Can great survivor Stephen Cluxton adapt to rule changes which have blunted his game?
Former France star Chabal says he has 'no memories' of rugby career
INPHO/ Dan Sheridan
End of the road
The (Un)Happy Camper: Bye, bye, bye Delilah
“Before leaving Dublin we asked only one thing of this Irish team; a whole-hearted performance. And, by God, they delivered that in every second of every game.”
WITH FIVE MINUTES to go at the Wellington Regional Stadium, Ireland were sending yet more battering rams towards the Welsh line, 12 points down the Irish support somehow mustered a defiant chorus of the Fields of Athenry.
But not since Michael was taken away did it feel this painful.
The warning signs, the bad omens were there if you were looking for them. All along the route to the stadium was awash with green and red. The Welsh, though outnumbered, were in fine voice and when we did raise a roar to meet them, they were far and away the better tuned and sang with precision “with Sam as captain, we’ll bring the cup home.”
The stadium formerly known as Westpac has only one entrance. Ourselves and the Welsh walked side-by-side into the coliseum while the minority Australians were berated by the song: “did you think it would be you?”
They did, and that was clear by the number of empty yellow seats on view.
The jangling nerves were finally put to rest as the game kicked off, though Shane Williams’ early try soon turned the nervous energy into a more depressive feeling.
The dampeners were on and the infamous Welly Wind played its part too with Ronan O’Gara, perhaps the greatest place kicker in world rugby, foregoing three kickable penalties in favour of a line out – we’ve seen this before, it was in Paris and we lost.
Advertisement
Crunch time
The Boys in Green dominated all over the park in that first half, but Wales were clinical, one trip to our 22 gained them 10 points by half time. I charged out of the overcrowded toilets just in time to see Keith Earls score his try: would the little man prompt a big momentum swing?
No, it’s Mike Phillips in that left hand corner… again.
The Irish crowd sat dejected; at 10-10 we had the measure of them but managed to shoot ourselves in the foot not once, but twice, with Jonathon Davies bundling over to put the game out of reach.
Welsh fans who were sat behind us.
Our World Cup adventure is over, we were thoroughly looking forward to rearranging flights and booking a hostel in Auckland or maybe even sleeping on a couch belonging to someone we met along the way. But our plans are now depressingly set in stone.
Realistically, we always expected to exit at this stage, although we imagined it would be to South Africa. Losing to Wales is painful, we went to play Italy expecting to win, Australia, expecting to lose, this was a matter of pride and that pride is massively dented.
Homeward bound
It will be the end of the road for many of our heroes, O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll have played their last World Cup game and it was with disbelief that we looked on trying to fathom that this was actually how they would exit the greatest stage.
But exit they did, do we begrudge them for it? Not in the slightest, we would never have come to New Zealand were it not for them, never experienced the highs of beating Australia, the incredible sights and feelings along the way, and this low.
It must be said that, flying from France four years ago left me with a deep resentment against rugby which took some incredible magical moments to cancel out – this World Cup has only reassured me that we are watching and following the greatest sport on the planet.
Before leaving Dublin we asked only one thing of this Irish team; a whole-hearted performance.
And, by God, they delivered that in every second of every game.
But sure we always get to the quarters. They done alright i wouldn’t get too carried away. Let’s done always be the "dignified losers" who tried but came up short. We had a GREAT chance to make a world cup final and we couldn’t even get close to doing it. Is it something in our psyche I wonder? Jesus I’ve heard a lot of people go "oh if Roy Keane had of stayed in Saipan we would have bet Spain then South Korea and got to a world cup semi-final" WE DIDN’T THOUGH! I’m sick of listening to this we done great in the rugby world cup thing already. We didn’t do great, we fecked it up..as usual.
@Dirt: First of all Tim didn’t mention anything about the quarter finals, so I guess your just one of these people who wants to be heard all the time, even when they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Probably a 1st or only child I guessing….
All these comments getting on the teams back sickens me. Does this team having a losing mentality – No way. Does the Irish nation have a losing mentality – not a chance, but people like you go around mouthing off that we do cause you picked a sound bite up on it before and splurt it out every opportunity you get.
The simple fact is, there is very little between International sides, if a team makes a few mistakes then that’s all it takes for the other team to get on top and get their game plan going. Ireland didn’t have a great day at the office, made a few bad decisions that wasn’t to their usual game plan, gave away possession a few times and that’s enough for a team like Wales to take advantage – its not as if the Welsh were just showing up for the photo and going to stand aside, they are professional who want to win also. Irish loser’s = NO, You: let the people decide…..
It’s "better" when comparing two.
And Ireland actually underpreformed.
Let’s develop a winning mentality to actually achieve things.
Let’s not celebrate mediocrity. Let’s not be proud of just getting out of the group!!
.
It was a really welcome distraction from all the electioneering & recession talk here – can’t believe it’s over! Well done lads – every dog has his day ! Looking forward to a grand slam now & Munster winning the heino again! Onwards & upwards!!!!
Once again the team did not reach their potential.
We are a more talented than the welsh and were rightly favourites.
By celebrating mediocrity we, as a country, will never achieve anything in sport.
We need a fundamental change in our philosophy on sport and set higher standards, rather than "ah de lads were greaat! Sure we had a massive p¡Ss up after anyhow"
Never achieve anything in sport? In the last five years these players have clocked two Heineken Cups, at least two celtic cups, and one Six Nations — and that doesn’t include Premiership medals from the likes of Reddan and Geordan Murphy. And they were unlucky not to rake in a few more.
Everyone’s disappointed, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that that we “celebrate mediocrity”.
The performances against Australia and Italy were excellent and garnered praise from all quarters.
They fell short in a fixture they should have won, but then the All Blacks have been doing that for countless World Cups campaigns and you’d hardly describe them as mediocre.
Can great survivor Stephen Cluxton adapt to rule changes which have blunted his game?
2 hrs ago
Concussion
Former France star Chabal says he has 'no memories' of rugby career
21 hrs ago
31
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 164 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 111 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 146 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 116 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 85 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 85 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 136 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 76 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 84 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 47 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 93 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 100 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 73 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 55 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 91 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Well done Ireland.. You done us proud …
But sure we always get to the quarters. They done alright i wouldn’t get too carried away. Let’s done always be the "dignified losers" who tried but came up short. We had a GREAT chance to make a world cup final and we couldn’t even get close to doing it. Is it something in our psyche I wonder? Jesus I’ve heard a lot of people go "oh if Roy Keane had of stayed in Saipan we would have bet Spain then South Korea and got to a world cup semi-final" WE DIDN’T THOUGH! I’m sick of listening to this we done great in the rugby world cup thing already. We didn’t do great, we fecked it up..as usual.
Ps please don’t anyone mention "punching above our weight"
@Dirt: First of all Tim didn’t mention anything about the quarter finals, so I guess your just one of these people who wants to be heard all the time, even when they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Probably a 1st or only child I guessing….
All these comments getting on the teams back sickens me. Does this team having a losing mentality – No way. Does the Irish nation have a losing mentality – not a chance, but people like you go around mouthing off that we do cause you picked a sound bite up on it before and splurt it out every opportunity you get.
The simple fact is, there is very little between International sides, if a team makes a few mistakes then that’s all it takes for the other team to get on top and get their game plan going. Ireland didn’t have a great day at the office, made a few bad decisions that wasn’t to their usual game plan, gave away possession a few times and that’s enough for a team like Wales to take advantage – its not as if the Welsh were just showing up for the photo and going to stand aside, they are professional who want to win also. Irish loser’s = NO, You: let the people decide…..
So disappointing but what a journey ye all had!
The best team on the day won.Ireland did us proud.Well done.
It’s "better" when comparing two.
And Ireland actually underpreformed.
Let’s develop a winning mentality to actually achieve things.
Let’s not celebrate mediocrity. Let’s not be proud of just getting out of the group!!
.
@jumpthecat
If I’m not mistaken, it’s the first time they’ve won their group. So they’ve improved on a whole – that’s something to be proud of
Well said Sean. They did their best for us and they did us proud. Thanks lads.
It was a really welcome distraction from all the electioneering & recession talk here – can’t believe it’s over! Well done lads – every dog has his day ! Looking forward to a grand slam now & Munster winning the heino again! Onwards & upwards!!!!
Once again the team did not reach their potential.
We are a more talented than the welsh and were rightly favourites.
By celebrating mediocrity we, as a country, will never achieve anything in sport.
We need a fundamental change in our philosophy on sport and set higher standards, rather than "ah de lads were greaat! Sure we had a massive p¡Ss up after anyhow"
Never achieve anything in sport? In the last five years these players have clocked two Heineken Cups, at least two celtic cups, and one Six Nations — and that doesn’t include Premiership medals from the likes of Reddan and Geordan Murphy. And they were unlucky not to rake in a few more.
Everyone’s disappointed, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that that we “celebrate mediocrity”.
The performances against Australia and Italy were excellent and garnered praise from all quarters.
They fell short in a fixture they should have won, but then the All Blacks have been doing that for countless World Cups campaigns and you’d hardly describe them as mediocre.
Well done Ireland….. and Thank you Sean for sharing your journey with us…..
celebrating mediocrity is more if a FAI/Soccer mentality