Never can a team have lurched so violently from the ridiculous to the sublime as Ireland

13 February 2006


Cast:

I’ve become a bad player in two weeks according to a lot of people but there’s not much I can do about Saturday’s game now

Poor Geordan. Don’t worry, we forgive you. And more importantly we all know you aren’t a bad player. Yes you made a mistake or two, but we still think you’re great.

To spare the rugby-phobes ;) there is more, but I’ve hidden it under the cut. So I have.


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The reason that Geordan was left feeling all at Rome:

“I now know how the Christians in the Coliseum felt. If there had been a hole I’d have jumped into it,”

is that two of his mistakes led to French tries. Early on a miscommunication with Dennis Leamy meant they both went for the same ball, only to collide and have a fella in blue gather it up adn score[1] And then there was lovely floated pass to… Heymans! Okay, lovely if you were French. Not lovely if you were Geordan Murphy wondering what the hell you had just done.

And not only does he have to put up with Hook and Pope that day, but in discussing the Sunday match between Scotland and Wales[2] when one of the players had a similar pass intercepted Hook[3] called it the Geordan Murphy touch.

The chest is a bit tender and I’ve been told that I’ve sprained one of my ribs.

But the more nagging pain is the feeling that I let my team-mates down on Saturday.

It’s probably the worst I’ve felt after an international.

You don’t go out to make mistakes but when I saw a lot of sore bodies in the dressing-room after the game, it was hard not to feel personally responsible.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom. yes, the first half was atrocious, but in around 30 min.s Ireland did manage to score 4 tries, so we will take some positives away. Plus, the team finishing stronger always gets a better crowd reception:

France were booed off by their supporters, who had watched in horror as the Irish came close to making what would have been the greatest comeback in international rugby history.

There is a very readable article in the Indo (free reg req’d) that I’ll quote liberally from:

LOSING has rarely been so much fun. Midway through the second half, a Six Nations international turned into a completely different kind of rugby, a kind of game which might have been designed to crack the American television market with its short attention span viewers. And you know what? We were brilliant at this variety.

The game France played for the first three quarters? Well, we found that a bit more difficult.
[…] Lodged in the last ditch, Ireland cleared their throat, took a leaf out of the book of the Peter Finch character in the great 1970s movie Network and said they were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Their final 20 minutes was a huge collective “f*** it”.
[…] And we lost because the Irish players gave performances so disparate as to make Jekyll and Hyde look like similar facets of a well-integrated character
[…] But one crucial factor remained the same throughout the game. Whenever the Irish backs had the ball, a try looked likely. The only problem was that in the first half it was a French try.
[…] There was something glorious about our rally alright, but it was a kind of Charge of The Light Brigade glory, foredoomed by blunders.

Let’s just hope and pray that Paul O’Connell recovers for our next match. A match I though I might miss as am going to see I, Keano on Sat the 25th. But luckily we are playing on the Sunday. Nice, especially considering that I totally forgot about the rugby when getting tickets.

Linknotes:

  1. yes I know, he still had a bit of work to do
  2. Wales won, but it wasn’t a pretty game
  3. I think, I may be wrong

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9 Responses

  1. anne says:

    The French do that all the time, he'll recover.

  2. Fence says:

    Ah, the fickle french ;)

    And I am sure that Geordan will recover. Especially if he gets a good game with Leicester.

    Course O'Sullivan might drop him for Hickie or Girvan Dempsey.

  3. Kelly says:

    I saw you winking at me.

    Just so's you know, I stared at the picture of Geordan, is it?, for as long as I figured it would have taken me to read the post, and now I'm halfway in love. Not as much as I am with Adam/Jayne, but nearly. See the good you do me? And the reason my husband may curse your name when he gets home? (JK.) (Actually, he might.)

  4. Fence says:

    Not just you Kelly, there are other rugby un-enthusiastists out there you know.

    And Geordan is quite nice, and unlike many a rugby player (Brian O'Driscoll, I'm looking at you) he hasn't turned thick-necked.

  5. Kelly says:

    WHAT? You're telling me the world doesn't revolve around me? I'm crushed, and delusional.

  6. Fence says:

    Well you can be the primary vocalist for the group. Does that help?

  7. Fence says:

    Great :)
    I aim to please. But only some of the time.

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