“There’s two kinds of pain in this world. Pain that hurts. Pain that alters.” Robert McCall, The Equalizer 2 (2018) You would think that Irish supporters would be used to World Cup quarter-final defeats by now, but every time that they happen, the wound cuts just as deep. In fact, this one is … Continue reading Ground Zero
Everest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM0dx0h2xsw It’s been more than 20 years since Jim Telfer delivered that speech, but the reason that it’s still enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up is that it doesn’t have any of the passionate shouting or roaring that usually characterise pre-match talks. Instead, the revered Scottish … Continue reading Everest
Litmus Test
When Ireland played Samoa in 2013, they ran out comfortable winners in the end, although the 40-9 scoreline didn’t reflect how scrappy Ireland’s performance was on the day until Cian Healy, Paul O’Connell and Seán O'Brien were brought off the bench to put the Pacific Islanders to the sword. It’s oddly fitting that it … Continue reading Litmus Test
Labour-Intensive
Match statistics can often be misleading, and when you examine the figures from Ireland’s win over Russia, you would naturally assume that it was a completely dominant performance from Joe Schmidt’s side. They had 589 metres run compared to Russia’s 150, 16 line breaks to Russia’s 2 and 23 defenders beaten to Russia’s 11. … Continue reading Labour-Intensive
