We had a lively debate with Ewan MacKenna on the show on Wednesday night. The reaction was big. Very big.
He finds the general treatment of the Irish rugby team somewhat mawkish. Phrases like 'This is Rugby Country' don’t sit well with a guy like Ewan, and be it on Twitter or in print or the airways, Ewan is never afraid to call 'bullshit'. It's one of the many reasons I like him. We spent some time together last summer in Salvador and Belo Horizonte (he lives there) and Rio de Janeiro, where the late night conversation was never dull or sensible. I've told him he’s a little bit mad and a little bit brilliant.
I do accept a lot of his points. The Irish rugby team do get an easier ride, on various fronts, than the football team. But maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing. The football team are routinely dismissed and disparaged and rarely celebrated, despite competing in the deepest of meritocracies. The coverage in places is incredibly tough, and just last week, Eamon Dunhpy essentially accused Martin O’Neill of bluffing about Wes Hoolahan's fitness.
Think about that for a moment. It's ludicrous. The more extreme critiques of the football team should not be the benchmark. In fairness, I don’t think Ewan covets that type of environment either.
But it seems to me he has honed in on a tiny few gushing print pieces, which suit his narrative and ignored the overall media offering. Post-match here on Off the Ball we had Liam Toland, Trevor Hogan and Gavin Duffy on the show, all of whom talked about severe deficiencies in our skill-set. Toland in particular questioned our rugby culture.
On Monday night, Brian O’Driscoll was unequivocally critical of our defensive set-up and inability to rectify matters mid-stream. Keith Earl’s inexperience at 13 was pointed to. Chris Henry was name checked. Elsewhere, Gordon Darcy wrote a brilliant piece in The Irish Times which illustrates problems right across Irish rugby.
There has been a lot of really astute, mature and critical analysis available, which Ewan has largely ignored. It is flat out wrong to say the rugby team's failings on Sunday were glossed over. They weren't. It's just the players weren't pilloried or turned on or ridiculed, and I'm okay with that.
I also took issue with Ewan referring to our successive World Cup quarter-final defeats as "chokes" and "meltdowns". A choke (expert induced amnesia) or meltdown implies the team had all the necessary tools and just didn’t deliver or execute due to the pressure. Take a look back at Brian O’Driscoll at our 3 Arena Roadshow last week. He specifically said of the Wales quarter-final in 2011 that the team’s attacking plan wasn’t sophisticated enough. Stephen Ferris told us there was no Plan B in attack. I’ve heard similar from another player.
The coach was also unsure of who to play at out-half, which complicated planning. That defeat was not a choke or a meltdown, there were structural and coaching issues at play. Dismissing it as a choke, as Ewan did last night, is dangerously simplistic and reductive analysis.
Months earlier a lot of those players had turned around a big half-time deficit in the Heineken Cup final against Northampton. They are demonstrably capable of clear thinking and execution, under severe pressure. Therefore the reasons for defeat against Wales surely extend beyond a choke.
Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Ironically, the truth is far more interesting. Give me the nuanced analysis from O'Driscoll and Ferris any day over headlines or tweets which scream "Chokers" or "Meltdown". Equally on Sunday, whilst it's an excuse I find very frustrating, it is near impossible to look past the injured list. Not just frontline players, but our best players, were absent. How would the football team fare without 4 or 5 of our best players? Let me reiterate, the performance was still not good or acceptable. But NOBODY says it was.
Ultimately, and I don't know for sure, I think Ewan particularly hates the marketing narrative which hangs around the team. I get that. It is more than a bit fawning. Words such as "heroic" are bandied about far too much. But honestly, when Joe Schmidt or Les Kiss eventually arrive into an Off the Ball studio for an interview they won't expect to be called heroic. They'll anticipate questions over a desperately narrow defensive set-up, which the Italians had also targeted.
I know why Ireland lost on Sunday, because lots of very smart rugby people have pointed out severe failings. The information and critiques have been out there, but they have also been fair to the team. Empathy is actually pretty important when trying to understand failings.
Otherwise where are we headed? Ian Madigan came on against France and delivered a really good performance after two seasons of set-backs under Matt O’Connor. He got emotional when he saw his parents waving back at him in the crowd. We can safely assume he had stopped crying in time for training on Tuesday. Does he really deserve to held up as an example of our limited ambitions? I'm suddenly seeing Graham Taylor's head as a turnip.
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