I find Irish rugby in an unusual place, and it feels like we have been here before. George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Some supporters and critics don’t appear to have learned a whole lot from the previous highs and lows in our rugby history.
Andy Farrell ’s tetchiness in the post-match press conference following the New Zealand game was understandable based on a line of questioning that felt a little dramatic or overly pessimistic. Professional sport has slowly and then quickly become a ruthless place to exist; eaten bread is soon forgotten. The Ireland head coach, perhaps surprised by the negativity in some of the questions, reasserted that his team did not become a bad one overnight.
We have been here before when an Irish team excels: the expectation grows, often unchecked by pragmatism. Joe Schmidt presided over an Ireland team that enjoyed unprecedented success, one that won regularly. But despite that, over time the style of those performances was questioned.
It created a negative atmosphere around the team even though they had the results to show for it, and managed to create an unattainably high level of expectancy, one that was impossible to maintain. [ High price of penalties left Ireland in the red against All Blacks Opens in new window ] There were obvious mitigating circumstances to the eventual decline in fortunes for that group. Ireland opted to double down on possession-based rugby when teams had fig.