Is it because it’s a bloody World Cup?
Before we get into this, Wales are Grand Slam champions. They beat all in front of them in early Spring, dismantling Ireland in Cardiff in their final fixture to give Warren Gatland the perfect send-off in his final 6 Nations campaign. We know this.
But, considering the past few years (and even months), why do Wales seem so self-assured while Ireland are crumbling under the pressure?
We beat them twice, home and away, in the final two World Cup warm-up fixtures. We went into this tournament as the number one ranked team in the world, with the World Player of the Year in our ranks (sometimes). We had, on paper, the most straightforward Pool of the entire competition.
But once again, we are under the pump while Wales seem to be joyously sucking diesel.
Speaking on The JOEpan Rugby Show this week, after Wales had all but secured top spot in Pool D and a Quarter Final against France by beating Fiji, former Ireland and Munster hooker Jerry Flannery was quick to heap praise on Gatland’s side. But, he also raised the question; why is it that they seem in such better stead than their Irish counterparts?
“The thing that stood out for me about Wales through this World Cup is the confidence that they’ve shown all the way through. If you compare Ireland’s lead-in to the World Cup versus Welsh, Wales lost 3 of their 4 warm-up games, yet there was no… They were still going talking about going out winning the World Cup, there was no talk of crisis.”
We all love a good panic in Ireland, whether it’s hoarding Brennan’s bread at the first flake of snow or forcing drive-in donut shops to close down temporarily because we can’t control ourselves. We’ve had our injuries at this tournament, but we still go into the final round of Pool fixtures with qualification in our own hands and our squad just about at full tilt.
Flannery continued in his comparison:
“Wales used the warm-up games almost as an experiment, seeing different combinations and then losing Gareth Anscombe going out to the World Cup, who’s arguably their first choice 10, and yet they’ve just built their way through the tournament and been really confident, whereas Ireland were… and granted we got, you know we incurred a really heavy loss against England, but we were kind of rattled going out there a little bit. And then I thought the Scottish game put it to bed, but obviously not. But the Welsh, how the Welsh are backing themselves has been… to me has been, you know, really impressive.”
A bonus point win against Samoa almost comes second to the performance tomorrow. Ireland need to make a statement, secure their final 8 spot and then move on to a titanic clash against either New Zealand or South Africa. Who, let’s not forget, we’ve beaten in the last 18 months.
Time to take a leaf out of the Welsh book. Time to strut.
You can watch the full episode of The JOEpan Rugby Show below, with full previews of Scotland v Japan, Wales v Uruguay and USA v Tonga, as well as a general love-in for the Tier 2 nations at this year’s World Cup:
