LAST UPDATE | 24 Oct 2019
THE KNIVES ARE out in some quarters following Ireland’s thoroughly disheartening Rugby World Cup exit, but Tuesday’s low-key homecoming served as a reminder of the amount of goodwill that still exists towards outgoing head coach Joe Schmidt and the players that achieved so much under him.
The small yet healthy number of supporters that gathered to greet the Ireland squad had began to line around the arrivals gate in Dublin Airport, long before the players had touched down on home soil.
The inquests and reviews behind the scenes will be brutal, and there are some hard questions which need to be asked as Andy Farrell steps into Schmidt’s shoes, but there was something encouraging about seeing kids, out late on a school night, greeting their heroes as if they had conquered the world.
Long after the players had filed through and stopped for autographs, a few young supporters could be seen throwing a rugby ball around the near-empty arrivals hall.
The image tied in neatly with the words of Peter O’Mahony, who had stopped for a very brief chat with the media a little earlier, where he was keen to praise Schmidt’s impact on Irish rugby.
“I think for me, he’s changed the prospect and the outlook on rugby for young generations, which is probably the biggest thing you could say about any person’s career,” O’Mahony said.
“There are kids in Ireland now who will be expecting to be successful, expecting to win trophies regularly and there will be a huge portion of that, that will be down to Joe’s work and his contribution to Irish rugby.
“Not only has he changed the direction of my career and this team’s career, but he’s changed probably the careers of the guys who are in primary and secondary school at the moment. He’s done incredible work.”
That work of course ended with arguably the lowest moment of Schmidt’s coaching career, as Saturday’s 46-14 thrashing by the All Blacks brought the curtain down on his era in charge of Ireland.
Since the final whistle went in Tokyo on Saturday, all the players had wanted to do is return home, the aftermath of that defeat made all the more miserable as they couldn’t get a flight back until Tuesday. They eventually arrived in just after 7pm following a lay-over in Heathrow.
Johnny Sexton, complete with baseball cap, was first through the gate, stopping briefly for a few photos before sticking his head down and quickly making his way for the exit. Around five minutes passed before the rest of the playing squad trailed through.
The IRFU were criticised for refusing to put forward senior players for interview following the All Blacks defeat and even with a couple of days distance O’Mahony was still reluctant to assess the damage.
“I haven’t had a chance to look back at it,” O’Mahony said when asked if he had started to make sense of another quarter-final exit.
“Obviously we didn’t perform to where we need to be performing or where we want to be performing. I can’t say I’ve had a look back at the game so I don’t have any comment to make on that.”
O’Mahony, 30, falls into the bracket of players that may not stick around long enough to see the next World Cup.
While he was by no means at his best in Japan, there are other players whose reputations suffered far more damage. Bar a moment of madness to give away a needless first-half penalty, O’Mahony was one of the few players who put his shoulder to the wheel against the All Blacks, including two big turnovers with the score at 17-0.
“We’ve always learned from our experiences and you probably learn most from disappointment,” he added.
“I certainly hope that it’s not a defining moment for my career, but look, all these experiences and moments in careers are ones we’ll always look back on for reference for future success hopefully.”
When O’Mahony and Co will actually feel ready to look back is anybody’s guess.
Eoin Toolan and Murray Kinsella dial up Gavan Casey on the therapy couch to provide the post-mortem to Ireland’s World Cup implosion at the hands of New Zealand
Oh, for god’s sake. He was a good coach and achieved a lot here, but can we stop with the hyperbole?
@ScewMadd: there’s no show like a joe show….
@ScewMadd: it’s only a matter of time before people start to turn on Joe. This is the start of it.
It’s our way.
@Chin Feeyin: I’m not turning on him. He achieved more than any other coach, but he’s human. The pedestal he was put on was ridiculous. I’m sure he thought so himself. When everyone calls a man a god without him asking to, they can’t be annoyed when he turns out to be human.
I’m a huge Joe fan, and a huge Irish rugby fan. But even I’m getting sick of the constant articles!
@Conor Church: Get ready for the onslaught of Simon Zebo articles!!
@Conor Church: then stop clicking into them, whatever gets the most clicks/views get more articles. Common sense is common…
@Jonathan Fitzpatrick: The thing about common sense is that it’s not that common
@Will Thompson: Oh good one Will, did you come up with that yourself
Its actually not that common.
Ah ok Ireland are out and home. Joe has left his position. Past is the past can we focus on the remaining teams left in the competition and more articles on the four provinces that are actually playing this weekend?
You can’t hype the team up anymore I’m afraid
Joe Schmidt is the greatest and most consequential coach in the history of Irish rugby. His time as head-coach of Ireland was all too short. But I remain hopeful that he will make a return to coaching at a senior level, either with Ireland or in some other capacity within Irish rugby, in the not-too-distant future.
@J. Reid: No, that’s enough. He made the team more professional but took the fun out of it. Keep the professionalism, now the bare minimum. Put back a bit of joy, entertainment. Pat Lam did it with Connacht. Rassie cracked on at Munster and South Africa, even Jones and Gatland too. Let’s not be like France who have learned to defend but mostly forgotten attack and flair.
@J. Reid: he’s won 2 H cups 2 championship and one slam, world manager of the year in 7 years. Declan Kidney won 2 H cups, 2 triple crowns 1st Slam in 100 years, world manager of the year and a World cup with Irelands U20′s and beat the Aussie down under in a World cup when it mattered! Done in 5 years! I know who’s record is the best and I don’t need statistics to prove it!
@Kevin O’brien: Excellent Kevin couldn’t have said that better myself. Kidney is numero uno!
@Kevin O’brien: yes, but the foundation of that Slam was laid by the great Eddie O’Sullivan. Even Kidney acknowledged that himself.
@Kevin O’brien: @Walter Obrien: Take a day off lads. It’s consuming you
@Chin Feeyin: EOS had plenty of opportunities to do it with that foundation and couldn’t.
@Kevin O’brien: All true but playing devils advocate Kidney had a lot more to work with than JS did when he took over. JS had to contend with Irelands superstar centre partnership coming to the end of their careers and not having a lot of apparent depth there due to those two always being fit and always playing at a high standard. We were very light at th and scrum half was ageing too. It was a far from the rosy picture Kidney took over. I do think Kidney’s time with Ireland is underappreciated though and deserves to be on at least the same esteem level as JS.
@Kevin O’brien: you are an idiot though so who cares who you think has the better record!
@Bluepoolroad: ah yes, lets be like Connacht who have only won 1 thing ever. Or Munster who have only won 1 thing in the last 10 years. Or South Africa who have only won 1 thing in the last 10 years (the RC when NZ didnt care about it).
The Welsh are the only ones in that post with any real success, and that primarily hasn’t come from exciting free flowing rugby.
@Walter Obrien: BS Kidney had the best pool of players easy.
Need a break from these rugby articles. It’s a bit like telling someone that got dumped and is still obsessed with their ex…….”move on, its over”
Left Irish rugby in a better state than he found it. Thanks Joe.
I think people are struggling to separate out the past successes from the most recent failings with schmidt. Yes he was brilliant with with Ireland up to a point and there’s no doubt he was successful at stages but I think he let himself and whatever legacy he may have had down badly in 2019. Personally I have some great memories from his irish teams but I also find it hard to look back fondly on him because of the disaster show that’s just gone. The reasons are well played out as to why they did so badly and I’d only hope that Andy Farrell hasn’t inherited or absorbed Schmidt’s processes on team selection and his blindness to form.
@Jim Demps: fortunately you’re here to remind us
The question asked on an article on Monday was has he left Irish rugby in a better place that when he took over? My answer is no. We’re at a cliff edge now for players coming through. When healy, best, Toner, mahony, Sexton, Earls, kearney retire we’ve not brought on anything significant to replace them. That was his job to bring through players. James Ryan being the exception. Also for all the crowing about what he’s achieve we lost 3 games this year and still were at no.1 pre tournament which confirms that he’s the friendlies king! It’s been all about the friendlies for either joe or his bosses!
@Kevin O’brien: there’s loads of young fellas ready to step up to international level.
@Kevin O’brien: What are you raving about, the team is in much better shape than it was when he took over. Healy (see Kilcoyne, McGrath, Sullivan, Buckley) best (see Scannell, Herring, Treacy but admittedly a problem position) Toner (see Ryan, Henderson, Dillane, Kleyne, Beirne, Treadwell, Thornberry plus a host of younger lads that look like they will make it by the next world cup) Sexton (see Carberry, Carty, Ross Byrne plus a number of younger players making their way) Earls (see take your pick of class looking wingers coming through) Kearney (see Stockdale, Larmour, Addison, Haley). We have arguably never had the depth of talent at almost every position in Ireland and a lot of this is down to Joe and the amount of time he gave to the coaching set ups and academies in every province.
@Dino: how much did he honestly give up to do work with academies? How much did he do to develop the depth?
Kidney and O’Sullivan had some impact as well
@eddie horgan: Don’t forget Gatland and his short term in charge.
An extra helping of, ‘hurt and learnings’ for Pete this time.
Lads, you’re doing the opposite to what you intend to do with all this sychophantic waffle.
Another world cup, another bottle job..
Hopefully he’s changed it by showing the flaws of a paint by numbers rigid structures, that approach is only successful to a point. If we really want to be one of the worlds best at a time in the cycle when it actually matters we need creative players who are empowered to take risks.
yep once picked you cant be dropped