if there are only millimetric nuances between a pass going to hand and not. Some days these things are going to work and some days not. On this day, above all days, the champagne did not bubble for too long, the Scots resisted obstinately and with fire, and crucially young Johnny Sexton’s boot was out of tune with the occasion.
It must be very difficult for even a seasoned side like the Irish to be forced to descend from a higher level of rugby like what we saw in the opening quarter to the black porter pragmatics again. They did not manage that for the rest of the game and perhaps that is understandable. Not alone was Sexton misfiring but the scrums were creaking and the lineouts were way below what we have become used to.
So it went the way it went and now the team and management are being subjected to this somewhat unfair and unforgiving Grand Slam of criticism. Suddenly, according to some, the team is almost as low as a snake’s belly.
But, rather than the torrent of criticism, we should instead be paying tribute to the exploits of a great Irish team. Those of us of a certain age remember all those decades when a Triple Crown was never achieved, never mind a championship or a Grand Slam. These warriors have won Triple Crowns by the new time, were the outgoing champions, have always performed with style. They have long banished the era when Paddy competed with fire and passion in the first half and then ran out of legs.
Crucially for many of us they beat England regularly in what we see as the most vital game of the season. They have been terrific representatives of the nation and they are not finished yet. This season has blooded some of the bright stars of the next generation. Players like Earls and Bowe and Sexton (despite his rare bad day) have progressed magnificently. The scrum is being slowly rebuilt.
There are a lot of miles on the clock, yes, but the clock is also being rewound for the World Cup and the years beyond. And the provincial components of the side that has served us magnificently have still many more thrills to give us in the latter stages of the Heineken Cup. So thanks to this great Irish team. That is the very least you deserve.
And thanks too for that ten minutes of champagne rugby. Croke Park was delighted by that.
* cormac66@hotmail.com
