There seems to be general optimism about that we will beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final today. Anyone with a sense of history should be feeling a slight pessimism. I have been watching rugby since I was a schoolboy in CBC Cork in the late 1950s (saw Jack Kyle at Musgrave Park, saw Tommy Kiernan play scrum-half for UCC at the Mardyke, attended Ollie Campbell’s Triple Crown win in Landsdowne Road in 1982). I also marked the great Jerry Walsh at centre when I played a practice match for UCC minors against the senior team. In all my years watching, this is without question the best team we have ever had. There are no weak links. It’s a golden era - we now expect to win rather than hope to win, and have been rewarded with Championships, Grand Slams and regular wins against all the powerful rugby nations. But this match today is different and I’m sure all concerned feel the weight of history. We have never won a quarter-final in the World Cup and to do so we must beat the team with the best record in the competition. It’s not the all-conquering New Zealand of recent times but there is no such thing as a poor NZ team. Also, having won 17 matches in a row there is a statistical likelihood that at some stage we are going to come undone. I feel that the match is going to be very close and could revolve around an injury to a crucial player or, more damagingly, a sending off. I’m sure Peter O’Mahoney has been warned to button his lip around Wayne Barnes who always considers himself to be the most important person on the pitch and reacts badly to lip. There have been bitter disappointments over the years. I was at Landsdowne Road in 1991 when we came closest to a semi-final. We threw away a winning chance against Australia in the last minute. (If only Saunders had found touch.) We had never been expected to win that match so perhaps the players were free of the kind of pressure our guys will face today. One factor may prove useful. We have injected some New Zealand blood into our our team in the form of Lowe, Aki and Gibson-Park. They carry that winning DNA that could tip the balance in a match that’s sure to be close. If we win, no matter what happens next it will be seen as a great campaign. If we lose, a nation will go into mourning.
Thus Spoke Jeremiah.
