We're punching above our weight in rugby
You’d wonder why the Irish rugby team bothered to travel half way around the world at all such is the criticism they have been enduring so far at the Rugby World Cup.
Ok, apart from Scotland, the performances haven’t been anything to write home about but the success and failure of this World Cup in Japan was always going to centre on how they would do come a quarter final.
The criticism has been savage which is something Irish rugby hasn’t been used to in the Joe Schmidt era but that is because of the expectancy levels that have been created over the last six years with a Grand Slam, 3 Six Nations titles and beating New Zealand on two occasions in that time, leading to a brief stint a top of the world rankings, a rare feat for any Irish international team in any sport.
Maybe that is just it, the fact that it’s one of the few team sports we are actually very good at internationally and instead of being the unlucky losers over the years, we now want to try and win something.
If they did, it would be an incredible feat considering rugby playing numbers aren’t in the top twelve of the participatory sports in the country. That list includes social sports such as running, cycling and swimming but nevertheless, it all pulling from the one pool of six million people, north and south.
In terms of team sports, rugby is still along way behind hurling, gaelic football and soccer in terms of playing numbers but it is impressive how they have managed to be so strong an international sport when it’s not even the main sport in that country, compared to countries of a similar size were rugby is king in New Zealand and Wales.
But back to the present, barring a calamity, or a typhoon intervention, against Samoa this Saturday, Ireland should make the quarter finals where it looks like it will be New Zealand facing us, provided that Scotland don’t do us a favour and beat Japan on Sunday, which then would set Ireland up to play South Africa.
A Scottish win (typhoon permitting!) can’t be entirely ruled out as there will be pressure on Japan and as we saw in their opening game against Russia, and for spells against Samoa, they struggled with the favourites tag, whereas against Ireland, they were outstanding when not expected to win.
There will be a pressure on the Japanese to get the result they need to get to the quarter final and that could play into the hands of the Scots who will need to win with a bonus point, and possibly help Ireland in the process, however, for all they have done in the tournament, you would hate to see Japan not make a quarter final at this stage.
However, whether Ireland end up playing New Zealand or South Africa is immaterial as it is akin to picking your poison. New Zealand are the best team in the world but Ireland don’t have any fear of them anymore following their wins over them in 2016 and 2018, while South Africa outplayed New Zealand for long spells in their group game on the opening weekend, despite ending up on the losing side.
Indeed, while playing South Africa might look like Ireland’s best chance of winning a quarter, however, the Springboks will come with a massive physicality, similar to England which Ireland and out clubs sides have struggled to deal with over the last twelve months.
One hopes that Ireland will get a win and a performance that sets them up with momentum for a quarter final which is the be all and end all. You could see the focus in the eyes of the Ireland players in the opening game against Scotland and they produced an efficient and dominant performance. Maybe they took their eye off the ball a little against Japan but that edge wasn’t there emotionally compared to the Japanese on the night and it proved decisive.
You would hope come the quarter final that Ireland will be fired up for the challenge because if they are not, they don’t have a chance of winning and breaking that quarter final barrier in World Cups.
Read Shane Brophy's sports column 'In All Fairness' every Wednesday in The Guardian