JUST when we were nearly over the disaster that was Ireland’s World Cup in France. Just when we had just about recovered, last Saturday’s opening Six Nations match against Italy wiped out all the healing that the past four or five months had done.
Over the past few months we heard the Genesis findings and the musings of the players, manager and every rugby ‘expert’ in the land giving their views on where it all went wrong.
The truth is that we will almost certainly never know for sure what happened in France and where it all went wrong. Last week Brian O’Driscoll said that he felt that it was wrong that the players had come out publicly and admitted that they thought they could go to France and win the tournament.
However, all the talk in the build up to last Saturday’s match was about putting the debacle that was the world cup behind us all and recapturing the form and performances that saw us win the Triple Crown last season and only miss out on the championship by a whisker.
The manager, surprise surprise resisted the temptation of pumping some new blood into the team, despite once again overusing his tired and downright untrue catchline of picking his team on current form, by picking almost the same team that did battle in France. The only changes were enforced due to suspension, injury and the retirement of Denis Hickie.
In his own words he was giving those players who underperformed at France 2007 the chance to show that it was a one off and that they are indeed a world class side.
At least that was the plan. But surely we thought, how could things be so bad in France and then all of a sudden just because Eddie O’Sullivan said it and with no changes in approach, tactics or personnel (remember the manager and backs coach that were suggested by the Genesis report have yet to appointed) turn around so drastically.
And of course they couldn’t or at least didn’t.
The first twenty minutes or so looked half decent and it looked as if Ireland were gong to put a big score on a terrible Italy team (don’t forget that this was the worst Italy team that they have fielded since they joined the championship and with a manager only a short time in charge) but as the game wore on we were transported more and more back in time and it was like watching the world cup coming back to haunt us all over again.
From the playing of the anthems Ireland looked flat and lifeless. Surely after the World Cup they would use this game to vent their anger at how that turned out and surely the poor Italians picked the worst possible day to come to Croke Park.
Instead the Italians this week will be kicking themselves that they didn’t return to Rome with a victory, and in all truth if they had a half-decent goal-kicker they would have.
Ireland, especially in the second half, were awful and the madness in the end when they wouldn’t kick the ball out to end the game and allowed Italy a chance to counterattack and possibly win the game just rubbed salt into our tender and wide wounds.
It was embarrassing. But a win is a win and the result was all that matter.
RUBBISH. We were force-fed enough of that nonsense in the world cup and we’re not taking it anymore.
There is something seriously wrong in this Irish camp and it needs to be sorted now. There is no way that players can play like they do for Munster two weeks ago and then go out last Saturday and play like that. It just defies belief.
Therefore it must be down to two things in my opinion. One is that there is a serious rift between the players from the different provinces and that they just don’t pull together (which is highly likely looking at the body language of the play-ers) and the second is that this bunch of players have had enough of the coach and they are just not playing for him anymore.
But still the man from Youghal refuses to shoulder any of the blame. Will someone please tell him that he is the coach, the gaffer and to borrow a quote from another Irish manager who was out of his depth, the buck stops with him.
This is one of the most talented bunch of players that this country has ever produced and the longer this is allowed to go on the less time they will have left and their time will have passed by without them fulfilling their potential. That’s going to be very sad and that’s what’s going to happen.
Next up are France in Paris, just the tonic after such a terrible performance. Yeah right. Especially after a new look French team under a new manager wiped the floor with a half decent Scotland in Murrayfield. Oh man. I’m scared.
Anyone with me? And still the coach tries to pretend like everything is alright........please make it stop.
TRAPATTONI/EL TEL OR BILLY DAVIES?
So Ireland play Brazil tonight and still no manager has been appointed, but there does seem to be some white smoke on the horizon. At last Sunday night’s Player of the Year Awards Don Givens said that we should have an Irish manager in place by this day week (Wednesday) at the latest.
All the rumours out there suggest that it is now down to a three man race, Terry Venables, Billy Davies and Giovanni Trapattoni We all know that El Tel has been in the running since day one but Trapattoni seems to have come out of left-field, he was 150/1 at once stage just last week in the betting.
Despite suggestions that he was a red herring of a nomination for this job, it now seems that he is actually in the running.
As a player he played most of his career at AC Milan and represented Italy at the 1962 World Cup.
His record as a manager though speaks for itself, over 34 years. Just take a look at this. He has managed AC Milan, Juventus (twice), Inter Milan, Bayern Munich (twice), Cagliari, Fiorentina, Benfica, Stuttgart and is currently in charge of Salzburg in Austria.
During this time he has won seven Serie A titles, three Coppa Italias, one European Cup, three UEFA Cups, a Bundesliga, a German Cup, an Austrian League and a Portuguese League and of course he spent four years as manager of Italy. Impressive or what?
People have questioned his English and so on but in my opinion if this man is interested in the job then give it to him.
It’s as simple as that.
AMAZING TIGER
Has there ever been a sports man or woman quite like Tiger Woods?
Over the years he has always amazed us and he just continues to do so.
After taking about four months off from playing tournaments Tiger comes back two weeks ago and wins by eight shots.
Then last week he goes to Dubai and wins after being five shots down with nine holes of his tournament to play. The man is just a phenomenon.
When asked how he thought his season was going after the win in Dubai he answered, “Two wins from two in two weeks, not too bad I think.”
Different class.
