Fatigued Ireland unfairly put at the mercy of All Blacks

Date Published: {J}

THE Irish summer rugby tour was asking for trouble after a long and arduous season . . . and they got in spades at the Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth last Saturday. Ireland may have suffered heavier defeats at the hands of New Zealand down through the decades, but they had never conceded 66 points in a test match before.

Declan Kidney was already short a number of his front-liners before embarking on the tour to New Zealand and Australia and with many of the squad feeling the effects of a bruising season, the omens were ominous for the men in green. And the All Blacks were in no mood for dispensing any charity against their weakened and battle weary opponents.

The rugby season seems to be never ending these days. The vast majority of these Irish players have been going at it hammer and tongs for the best part of nine months – and some of them are clearly out on their feet. The demanding schedule is placing an unfair burden on Ronan O’Gara and company, especially as rugby has now become a game of almost frightening physical intensity.

Some of the hits players have to endure in the modern era are border-line assaults. Men with unnaturally bulked up bodies are tearing into tackles with reckless abandon and it is surely only a question of time before there is a fatality arising out of these no-holds barred collisions on the rugby field. Already, you’d fear that many players will have broken up bodies by the time they retire.

Saturday’s annihilation begs the question why the IRFU sanctioned the tour in the first place. Of course, it’s largely about boosting the Union’s financial coffers, but Ireland are not alone as England, Scotland, Wales and France are also on their travels at present. Sadly, those in officialdom are showing scant regard for their players who must be ‘aching’ for a break from professional rugby.

This is the best team Ireland have ever produced and they provided the nation with many unforgettable days, but the squad is in marked decline and we didn’t need Saturday’s rout by the All Blacks to confirm that. Without Paul O’Connell, Jerry Flannery and Stephen Ferris in their pack, the Irish never stood a chance of recording their first ever win over New Zealand, but we didn’t expect that the match would be so hopelessly one-sided.

Of course, Ireland committed rugby’s version of hari kari by having only 13 players on the field for a period of the opening-half. Jamie Heaslip’s unpardonable indiscipline and the sin-binning of O’Gara left them at the mercy of their rampaging foes and there is no better team than the All Blacks to exploit the opposition’s numerical disadvantage as they established a 38-nil lead approaching the break. Frankly, it was embarrassing to watch.

The match ought to have been an occasion to savour for the two Connacht men in the Irish team, but sadly John Muldoon, who was certainly not intimidated by his fearsome adversaries, suffered a serious arm injury which forced his departure and a premature ending to his tour, and Sean Cronin, whose knock on led indirectly to the concession of the All Blacks’ opening try, will probably prefer to forget a disastrous day for Irish rugby. Still, it reflected well on Muldoon and Cronin’s performances this season that they were in New Zealand in the first place and the experience is bound to stand to them.

Though the All Blacks dropped their intensity levels on the resumption and gave a run out to many of their reserves, Ireland must be giving credit for not raising the white flag. Their dressing room at half-time must have been a terrible place to be in as they were in real danger of suffering a catastrophic defeat altogether, but they battled grimly in limiting the damage – that is if you consider losing by 38 points some form of consolation to cling to.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.