It’s probably true to say that lately we have been relishing the prospect of Republic of Ireland games much like we might anticipate having a colonoscopy, the eternal hope of a bright new dawn quenched a bit during those eight consecutive defeats in proper competitive games. No offence at all to Gibraltar, but you can’t be celebrating beating a rock that is populated by more monkeys than professional footballers.
But then came that triumph in Helsinki.
“The mood around the Irish team has changed for the better ... after Finland, we’re only going one way,” Darragh Maloney promised us ahead of Sunday evening’s meeting with Greece. And then he played a little montage of the best moments from our slaying of Finland, soundtracked by “the only way is up, baby”.
That, then, sent the optimism levels soaring, convincing us that we could extend this one-game winning streak in to two.
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But prophets of doom Richie Sadlier and Stephen Kelly warned us not to lose the run of ourselves – this, after all, was a Greek team that had come away from Wembley on Thursday night with a whole three points. Albeit aided by Lee O’Carsley opting not to play with a natural striker, thereby convincing the conspiracy theorists that this non-God-Save-the-King-singing Irish man was out to destroy English football.
Then they won 3-1 on Sunday evening, so the former future Republic of Ireland gaffer is probably now being hailed as the new Alf Ramsey.
No matter. Back to our business.
Like Heimir Hallgrímsson, who swapped Finn Azaz for Troy Parrott, RTÉ made a big change for this game by bringing in Ray Houghton for Stephen as their co-commentator, Ray largely referring to the likes of Vlachodimos, Mavropanos and Hatzidiakos as the “Greek lad”, rather than giving us their actual first name or a synopsis of their careers.
That’s not a complaint, though, you’d be guessing that Greek telly’s co-commentator – say, Ray Houghtakonos – wasn’t filling in his viewers in on Szmodics, Parrott or Cullen’s first names or career paths either. The one blessing, really, was that Ronnie Whelan was given the night off, because you just knew that he’d be predicting a Greek tragedy even during the anthems.
The game? Well, it was going grand until Greece broke our resistance not a heap lot longer after the start of the second half, and much as our lads huffed and puffed in search of a leveller, it wasn’t to be. And then Greece scored again, so our winning streak had come to an end.
What Ireland probably need ahead of the next window in November, which will conclude with a trip to Wembley to take on Alf O’Carsley’s Sassenachs, is to acquire a rearguard a bit like Leinster’s.
“They are two lumps of beef in there – they’re like a Tomahawk steak and a rib-eye,” as Stephen Ferris described the second row partnership of RG Snyman and James Ryan. Much as they tried, Nathan Collins and Liam Scales were more like minced meat.
It was a very tremendous occasion at Croke Park on Saturday, in front of an almighty crowd of 82,000-ish, despite it being a bog-standard early-enough-in-the-season URC encounter. But in fairness to Premier Sports, they didn’t over-hype it.
“At Ireland’s sporting cathedral ... where Gods emerge ... worshipped by the masses ... a rivalry built on faith ... on this hallowed turf ... they are divine ... there’ll be no mercy ... love thy neighbour,” said the subtitles over their pregame montage. A modest enough intro, then.
Back on RTÉ, Donncha O’Callaghan was being controversial. “Especially where I’m from, you dream of playing in Croke Park, and if you’re not good enough for that you play rugby,” he said. Jamie Heaslip flinched a little, but the community of Gaels nodded.
There was a bit of the Hallgrímssons about Graham Rowntree come full-time. “We died with our boots on,” he said of his Munster lads, proud as punch of their efforts, but no doubt preferring that they’d lived with their boots off.
There were many highlights, but the outstanding one was Donal Lenihan’s tribute during a break in the play to former Irish and Lions captain Ronnie Dawson who died at the ripe old age of 92 last week. He recalled one of the treks down under when Dawson was at the helm.
“They went by boat, three months, one of the players went with a broken leg and by the time he got there he was fit to play.”
Superb.
Meantime, for both Ireland and Munster the only way is up, baby. Hope springs eternal. Ish.
