Yesterday was another good day for Irish rugby. A club match attracting 80,000 people to a national stadium actually worthy of that title is an event to command the attention (and envy) of rugby nations around the globe.
Generating such levels of attention for a sub-international fixture is something Irish rugby can be immensely proud of – just do not expect too many rugger types from outside Ireland to share in the pride and joy.
The brutal truth is, Irish rugby is not liked in the broader sphere. Respected, yes, for developing successful, coherent structures within a chaotic global landscape, and for engineering an impressive run of results over a sustained period of time.
Ireland fans celebrate as their team go past on their victory lap after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between South Africa and Ireland at Stade de France on September 23, 2023 in Paris, France. Pic: Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images
But liked? Not so much.
While the Irish rugby community may regard itself as a buoyant, elite entity backed by the best fans in the world, rival countries – notably the Kiwis and South Africans – regard us as unbearably smug and arrogant in victory, and as a bunch of whiny, moan-bag chokers in defeat.
And you can see where they are coming from.
Though head coach Andy Farrell and his squad remain commendably grounded, there is no doubt the Irish rugby fans and media lost the run of themselves over the past two years.
The series win in New Zealand, Grand Slam and unbeaten run to the World Cup quarter-final created a sense of entitlement among the Irish rugby baggage train that was not well received elsewhere.
Ireland Rugby Press Conference, Sandton Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa 4/7/2024
Head coach Andy Farrell. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
There was tangible evidence of this during the week with the release of Johnny Sexton’s autobiography ‘Obsessed’.
With the publishers understandably seeking juicy headlines to generate traffic, the incident between Sexton and Rieko Ioane following New Zealand’s deserved quarter-final victory last year got plenty of airplay.
Sexton actually handled the fallout well when he did the media rounds this week, saying he just wanted to explain that his anger at the final whistle had been provoked (Ioane told Sexton to ‘enjoy retirement you ****’) amid accusations of the Ireland 10 being ‘a sore loser’.
Johnny Sexton of Ireland looks dejected at full-time after their team’s loss in the Rugby World Cup France 2023 Quarter Final match between Ireland and New Zealand at Stade de France on October 14, 2023 in Paris, France. Pic: Lionel Hahn/Getty Images
Sexton also said this week that he had no problem with Ioane and that he had said plenty of stuff himself on the pitch over the years.
Fair enough, but the wider reaction on a variety of platforms and across social media displayed further evidence of Irish rugby’s ongoing, debilitating naivety. There was a general air of pious outrage and even bewilderment over the details of Ioane’s actions.
‘Why did Rieko have to be so mean?’ ‘Did he not know that this was Johnny’s last game?’ ‘Did he not respect Ireland for being an amazing team, one that had just beaten South Africa?’
Jack Conan and Johnny Sexton of Ireland and Rieko Ioane of New Zealand during the Vodafone Series match between Ireland and New Zealand at Aviva Stadium on November 13, 2021 in Dublin, Dublin. Pic: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
‘Was he not in awe of our all-singing, all-dancing fans?’ ‘Did he not know we lost, but we won?’
Those sort of reactions this week hammered home how Irish rugby still doesn’t ‘get it’ and why the wait to reach a World Cup quarter-final is heading for 40 years.
Whatever pressure we may think Irish players operate under, it is not remotely comparable to what their Kiwi counterparts endure.
This is a country where rugby defeats have actually caused governments to fall and Ioane, his team-mates and Ian Foster were absolutely savaged in 2022 for losing at home to Ireland.
The crowing nature of the Irish reaction to victory, from fans and media, did not go unnoticed, and was stored away for future motivation.
Ireland fuelled that Kiwi motivation with their triumphant ’Zombie’ march through the pool stages at the World Cup, including expressed relief that we did not draw France in the quarters and a general view that New Zealand, regardless of their culture and history, were a bump on the road to a final rematch with the Boks.
Foster’s All Blacks never truly won over their incredibly demanding rugby public after losing to Ireland in 2022, and went into the Paris quarter-final under phenomenal pressure.
So, when they proved so many vicious doubters wrong, they were more than entitled to bask in it. Peter O’Mahony had called Sam Cane a ‘s*** Richie McCaw’ in 2022 – that was Ireland’s day and the New Zealand captain knew it and took the verbal kicking.
Cane, ridiculed for over a year after the Ireland loss, was immense in the quarter-final, and this time it was O’Mahony who had to cop the verbals, notably from Brodie Retallick.
But the Corkman knew the score, this was New Zealand’s day and you just have to accept it.
As should have happened with Ioane. Yes, the centre’s choice of language was particularly coarse and the whole incident was short on grace and decorum, but this is big boy’s rugby and if you are prepared to dish it out on your good days, you have to be prepared to take it when it goes against you.
The sooner Irish rugby realises this, the sooner we can break our World Cup hoodoo – until then, to much of the wider rugby world, we will remain a bunch of whinging chokers.
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