The moment 70,000 fans were shocked into silent immobility

THE last time Croke Park witnessed something as suddenly and as shockingly disappointing as this, on as grand a scale, was when Meath defender Kevin Foley came surging upfield to crash a last-minute goal to the Dublin net to tie up a game that had looked all over in their epic Leinster championship encounter of 1991.

Seconds later, with Dublin players and supporters still stunned, Meath added the winning point and for many long minutes after the final whistle the Dubs couldn’t leave the Hill, shocked into silent immobility.

A minute to go in Croke Park yesterday, Ireland just gone into a four-point lead, French winger Vincent Clerc spotted a mismatch, dashed through the heart of the Irish defence, dotted down almost under the posts.

In that moment he broke the hearts of 70,000 Irish fans in the near 82,000 capacity crowd.

And broke the hearts of the men in green.

Short minutes after it had all exploded in their faces they emerged from the dressing-room with disappointment etched on their faces.

“Absolutely gutted,” said an ashen-faced Ronan O’Gara, “It is the worst we’ve felt in a long while. It is a sickener. It’s a very subdued dressing-room, no-one has said anything yet, it’s hard to get our heads around this. I know we didn’t play well in the first-half but we dug deep, fought for each other, thought we had it and were then denied.”

There was no consolation for the out-half, not in his own individual contribution — scorer of all Ireland’s points, four penalties and a superb try — nor in a dominant Irish second half performance. “I thought we were getting on top and they were dead and buried. You saw by their reaction when they scored that they were as shocked as we were. Sport is cruel, and I’ve seen both sides of it in the last 12 months. Now you have got to keep the head down, work away and get on with it.”

The atmosphere before and during the game offered no solace. If anything, it added to the disappointment.

Admitted O’Gara: “It was brilliant and incredible. But now it’s dead. The memory we take out of this is defeat. I’m only out of the shower, my head is all over the shop. I have to try and solve this and get back on track for England. That’s a big game now, we have to put all our thoughts into that.”

Gordon D’Arcy too was feeling the pain. Normally an outgoing, gregarious kind of guy, the twinkle was gone from the eyes as was the ready smile from the face.

“It was so disappointing. In the last 35 minutes we could see the game was opening up, the guys were telling me to just hold my depth and the chance would come, and it actually did, we got good breaks in the second half. But a bounce of a ball killed us.”

Winger Denis Hickie is still sporting a long forehead scar from last week’s win over Wales. In a few months that will be long gone. The emotional scar from this one will last a bit longer.

“The result is the result, there’s not much analysis to be done on that, but there’s plenty to look at in our own performance. If a team travels away from home you can’t let them get that start and let them get settled in like that. That is one thing we have to stamp out if we’re to improve — win our next game here.

“The atmosphere was brilliant, and that’s one highlight for me, being in the first Irish team to play in Croke Park. It’s doom and gloom now, and rightfully so, but we’ve still got a lot to play for, with a huge match in two weeks. If we’re to win that we still have a chance of the Triple Crown, and if we win that, we still have a chance of the championship.

“It is important we pick ourselves up and play well the next time.

“We really wanted to give everyone a first win here to go with the first game, we’ll have to wait two weeks more now.”