It may take a while for the raw pain to dissipate
END OF AN ERA: Ireland's Jonathan Sexton. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
BEWILDERMENT and pain are etched across teary faces as Ireland players grapple with the reality of what has just happened.
It seems almost incomprehensible that having delivered such scintillating rugby over the past six weeks, rugby to make a country proud, they will now be exiting a World Cup at a point they should have been making history.
Such was the atmosphere at Stade de France as Saturday night became Sunday morning and Ireland’s greatest rugby team tried to make sense of history repeating.
Sport is cruel, as their head coach Andy Farrell said in the immediate aftermath of a riveting blockbuster of a quarter-final decided by small margins.
Ireland had been very good, just as they have been for the past two years, in sweeping all before them, unbeaten in 17 Test matches. Yet their adversaries were simply better when it really mattered and these New Zealand All Blacks deserve all the plaudits that come their way following a scintillating performance in a World Cup knockout game of such ferocious quality and intensity.
And that is what sets this team apart from all that has gone before for the Irish at this tournament. They did not go quietly into the Parisian night, exiting the scene with barely a whisper, as had been the case on so many occasions at this juncture in Wellington, Cardiff and Tokyo to name but three.
This team left instead with a roar, led by a captain who had given everything for the cause and will not return to fight another day.
That is why this failure to reach the semi-finals at Ireland’s 10th time of trying will be so much more painful.
Not only due to the cruelty of knowing this was a collective possessed with self-belief, positivity about the direction it was travelling, nor the consistently high standard of its delivery of stellar performances but the agony of knowing what could have been.
The All Blacks march on into the last four and a date next Friday night with Argentina, a team whose victory over Wales in Marseilles on Saturday afternoon was admirable but who are clearly at a level below what either New Zealand or the Irish have produced at this tournament thus fare or can potentially reach.
All of which explains Paul O’Connell’s frustration.
“I haven’t felt like this in a while,” O’Connell admitted, “but… yeah, I just felt when we were 13-0 down we still could have won it. We were still good enough to have won it, we still produced enough to win it. You know, behind held up over the line is frustrating, a really good maul from the lads, they’ve put so much work into that part of the game. So that’s probably the most frustrating thing.
“Sometimes you go 13-0 down, you could say ‘fuck, we just got off to a bad start’ and you never get back into it but we were back into it and I don’t think there was ever a point in the game where the lads felt they couldn’t do it.
“They always felt they could do it and that’s probably the annoying about it. But it is what it is and that’s sport, it’s tiny margins.
"I know it’s a cliche but it is really true and especially when you get to this stage and you’re playing teams of the quality of New Zealand, it is tiny margins. You need one or two things to go your way, especially when you go 13-0 down and they probably didn’t.”
It is the end of an era, with Sexton’s retirement at the age of 38 resonating like a death in the family, followed by an exit from at least the international stage of fellow Test centurion Keith Earls.
Age will also be against others such as thirtysomethings Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne, James Lowe, Murray, Peter O’Mahony and the absent Cian Healy making the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
Yet if this was the last hurrah, they will have all departed the scene having left nothing of their efforts behind. O’Connell, for one, believes they have inspired a nation.
“I’d say they’re probably feeling like they’ve let everyone down now, but they love the connection with the supporters, they love that almost more than winning. And we’ve generally won on the back of it. It’s something that means a lot of them and that they’ve really enjoyed. So it’s just a pity in this important competition that we couldn’t kick on and create a bit of history along with it.”
Of course, many brilliant players remain, with Farrell and O’Connell leading the efforts to add to their development as individual players and mould them into a new Ireland capable of reaching great heights.
"They're fantastic and we get them really well coached,” the former Lions captain said. “That's the thing - I think we've done a good job with the players, but the coaching at academies is so well done, great coaching at U20s level and then in the provinces as well.
"We manage to do a lot of good work on the back of what goes on in the provinces and the way professional rugby in the IRFU is run.
“So hopefully that continues, that stream of talent continues; that stream of smart and talented players continues to come through for us.”
We can only wait and see but while there is undoubted optimism, it will not dilute the raw pain of a World Cup campaign that promised so much and was cut cruelly short.
: H Keenan; M Hansen (J O’Brien, 56), G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; J Sexton – captain, J Gibson-Park (C Murray, 64); A Porter (D Kilcoyne, 75), D Sheehan (R Kelleher, 64), T Furlong (F Bealham, 52), T Beirne, I Henderson (J McCarthy, 59); P O’Mahony, J van der Flier (J Conan, 59), C Doris.
: J Crowley.
: B Barrett; W Jordan, R Ioane, J Barrett, L Fainga'anuku (A Lienert-Brown, 63); R Mo'unga, A Smith; E de Groot (T Williams, 63), C Taylor, T Lomax (F Newell, 63); B Retallick (D Coles, 65 -YC), S Barrett; S Frizell (S Whitelock, 59), S Cane – captain (D Papali'I, 75), A Savea.
A Smith 36-46, C Taylor 64-74.
F Christie, D McKenzie.
: Wayne Barnes (England)
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