Kidney: Ireland will rise again

A 22-10 defeat to Wales at the Wellington Regional Stadium on Saturday brought an end to what was the last World Cup for many of the so-called ‘golden age’ of Irish rugby but coach Declan Kidney isn’t prepared to dwell on the disappointment.

Given the poor run of form Ireland endured going into the World Cup, the quarter-final stage seemed a realistic exit point, especially as Ireland were expected to come second in their group and meet South Africa in the first knockout game.

Victory over Australia however, lifted the mood of the Irish players and the supporters both at home and the considerable fan base in New Zealand.

A winner-takes-all clash against familiar opposition in the form of Wakes represented Ireland’s best chance of reaching their first World Cup semi-final but Kidney knows his side were simply outplayed on the day.

“It’s all or nothing, we knew that going in last week and we knew it this week,” he said.

“We’ve had both experiences now and obviously (Saturday’s) one was a bitter one to take but all credit to Wales they outscored us three tries to one and when you’re beaten like that you can have no complaints and just wish them well for future matches.

“We felt that once we kept the pace on the game that we would get the score and that’s the way it transpired.

“Just before half time we put a bit of pace on it, we put pace on it for the first five or ten minutes of the second half.

“Then Wales came down, managed to get a score which gave them that little bit of impetus and they managed to pin us back from there on in.”

The vocal Irish support has been a feature of this World Cup and has repeatedly been cited by Irish players as vital motivation in tight games and hundreds of fans gathered at the team hotel to give them a fitting send-off.

Having failed to reproduce the level of performance which saw off Australia and Italy, Ireland ended their campaign on a rather flat note but Kidney is already looking to the future.

“It’ll be a hard one to take, there’ll be a few long days for the supporters as much as anyone else but they’re good men, they’ll rise again.

“That’s all you can ever do in life, sometimes life throws things at you and you can sit around and wallow about it or pick yourself up and that’s what we must do.”