WHAT A STRANGE feeling it must have been for the Leinster players standing on the pitch at Loftus Versfeld after defeat to the Bulls and hearing The Cranberries’ Zombie blasting out around the stadium in Pretoria.
This was the South African version, of course.
“In your head, in your head… Rassie, Rassie Rassie!” roared the South African supporters who had just gleefully watched the Bulls players greet the final whistle like they’d won a trophy.
The celebrations were warranted. Leinster are still a huge scalp and were the favourites to win this semi-final and the URC. Jake White came up with a smart plan to beat them and his players executed it superbly to win.
In the aftermath, Leinster lock Joe McCarthy looked shell-shocked as he stood with his hands on his hips, staring vacantly at the ground. He was among the Irish players who were in Stade de France for those special Zombie nights in Paris at last year’s World Cup, pool-stage wins over South Africa and Scotland met with spine-tingling renditions of the Cranberries’ classic.
This was supposed to be Irish rugby’s new anthem but the Springboks supporters repurposed it during the World Cup in tribute to their enigmatic leader, Rassie Erasmus. Unsurprisingly, the man himself loved it.
We’re going to be hearing it again soon, probably as early as next week for those of us who tune into the URC final between the Bulls and Glasgow. It has clearly become a key tune for the folk at Loftus Versfeld.
And we’ll presumably be hearing it again on 6 July when Ireland take on the Springboks at the same stadium in the first of their two Tests. That will definitely be the case if Erasmus’ men win in Pretoria. Whether they’ll play it if Ireland win remains to be seen, but the Irish supporters would certainly give it a go even if it wasn’t blasted over the stadium tannoy.
Just like that, the Irish provincial season is over and it has been a trophyless one. Connacht didn’t make the URC play-offs, Ulster recovered from a wobbly patch to at least feature in the quarter-finals, while Munster and Leinster were beaten in semi-finals that they were favoured to win. Leinster reached the Champions Cup final but came up short in devastating fashion for the third year in a row.
Zombie featured at Thomond Park for the Munster team’s run-outs onto the pitch before kick-off and the second half on Saturday, as is now the norm, but there wasn’t to be a victorious rendition post-match. Instead, the home supporters, players, and coaches were left with a bitter taste of regret at missing a big chance to retain the URC.
Andy Farrell – who will name his touring squad on Wednesday – was in Limerick to watch Munster’s defeat to Glasgow. He surely would have loved one of the provinces to win the URC, allowing their players to carry winning momentum back into Ireland camp at the end of this week.
You could say there is one positive in his key players not being exposed to injury in next weekend’s final, instead getting a chance to freshen up before the trip to South Africa, but there is nothing like being battle-hardened and invigorated by winning.
Munster and Leinster’s player will lick their wounds in the coming days before attention switches to the Springboks series, one that the South Africans are champing at the bit for. Erasmus’ men will be channelling the spirit that the Bulls brought for their win over Leinster.
“Honestly, we told each other from the beginning that they’re coming to our house and you don’t come to Loftus and think it’s going to be a fun day for you,” said outstanding Bulls number eight Cameron Hanekom after they beat Leinster.
His performance opposite Caelan Doris suggested he could have a part to play in the Ireland series.
That mindset is something the Boks are tapping into. They feel they owe Farrell’s team a beating. Three consecutive defeats against Ireland doesn’t sit well with them and Erasmus has clearly been pressing all of their emotional buttons already.
So it’s imperative that Farrell once again does what he does so well – set the tone, lift the energy, get smiles on faces, and give his players a mission.
There are obvious themes for Ireland such as taking down the back-to-back world champions and winning a series in South Africa for the first time. Farrell’s men will be in the role of underdogs, regardless of what Erasmus or anyone else says. The Boks have already been installed as five-point favourites for the first Test.
Ireland have only played in Loftus once before, losing 33-0 to a Springboks team that included a back row by the name of Rassie Erasmus.
David Humphreys also played that day as Joost van der Westhuizen and co. ran riot, so he’ll be hoping for something very different as he watches on from the stands in his new position as IRFU performance director.
Maybe it’s helpful that all of the Ireland players on the Leinster team will have had the experience of playing in Pretoria so recently, or perhaps it’s a bad thing that they had to feel their lungs burning at altitude, then stand there listening to Zombie and thinking of how tough a challenge lies ahead against the Springboks.
Farrell will demand that the scale of the test brings out the best in his players after the longest of long seasons. Tomorrow marks exactly one year since Ireland’s players returned to pre-World Cup training camp and even though they’re managed better than anyone in the world, there must be at least some mental fatigue at this stage.
Farrell’s job is to rally his players to take down the best team in the world.
A lot of those guys should be given a summer off.
Teams need competition and unfortunately in the Irish team there is none. Too many players that won’t be dropped.
@Liam23: I agree, but it’s not easy to drop players when there aren’t too many viable alternatives. O’Mahony won’t make the next world cup but Baird hasn’t exactly kicked on and Ahern is injured. Perhaps Izuchukwu could make an impact there, thought he looked pretty dynamic against Leinster. Van der Flier seems to struggle against physical teams, but I don’t know if there’s a better alternative. Doris could arguably be dropped for Conan on current form, but Conan’s age profile isn’t great.
Second row and loosehead also seems to be a bit of a concern where we lack power (and scrummaging ability in Porter’s case). Don’t think we have the players to fix that atm.
@Rainbows In the Dark: I agree, there is areas we are light on, we lack depth at loosehead and we need a strong tight head second row, we also need a back up for Crowley and Ringrose, shifting Henshaw to outside centre is not the way to go. We had both Kylen and Frish but Farrell didn’t rate them and let them go.
I’ve always thought that you have to bring the 1st team in order to go for that historic win and to show off the sport in its best light etc.
After these URC semis I’ve changed my mind and think our first choice front five need a rest. They’ve been asked to run into brick walls too many times. South African forwards play half a game. Joe Schmidt’s team eventually grew tired of running into brick walls too.
Senior lads should be rested. Head out there with younger team and those on the fringes.
We’ll be beaten most likely but might unearth few gems
..also if we don’t bring our first choice, South Africa will call us disrespectful. This doesn’t really matter, as they already call us arrogant for wishing them good luck in getting to the World Cup final. We can’t win!
@Nicholas Farrar: it would really mess with their heads if we treated it as a development tour.
@Nicholas Farrar: that is not exactly what they commented upon in relation to the RWC to be fair. Your version is a little distorted .
@Nicholas Farrar: Does it matter what they think. They hate us anyway.
I think there absolutely needs to be some sort of experimentation and “youth” selected in certain positions. I don’t see the point in bringing Cian Healy or O’Mahony for example. Farrell also needs to see what other captaincy candidates can stand the heat of a tour in SA. I’d also like to see Porter given the summer off, as well as a couple of others in the tight 5. Want Sam Prendergast to get a full pre-season at Leinster too, not much point in bringing hi. as a development type. France have 19 uncapped guys in their squad for their tests. Not suggesting we go to the same extremes but some sort of development and experimentation needs occur! All that being said, the above won’t happen, particularly in light of the emerging tour happening later in the year.
@Carmine Lorenzo: Porter must be absolutely exhausted by now. Agree no value in bringing Healy or POM, though it’s awkward to leave your captain out. Definitely would like to see Izuchukwu, Tom O’Toole, Coombes, Devine, Hodnett, C Prendergast, Bealham, and a few others get more exposure.
Can’t imagine how embarrassed some of the players feel after they watch it back knowing AF was in the crowed. Hodnett was decent, apart from the regulars I don’t see another player travelling, what did Coombes get 15 minutes at the end!? lol Thanks Graham
@Thesaltyurchin: Rowntree isn’t the smartest tool in the box. JOD ahead of Coombes was just bizarre, but nothing compared to Wycherely ahead of Snyman! And he left POM on as he was afraid to take him off after the stuff in the press. Then moving your best attacking weapon in recent weeks to accommodate the worst attacking full back in the URC. He’s a bluffer.
@Andrew Hurley: Nash was injured so he had to move Zebo to the wing. Haley is a good fullback and was unshiftable from the 15 berth for a long time. He just needs to get minutes after a long injury.
@Andrew Hurley: I’d raised that fear before the game that maybe he was trying to be a bit too cute. I could understand it if it was Kleyn or Edogbo starting ahead with Snyman to come in at 50 mins, but Wycherly means there was quite a drop off. Fine margins I guess.
@Brenda Collins: Personally would have gone with Sob as a wing replacement like they’ve been doing all season, but hey, it’s all moot now anyway.
All this talk of sending a development side to SA is nonsense. If you send a development side to South Africa, you will get a hiding, simple as . Your senior players don’t need rested , they need a kick up the a*se. Experiment when you are playing the autumn internationals . Player welfare/management protocols are in place in rugby to manage games played/fatigue ect.. We want and deserve a cracking summer series between these two nations.. best squads from both sides possible please ..
@Stuart: the regular starters have played a lot of minutes between RWC, 6N, URC, and CC. A summer tour is a summer tour and these are often treated as development ops. Ireland will probably be beaten anyway and IMO there’s more to be gained from giving minutes to up-and-coming players than rolling out the same team over and over. They definitely should consider resting guys like Doris, Beirne, JGP, Sheehan, Porter, POM, who look flaked. Not selecting guys and giving other guys a go is its own boot up the a*se. Hansen’s injury has been extremely beneficial for Nash and allowed us to unearth a wing who is comfortable at test level. It’s silly that we really only give players a go when injuries arise.
@Brenda Collins: That’s fair enough. Think Farrell’s ambition is to go down there and win this series for the first time like NZ so will be interesting to see how he approaches this from a selection/ambition perspective then…
@Stuart: its a good call out, we wrap our players in cotton wool too much and we then get found out in RWC QFs or the latter stages of club rugby. This Irish team need to pull up their socks and go to win a series in SA, that alone would be a huge achievement for the season.
@Stuart: Does it really matter? What do Ireland get out of this tour except for bragging rights? It’s not like we even have ranking points to lose. Ringrose and Conan have already cried off. I think more will follow. Based on the sheer amount of online abuse from South African fans I am not looking forward to this tour. It is not spicy it is downright toxic and I have had enough of it since the World Cup. I have serious concerns about the safety of traveling fans. South Africa is violent and they actually seem to hate the Irish very much. The beginning of World Cup cycles should be about developing young players.
@Neil “Montyman65” Montgomery: firstly yes it matters from a rugby perspective , two of the best teams against one another with SA hopefully getting a chance to beat a side that has dominated them in recent years…by the way, don’t read all the crap on social media ..the Irish are loved very much by South Africans and we fully respect that world class team you have built. South African is an amazing country to travel to , yes it has its problems but anybody going there would be looked after well…..again don’t read all that crap would urge you to experience it yourself .
@Stuart: there’s eejits in every country ..
@Owen ODonoghue: I think our players lost the QF because, as Steve hansen correctly pointed out, the Irish players had played far more minutes and were less fresh. Ireland were flagging enormously in the last 15 minutes of the game. They were completely out on their feet.
@Stuart: I definitely do not feel any love coming from South Africans. Not only are the comments section of social media incredibly hostile towards Irish teams in general, some of the comments verge on racism which is a bit weird really. South African online media is also very anti-Irish in its articles and output. You are one of the few commentators who ever has anything positive to say. I suspect you live in Ireland and like your life there. I like to engage with fellow fans in a positive way but it’s just a cesspit now. It is one of the main reasons I pay for a 42 subscription. The paywall keeps the trolls out.
This was a very poorly conceived tour. More important to have development tours in the early stages of the world cup cycle.
A full strength Irish team benefits them more than us. It’ll help to pack out their stadiums and create cash. Win or lose, they’ll be mentally strong given that they always turn up at World Cups.
If a full strength Irish team get a hiding then it will hurt them. The following year many of them will get flogged on a lions tour and the year after that will be a ‘vital summer tour’ to prep for the next World Cup.
Many South Africans and All Blacks get a chance of scene in Japan etc and mentally refresh.
I think Ireland need to send a full strength team to SA. No messing. There are a lot of guys licking their wounds after the weekend. Leinster looked underprepared and undercooked. Munster looked bereft of ideas (and the bomb squad bench thing was ridiculous). I do think that Farrell needs to bring a few more Connacht and Ulster players than he has been picking.
@PatN: the bomb squad bench thing actually worked really well in SA.
Why is a professional rugby player playing games over a season considered to be flogging. The Leinster players only play intermittently in the URC such that they are not battle hardened in the clutch
This mollycoddling rubbish needs to stop . This is what these guys do for a living…. There are 2 matches to be played in SA – challenging yes, but hardly climbing Everest. This is what these guys train for and indeed want.
@seamus Beirne: because this tour will be in the off season and follows a World Cup which saw them begin last season quite a bit earlier. They trained in the summer last year, played warmups in late summer, and started the RWC in September. Got a small rest after that then went straight back into training with the provinces for URC and CC, played a 6N, continued with the provinces after that until this weekend just past and now are going back into Ireland camp for a completely unnecessary three-test tour of SA.
@Brenda Collins: they are professional young men in their prime. It is a 2 match series. This is what they get paid to do and as I said before want to do. If they don’t want it then they shouldn’t be there in the first place. Leinster guys are in the main well rested – they play a half season mostly which paradoxically blunts them in the tight games , or seems to. The internationals were allowed a rest period before returning to club duty after RwC
Etc. Personally , I don’t subscribe to the flogging theory.