The 7:50pm train from Cardiff Central to London Paddington set off at 8:14pm and it was absolutely jammed.
Like just about every ware-house, farm-house, hen-house, out-house and dog-house where Ireland played during this World Cup, it was dominated by green jerseys. Jaded, red-cheeked Irish faces.
There were Argentineans, of course. English, Scots, Welsh, South Africans, Welsh and Aussies too. But nine out of every ten people crammed into the Great Western Railway carriages were Irish. Like me, their days began at 5am. Most would not reach their front door until after midnight.
At this stage, we take for granted that Irish fans will flood into a sporting arena, sing their hearts out and head for a few drinks after.
It has become the norm and is dismissed far too easily. ‘Oh that’s just the Irish’, ‘They love a party’, ‘bandwagoners’.
What an amazing bandwagon it is. The fact that we travel in our thousands to support athletes, boxers, footballers, MMA stars, rugby players and more.
Getting on a bandwagon. Supporting a sportsperson. Cheering for them as if our life depended on it.
As if that is something to ashamed of?
It was tempting to write a piece, after north of 60,000 Irish fans roared themselves hoarse, about the support the Irish team received for the France game. It feels only fitting to do it now, 24 hours after we were rocketed out of the World Cup with a slap in the back of the head.
On Saturday afternoon, some 25,000 Irish fans were already in the Welsh capital for the game. On Saturday night and Sunday morning, the same number set off from various parts of the UK to get behind Joe Schmidt’s men. Thousands upon thousands more set off from Ireland.
For the second Sunday morning in a row, bemused American and Asian tourists walked past snaking queues of green-clad fans, at London’s Paddington Station, and asked themselves just what was going on.
True, we love to be praised. We love to be told how great we are as fans. But, setting off from the four corners Ireland, England and Wales, no-one was looking for praise at 7am. They just wanted to see their country win.
This tweet from Gordon D’Arcy, although well intentioned, annoyed me no end.
https://twitter.com/Gordonwdarcy/status/655747767722254336
The weight of the nation on your shoulders.
They are the country’s elite sportsmen. They have trained and worked their whole life for this. Where would they rather be?
Jamie Heaslip peddled out this weight of a nation line, earlier in the tournament, as a reason for our quarter final failure in 2011.
On that occasion, there were about 30,000 Irish fans in New Zealand to cheer their team on. 20,000 kilometres from home and bunking into anything on four wheels they could find so they could tour the country in support of their team – Palmerstown, Auckland, Rotorua, Dunedin then Wellington.
Declan Kidney relayed to his players how important it was for them to give Ireland a boost. We were in the midst of a devastating recession and in need of a lift.
To this day, the players that featured in that game are at a loss to explain just why we hit the skids against Wales.
Four years on and it was eerily similar – slow start, out-fought, out-thought, wasting scoring chances, a fightback and a late collapse.
We surprised ourselves in 2011 and welcomed the dream.
In 2015, we expected. Not to win the whole tournament but we expected better. A semi-final at least.
The players were blown away again.
Pockets of Argentinean fans got loud after three minutes, went into their shells during the Luke Fitzgerald show and ended up dancing and annoying stewards for the final 20 minutes.
They were a joy to behold at the final whistle – partying it up in the stands as their heroes waved flags and banged drums.
The Irish fans never stopped supporting their side. Very few left early and thousands stayed behind at the end to show their appreciation to Heaslip, Schmidt and the Irish team.
Back on the train and they slapped Argentinean backs; wishing them well. Fields of Athenry got an airing but the most popular songs were in honour of the days’ two heroes – Flower of Scotland and Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.
We like to come across as good losers but the affection between Irish and Argentinean fans was genuine. We wish them well.
These Irish fans deserved better but they will plough on.
At this stage, they are used to failures. Even when they are far from glorious.
