More of the same from our begrudgers

WE’RE never satisfied, are we?

Economically, the country has just fallen off a cliff, and we haven’t hit bottom yet, in which circumstance you would imagine that any bit of good news would be eagerly and warmly embraced.

But clearly the greediness, the neediness, of the cursed Celtic Tiger still lingers, a tiger that brought with it an insatiable lust for more of everything. More money, more horsepower in our 4x4s under our increasingly oversized arses, more brand-name clothing, more gourmet restaurants, more mixed drinks and cocktails to enable us to build our reputation as a nation of vomiting and bellicose drunks.

Last Saturday, in Croke Park, Ireland played a critical game of rugby, a match with major ramifications for the next three years at least, and beyond. In 2011, in New Zealand, the next World Cup will take place, the draw for which takes place within a week, the seedings finalised after next weekend’s round of internationals.

There will be four groups in that draw, four top seeds, four second seeds, etc. In international rugby there are only nine generally recognised top teams; the Tri-Nations trio of New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, then Argentina, followed by five from the Six-Nations — that’s France, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

There are teams beyond those who can make it tough for most opposition, the likes of Italy, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga. But those are the nine.

Going into last Saturday’s match Ireland and Scotland were in a battle; if Ireland lost to Argentina and if Scotland beat Canada — a foregone conclusion — Scotland would leapfrog Ireland as the eighth seed. Should that happen, the fallout was huge; in the World Cup draw, Ireland would then definitely find themselves in a group containing two top-tier teams.

As happened in France last year, as happened again in 2003, in 1999, with just two to qualify from each group they would find themselves in a real dogfight to qualify for the quarter-finals. That wouldn’t be all, however; because everything that happens at a World Cup has a big bearing on seeding, failure there would have them back in yet another dogfight for the following World Cup, and so on.

This was a must-win game for Ireland, massive pressure on new coach Declan Kidney, even greater pressure on the players. A win was absolutely essential. Performance? Forget about it — just win, baby, win.

The problem was, in playing Argentina, an Argentina side with its own seeding incentive — a win would more or less guarantee they held fourth seed placing, ensuring they would not be in a group with any of the Tri-Nations giants — Ireland faced one of the toughest sides in the world to break down.

Three losses in our last three meetings, even our wins in the last 10 years have all been down to the wire. True, they were missing two world-class backs in Juan Hernandez and Felipe Contepomi, but even before they came up with such a major threat behind the scrum Argentina were always fierce competitors; tigers in the tackle, every match a war, every ball a battle.

I was in Croke Park; I saw a first half in which Ireland started off with ambition, tried to run the ball through Argentina, but were met with the kind of commitment in the tackle we so admired last Tuesday in Thomond Park, by both Munster and the All Blacks, let it be said.

The Argentinian captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe said afterwards he felt Ireland were probably surprised at how good the Argentinean defence was, forcing them to resort to the boot, kicking for position. And that’s what happened; against such a solid wall of defence, Ireland went back to simple rugby, kick and chase, and the tactics were effective. We went in at 3-3 at the break.

Considering Ireland would now have the strong wind behind them, I was confident we would now get the win. Thus it transpired; Argentina still put up a huge fight, but we deserved the win, did what we had to do. I was delighted but then, all around me, the moaning began. Poor, terrible, awful, disappointing, etc.

What have we become? Do we think we are the All Blacks? No respect for Argentina, for how difficult they had made it; just criticism. I despair, because I know this; last Tuesday was a great day for Irish rugby, but Saturday was better, because it had so much more at stake. It wasn’t a perfect day, but nevertheless I take my hat off to Kidney and his management team, to Brian O’Driscoll and his players.

Well done all. To hell with the knockers.