YOU DON’T REMEMBER the call carrying good news, only the bad ones stick.
Devin Toner has, and will, be asked to put the disappointment of missing out on Ireland’s 31-man World Cup squad firmly behind him in the coming weeks. His province need him, and his country might even come calling back too if injury takes a lock.
His provincial head coach is speaking from experience when he advises Toner on how to move through the disappointment.
“Just park it and focus. Get back playing. Blow it away in his next game,” says Leo Cullen.
“Play the house down. If something happens something happens. I think he’s better just focusing on the performance piece. Everyone will have their own process of going about the training weeks, but just has to make sure he gets everything right.”
Cullen speaks with a vivid memory of his own World Cup disappointments, missing out on the touring party for 2003 and 2007. He mentions getting the nod for 2011, but only in passing.
Rejection leaves a deeper imprint.
“I know what that is like because I had it myself. The phone call. 2003, I remember like it was yesterday.
“I wasn’t expecting that phone call. I was full sure I was going to the World Cup and I was as upset as I’ve ever been. Couldn’t understand it for the life of me. You get angry and you go through all that grieving process.
At some point you have to get to the acceptance phase and move on. At some point it is going to stunt you. It is going to stunt you if you can’t get over that grieving cycle. It’s easier said than done. People deal with grief in many different ways…
“In 2007 I had the same exact disappointment. But I was expecting the call, even though I got it incredibly late.
“It came nearly at the eleventh hour, that window I remember vividly as well because I was supposed to call around to friends and it was ‘I’m waiting for this call.’
“I was more pragmatic: ‘I’m here ready when you need me’. So that was the view I had then. I couldn’t deal with it in 2003. The shock… I ended up getting injured after that and had shoulder surgery during the World Cup. Who knows, maybe I would have gone to the World Cup and got injured during the first training session or match.”
The road not taken, not offered. Trying to figure out where such paths might have led is futile.
Walking around with any resentment is usually counter-productive too. Connacht head coach Andy Friend has spoken about an anger being carried by Kieran Marmion after his omission, and the Australian reflected that his scrum-half may hold it with him for a long time to come.
Even anger can be a healthy emotion, if channeled effectively.
“When you deal with some sort of adversity,” adds Cullen, “I think you need to channel it in a positive way.
“There’s guys that are picked ahead of you – that’s always the great complication in being in provincial derby games. Just because there is a pecking order in the national team, once you step on the grass and you are playing a provincial game the match up doesn’t matter. They just want to go out and win the day. Win the day and they think they have a chance of winning the next selection.”
While he has 14 players away with Ireland, Cullen has more than Toner in this scenario of course. Having toured Australia and waited his turn in the out-half pecking order, Ross Byrne lost out to Jack Carty and the recovering Joey Carbery as back-up 10 options.
Dave Kearney was another man in among the Ireland training group who missed out on the trip to Japan.
“They’ve been great,” Cullen says of the trio. “you work so hard over such a long period of time, you get dropped off. They’ve all had a bit of time. Ross and Dave both played against Northampton and it is good to get back into our system for the two of them. Dev… he has trained this week so he is good to go.
“He is good in terms of how he deals with disappointment. For all three of them, they just need to get into playing now. We’ve got competitive games coming up and they just need to be ready for the call if it comes.
“How do they do that? They need to focus on performing well for the team and getting back up to speed in the systems. ”
“(Having Toner) was a surprise, for sure. It’s a great reflection in terms of the depth that is there across the board in Irish rugby and all of the provinces. As tough a call as I’m sure that was for Dev to take. The influence he has had and the amount of games he has played in, for him to miss out was definitely a shock.
“We managed him when he came back in first as he was carrying a niggle, but now he’s good to go. He trained last week and we’ve been happy with him. He just needs to train well.
“Dev has committed fully to training now that he’s back and now we’re looking forward to seeing him play. What he’ll offer to us at this stage of the season, we weren’t budgeting to have him back with us but we’re looking forward to seeing him play now.”
Back on the horse then, though as Cullen quips, it’s a mighty big horse.
Former Ireland performance analyst and current coaching wizard of OZ Eoin Toolan joins Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey to predict Ireland’s World Cup, break down every pool, and call the overall winners.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
When you can pretty much predict the 1/4 final pairings after one round of games it doesn’t really say much about the competition.
@Shimmy Shammy: think you’d have a pretty good go at doing the same at soccer World Cup to be fair! Look at England’s draw at soccer World Cup …utterly predictable
@BMJF: Not really true though. Far more competition in soccer. The group stages in the rugby world cup don’t particularly serve any purpose.
@Shimmy Shammy: The whole purpose of the group stages is the opportunity for these sides to play Tier 1 nations – the problem it isn’t happening enough between world cups, the answer is definitely not reduce the number of teams in the World Cup. There will be a upset or two before we are done, hopefully at Englands expense
Life is just simply better when the world cup is on !
@JillyBean: it desperately need a shock result. Naming the quarter finalists and quite possibly the semi finalists by this weekend isn’t great…..
Am I not right in saying that only 8/9 teams have won the Football World Cup and therefore it’s equally as predictable given its lengthy history?
Crazy to believe people still belittle the quality of the the teams in the RWC.
Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in a semi final not too long ago, so does that equate to to a 49-7 win in rugby?
@Geoff Speiran: You are clutching at straws there Geoff. Only 4 countries have won the Rugby World Cup and correct me if Im wrong, but only 9 teams have ever made the actual quarter finals. Thats a sensational statistic. In soccer you have had the likes of Senegal, Turkey, Ghana, Ireland, South Korea, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden etc. making the latter stages, would never happen in rugby
@Frank Scanlon: You have a point but it’s worth acknowledging that there has been 21 Soccer world cups. This is the 9th Rugby one. Hopefully, teams like Fiji, Japan, USA will start making these breakthroughs with greater regularity. Japan could beat Scotland which would be great for the development of the game.
@Frank Scanlon: But the game is only growing and from a much smaller playing pool, you don’t critique Cricket/Rugby League/Basketball in the same way, why is the football world cup the pinnacle of international sports? When you consider there’s 50 years between the beginning of the football World Cup and RWC it’s hard to draw direct comparisons and who knows whether the 2067 RWC will be exponential more competitive.
@Frank Scanlon: yes but soccer is the no.1 sport in pretty much all these countries. It’s also a bit easier to scrape out of a group stage in soccer, ala Ireland, by parking the bus for a draw or sneaking an odd goal from a setpiece. It’s nigh on impossible for the smaller, less well coached teams to fluke a draw in rugby, you have the width of the pitch to defend, not a smallish rectangle with a net.
@Cian Nolan: Thats neither here nor there as in the first 8 FIFA World Cups 25 different nations had finished in the top 8 of the tournament. I’m sorry but some people are just delusional about the international appeal of rugby. For example I was in Argentina during the last World Cup when they were in the semi final and you would hardly know the game was on, people didnt care, and they are one of the top 8 or 9 nations. Rugby is irrelevant in Italy and even in Australia its way behind Rugby League and AFL
@Geoff Speiran: I absolutely would critique those sports in the same way, Rugby League World Cup in particular is a joke. RWC will not be more competitive in 2067, maybe less so, as any developing nations will more than likely put more resources into sevens as its the Olympic format
@Cian Nolan: the thing is it’s rigged against African teams in football but rigged against Tier 2 teams in rugby .. Japans win against SA in 2015 , Fiji v Wales in 2007 and Samoa VS Wales in 91 are the only true surprise results . If it wasn’t for bonus points the Argentinians could wave goodbye already .
@Tim Magner: Fair point in one sense but the gulf between the top 8/9 in rugby and the next tier is absolutely huge, in general you still have to be somewhere close to the same level in any sport to get a result. Soccer’s lower scoring nature obviously lends to more surprise results, rugby is similar to hurling in the sense that skill differences are amplified on the scoreboard and again its 8/9 teans competing. But to me looking in it seems that rugby is making zero effort to get any other nations to the top table, and on top of that refereeing decisions always seem to favour the top sides just to make sure the natural order is not disrupted
@Frank Scanlon: what exactly does FIFA do for the smaller nations in soccer? All the poorer tier 2 nations in rugby get coaches payed for by the wru. Rugby is a far more physical & attritional sport than soccer, and a lot more technical with things like scrums, lineouts, rucks etc. Of course there’s only 8/9 teams really compete at top end, and they’re the ones with the player base, the squads that can cope with injuries. A soccer team can go a long way in any tournament with 10 solid journeymen & a star who can get the goals, see Portugal. Rugby a bit different
@Frank Scanlon: But given that 15 a side game is more lucrative surely the growth of 7’s will just allow more players a pathway into the 15’s game for other nations and therefore diversity the sport.
I agree there are massive challenges but how many World Cup sports do you tune in to? Granted Rugby is behind others but I implore you to find me a more competitive example in the men’s category.
@Frank Scanlon: 4 teams in 8 world cups as opposed to 9 teams in 21 football world cups…it’s actually 12 teams that have made quarters, Canada once, Western Samoa and Fiji have both made it twice each. Japan are on the cusp and the USA should feature in the future too. And I’d agree with another comment, you can be a terrible team in football and park the bus, but that’s almost impossible to do in rugby where the fatigue is far greater. I love both world cups, I just don’t get this bashing, there are terrible teams like Costa Rica and Iran in the football World Cup, it’s very predictable how their matches will go too!
@Padraig O’M: Iran were actually quite good in the last world cup and should have bet Portugal to go through. Poor example.
@Padraig O’M: Yeah poor example regards Iran and Costa Rica did quite well in previous World Cup. My mistake I didnt realise Canada, Samoa and Fiji had made the quarters but in a sense it only proves that rugby has actually regressed in terms of the number of teams capable of being competitive. Its hard to argue that the current tournament is not extremely predictable. Barring an unlikely upset win for Argentina or France over England, the only thing we are really left wondering is whether Australia or Wales will top their pool.
Sensational….yawn. Extremely predictable. Massively understrength competition and one sided matches that will still be pontificated on by the rugby media.
@Tom Bout: yawn is right! a few days in and the 9 potential quarter finalists have been filtered down to 8 and almost a month of meaningless matches to come.
Nothing so wrong with only having 9 competitive teams. In a high scoring sport it would be hard to get more than that but lobbing 20 of them in to a round robin competition is crazy. Imagine if hurling threw 20 teams in to the All Ireland series. No body would pay to see Kilkenny vs Meath in hurling, it would be a massacre. Serious marketing by World Rugby to sell this tournament and these kind of one-sided games!
@Kevin McMahon: so teams should never play against superior opposition? Seems like a great way to stifle the growth of smaller nations teams
It was mixed feelings seeing the Georgia coach celebrate their 2nd try in a near 30 point defeat so enthusiastically today. Entirely understandable considering the structural and experience disadvantages they have compared to tier 1 teams but really disappointing for the competition when the mid-level teams show no real belief in their ability to compete and are effectively happy if they manage to avoid humiliation.
Rugby won’t continue to grow with the same 10 teams playing each other endlessly, it needs new teams to emerge and they need the same player access and competitive fixtures as the tier 1 nations.
I really hope Japan or Fiji can cause an upset and make things interesting!
@Rochelle: the real thing that’s holding Georgia back is the lack of relegation and promotion in the six nations. They consistently dominate the second tier and rarely get the opportunity to play the tier 1 teams.
@Rochelle: Georgia and Fiji can play at tier 1 level if given the opportunity for test rugby on a regular basis. What about a 7 Nations? or adding Fiji to make southern hemi a 5mations?
@Dave O Keeffe: why can’t we have a 7 Nations? Who said it has to be six?? It used to be 5. Relegation would only destroy the team dropping down..left with no one to compete against & it they’d destroy EUROPEAN tier 2 or 3 teams which is pointless
@BMJF: well if Italy for example got relegated they’d have a year to regroup and rebuild, get a few wins and possibly come back up. Georgia would get a year playing against tier 1 teams and at the very least see the level they aspire to. Tier 2 teams would also benefit massively from playing against a relegated tier 1 team, testing themselves against that level, seeing the difference in quality or lack thereof. It let’s everyone see where they’re at. Right now the 5th ranked tier 2 European team are ahead against Samoa in the second half.
@BMJF: my issue with making it a 7 nations means that it’s always the same protected 7. There’s no growth for the 8th ranked team.
Sensational amount of RWC articles!!!
Rugby is over rated
What a predictable boring article , yawn yawn
@Frank Tennant: whereas your comment, Frank – what an absolute fücking zinger. Wow. What I’d give to be able to write like that.
I’m not sure when they hand out Pulitzers but you should keep that night free I’d say.
Glad to see you are enjoying Japan Sean