It’ll take a while for the Ireland players and supporters to cleanse the palette of disappointment following Sunday’s anti-climax at the Millennium stadium.
Ireland didn’t turn up for the first 25-minutes and faded away in the last 10-minutes as Argentina treated their supporters and it must be said any neutrals to rugby uninhibited by fear, underpinned by excellent, rounded skills from the entire team and patterns that best represent their athleticism.
The Pumas do have structure to their game but it’s flexible, not rigid and open to the interpretation by the players on the pitch. Argentina knew where to attack Ireland; their analysis was excellent, even allowing for an off-colour Irish performance.
GENESIS OF FAILURE
The easiest thing to do is to devalue Ireland's two Six Nations titles by pointing out the semi-finalists at the Rugby World Cup, champion the argument that laments how poor France are, how England and Wales are more brawn than brain and how Italy and Scotland have struggled to make an impact in that tournament in recent times.
But in some respects it misses the point. Ireland’s failure at the Rugby World Cup can’t be attributed to wining those Six Nations tournaments because during that time they also beat Australia and South Africa. In fact only New Zealand remains aloof in result terms.
RWC 2015 showed that Ireland do not have the depth yet to assimilate the loss of key players and that the future needs to hold a different playing philosophy but one that starts at minis with an emphasis on skills and enjoyment and not strangled mid-development by a narrow focus on silverware in the teenage years, where the gym rather than the pitch is prioritised.
The sport evolves all the time and Irish rugby must evolve with it. It’s not a case of everything is wrong, far from it, but some joined up thinking about style and substance in the sport in this country would benefit everyone from the amateur clubs to provinces to the national side.
REVAMPING THE SIX NATIONS
Bonus points are an obvious place to start but to improve the tournament is really down to the playing philosophies employed by the participants. A central question is does the end justify the means? Winning the tournament fills the coffers of the various unions and successful title winning team is good for the balance sheet in terms of ticket sales, advertising and jersey sales. But at what price? Winning a World Cup could help to shape the medium to long term future of a sport in terms of financial returns and participation.
LEANER PLAYERS
What this tournament has demonstrated is that brawn only gets you so far, the semi-final in the case of South Africa but for the rest not even as far as the penultimate stage of the RWC.
A common feature of the New Zealand, Australian and Argentinean teams is an emphasis on leaner, faster athletes. That doesn’t mean that any of these teams lack muscularity but a recognition that being able to shift between, power and pace requires certain characteristics in players.
Ireland will never be able to match the physical size of South Africa, England, France and Wales to name but four but as they proved in the past it is not an insurmountable handicap. The way the sport has gone in recent times should suit Ireland more in some respects, providing the correct foundations are there.
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE HAVES AND HAVE NOTS
It doesn’t matter whether it is discipline, finance or fixture scheduling World Rugby has to change its policies in a meaningful way. The empirical evidence is that the Tier 2 countries come off second best in all the above categories and if it is not done deliberately then it’s still not excusable.
Tier 1 countries should travel to more fixtures against these countries and help to not alone promote the game but close the playing gaps at the next World Cup in Japan (2019). Inclusivity is more than giving a few bob.
JAPAN
The Brave Blossoms provided the performance and result of the Rugby World Cup to date and are an example to all of what can he done with a top coach and a dedicated and talented group of players, who buy into a playing philosophy and have a two-year preparatory period geared to peaking at the tournament. They were a joy to watch as indeed were several of the non-elite sides.
