THE IRISH players didn’t just feel they missed out on a gilt-edged opportunity to reach a first World Cup semi-final but, whispering it more quietly than they did four years ago, had a final or even something better in mind. Nothing about the remaining quarter-finals would have dispelled the feeling that they had been real contenders at this tournament.
Rory Best, who capped a stunning tournament with his Lazarus-like recover from a stained A/C joint to play superbly on Saturday, admitted afterwards: “I think overall it’ll be a bit of a failure for us, because we wanted to win this. We didn’t crow about it the way we did four years ago, but deep down we felt we had enough firepower in our squad to do it.
“We haven’t done it so we have to be disappointed but we came in and people didn’t give us a chance against the Tri-Nations champions, we put in a great performance there. We showed against the minnows that we can put teams away and score tries, we showed that in a big game against Italy we could do the same. There are some good memories there but for all of us at the minute, because we’re reflecting in the heat of the moment, we’re disappointed to be going home early.”
For that reason, Best admitted this was the biggest disappointment of his career. “Yeah, it’s up there now . . . we had such a massive opportunity to be in the last four and the top four teams in the world and we’ve really let that slip by us. So from that point of view it has to be right up there.”
Best himself is 29, and conceivably his performances at this tournament and status within the group could even see him lead the Irish team at the next World Cup, as captain of a largely rebuilt side, for invariably, the thought prevailed that this was the end of the golden generation.
“I think that while we have a few older experienced players, our backrow’s average age is 26, we have Cian Healy, who turned 24 the other day, Keith Earls, Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearney, Jonny Sexton all young men. We have a lot of good young players there so I think while at some stage in the next two, three, four, five years, there will be a few players who will drop out, we have plenty of great young players.
“There’s no doubt the standard has been set over the last 10 years by a group of players and it’s up to the boys left to keep it going. . . it’s up to other boys to grab that baton and take it on.”
“We came into this fully confident that we could win it but we haven’t done it and it will probably take a day or two, probably when we’re boarding that plane to go home, to really sink in that this was a massive opportunity for us.
“It wasn’t from lack of effort to try and take that opportunity now, we were just beaten by a better team on the day. In bits and pieces we played quite well, but we just couldn’t get going really. Wales really had our number and you have to give them credit for that.
“It’s a very bitter pill to swallow. . . . Whatever will happen in the future will happen, but at the minute we’re just bitterly disappointed to be going home.”
