Sometimes it is perfectly acceptable or reasonable to pause and enjoy a moment in time without trying to find a place for it in the context of future assignments. Ireland’s outstanding 2-1 Test series win in New Zealand should be celebrated for what it is rather than trying to figure out what it might stand for in 14 months’ time.
Andy Farrell took an Irish squad to New Zealand, embracing what many believed to be a ridiculously tough five-match itinerary, and returned home with three victories that contained a first ever win on New Zealand soil, a victory over the New Zealand Maori and the prized scalp of the All Blacks in a Test series. In doing so Ireland climbed to a world number one ranking.
The green fields of France 2023 can wait. As you get older you appreciate how important it is to acknowledge success, to stop briefly, to inhale the joy that accompanies that sense of fulfilment, however fleeting, one that might help to sustain you as a coach or player when you resume the journey.
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Ireland accomplished what no other country has achieved in the professional era, and only a handful of teams (South Africa, Lions, Australia, and France) have previously managed in winning a Test series in New Zealand.
I have no doubt that the players are enjoying the here and now. It will be followed by a huge emotional and physical decompression in the weeks and months ahead.
I loved Shane Lowry’s quote when he won the Claret Jug: “Nobody tells you how to come down the mountain”. In times past the Ireland rugby team has struggled, not alone on the descent but in trying to peak quickly once again in the aftermath.
The most recent example was in 2018 when Ireland beat New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium. Once the euphoria dissipated, the cracks slowly appeared in the 2019 Six Nations Championship as Joe Schmidt’s squad struggled to cope and those issues manifested in the World Cup in Japan later that year.
Some were physical but most were mental; that burnout sucked the oxygen from Ireland’s challenge. To avoid a repeat, it is important to learn from the mistakes. The first is to understand that not everyone carries an equal load within the squad. There is a massive mental toll on a few players. For Ireland to futureproof that it needs to be spread over a greater number.
The evolution of the game plan under Farrell has begun that process but there is still quite a way to go. Ireland were treated kindly by the injury gods in this series and were able to field almost the same team over the three Tests.
When Ireland have peaked in the recent past this has usually been the case, an example of which was the series win in Australia (2018), under Joe Schmidt and in recent performances under Andy Farrell.
I previously proposed the notion that Ireland’s team success is predicated on the present, and that we do not have the luxury afforded in the superior numbers and depth of quality available to France and England, to be able to rotate the starting team with no drop-off in standard or outcome. It is that consistency in selection terms that has enabled the team to win matches.
Is it possible for the Test series win in New Zealand to be regarded as a stand-alone achievement or will it be used to breed unrealistic expectations in advance of France 2023?
Steve Hansen’s warning about waiting to see how Ireland would fare when they were last briefly the world number one side, still rings like a warning bell. That did not end well.
The system that supports the national team remains constrained by several issues, one of which is an overreliance on the schools, and there are players coming through that remain as yet unproven at this level based on a reasonably substantial body of work rather than a cameo here and there.
Ireland boasts a world class frontline team, with incredible riches in some positions, but in others where we are one injury away from a very different outlook for the collective.
Our World Cup fixation has yielded nothing but heartache and an impenetrable ceiling of the quarter-final stage of the tournament. But be careful what you wish for. Wales and Argentina have managed to make it to the semi-finals but at what cost to the sport in their respective countries?
In 2007 and 2015 Argentina focused exclusively on the World Cup and made it to the penultimate stage of the tournament but were left with little to celebrate in between or since.
Wales, driven by one of the modern game’s most successful coaches in Warren Gatland, played ‘Warrenball,’ that while not a treat for the senses, was very effective in winning clutch matches.
That success was also driven by some exceptional players, Alyn Wyn Jones, a succession of excellent halfbacks, Jamie Roberts as the gain-line king and sharp shooting place-kickers to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The trade-off though was considerable leaving the Welsh club game in disarray for the most part.
It has been a while since the Scarlets’ victory in the league while in the Heineken Champions Cup the Welsh clubs simply don’t feature as serious contenders. Looking from the outside it seems that playing for Wales is the be-all-and-end-all but there is little loyalty to the franchises and many of the top players are happy to chase success and a more secure financial future on the other side of the Severn bridge.
Attendances in Wales for URC matches are modest enough and so there is a complete reliance on the national team’s success to fund club rugby. While they are reliant on each other to an extent, in the case of the club, it seems more parasitic than symbiotic when judged strictly on success and money-earning capacity.
Contrast that with Ireland and see which system sits better with supporters. The success of the provinces is important to fans and arguably more so or at least equal to the national team for some. Success came in waves, Ulster in the late 1990s, Munster in 2000s, with Leinster emerging to take over in 2009 and Connacht coming through to win a league title in 2016.
Ireland’s landmark wins included a victory at Twickenham in 2004, the national side came close to winning the Six Nations in 2007, before going on to claim a Grand Slam in 2009 and the further success that ensued. There have been peaks and troughs for provinces and the national side but enough good times to make the lean times bearable.
The World Cup quarter-final ceiling remains a final taboo to be dismissed and until then will continue to be used as a stick to beat the drum of Ireland’s failure at the global tournament. I have often pointed to one of the structural issues that undermines any such expectation, the complete overreliance on the schools’ rugby system to support the national team.
This has never been addressed, and likely never will. The smallest playing population makes up 80 per cent plus of the national team. There are a lot of things the IRFU can be criticised for, but sensibly they have not sacrificed everything financially to pursue World Cup success. That would be a fool’s errand.
In 2015 Ireland had arguably the best chance of breaking that World Cup glass ceiling but a frailty that still exists was exposed in the French match in losing key players we simply couldn’t afford to lose. The gap between starter and finisher was graphically illustrated in the defeat to Argentina that ensued.
I feel we need to be more appreciative of success when it comes and understand that to try to win at a World Cup might require sacrifices that we would be unwilling to endure and that it would be to the detriment of the rest of the professional game in this country.
We would have needed to sacrifice the Test series we just won in New Zealand and the Six Nations just gone to give players game time whether they deserve it or not. France started two years ago blooding youthful talent and now just insert form players around that framework of fearless excellence.
Ireland do not have that luxury. Key players remain so and without them Ireland have struggled. As it stands today the Irish squad contains 18/20 world class players and that will not be enough to deliver a seven-match predominantly winning sequence to win a World Cup.
The Irish system is not designed to deliver World Cup success in its current format. Could it? Absolutely but it will require investment in the club game to develop new talent streams.
If Ireland never reach a semi-final but maintain this consistently high level of performances all through various cycles of club and country, I am more than happy to take that.
You cannot pick when you peak as players, as a team or as a coach. All you can do is ride that wave for as long as possible. The players will need to breathe, and for some, extra time away from the game will be the best thing that can happen to them.
The coaches will be thinking and planning. They have created the problem that every coach wants to solve but not everyone gets to test themselves against it. We are the best in this moment. How do we get better? It is a nice place to sit while trying to figure out the answer. For now, let’s just savour what we have.
