IRELAND ARE NO strangers to World Cup quarter-final devastation but Saturday’s elimination at the hands of New Zealand might just top the pile. Never had an Ireland team looked better equipped to make history at a World Cup, and yet here we were again, wondering where it all went wrong after a brilliant Ireland team which have delivered so many highs over the past two years were sent packing from Paris.
This had felt like the opportunity. The supporters believed it, the media wrote it, and the players sensed it.
As the last remaining fans made their way from the Stade de France and back into the Paris night, Jack Conan emerged from the Ireland dressing room, beer in hand, and tried to process a defeat which was still incredibly raw, the emotion etched on his face as he spoke.
“I’ve lost a lot of big games in my career to this date but this is definitely the toughest one to take,” Conan said.
“To just have not done right by the effort that has been put in the last few years by the coaching staff, the players, and the travelling support. People have made the effort to come over here and it is incredible. It’s not lost on us, how much sacrifice people made to come and support us. Whether you were here or at home, it has meant the world to all of us and it’s something we spoke about a lot.
“We’re genuinely just gutted that we couldn’t do it for them and that we couldn’t do it for Johnny (Sexton), someone who deserves so much for the sacrifices he has made, for the player he is and for the man he is. For the leader that he is.
“He has been everything that has been good about Irish rugby for nearly two decades and to not give him the send-off that he deserves is probably the hardest thing to take. He is how we measure ourselves, he is the standards setter, he is the leader, he is an unbelievably good bloke on and off the pitch.
“It might be lost on people at times but he cares more than any player I have ever met in any sport I have seen. He cares so much and he sacrifices so much and it doesn’t feel right that we couldn’t do it for him. In my eyes, he is the greatest Irish player of all time for what he has done and it’s been an incredible joy of mine to play with him for so many years and to have been in so many dressing rooms with him. It’s just not right that we couldn’t do better for him.”
Conan wasn’t alone in highlighting Sexton as a driving factor for the group, with Peter O’Mahony and Dan Sheehan also pointing to the Ireland captain’s retirement as the major source of disappointment after a pulsating night at the Stade de France.
It was a heartbreaking end to Sexton’s Ireland career but this should not be framed with the quarter-final defeats of the past. After a slow start in Saint Denis, Ireland played some brilliant rugby and were right in the game until the very last play, going through 37-phases in the New Zealand half before a breakdown penalty ended the contest.
“I don’t think you can fault the effort,” Conan continued.
“We had a never-say-die, throw-the-kitchen-sink attitude in that last 10 minutes. You’re only off the bench and I was out on my feet. I was shagged, like, and you are trying to get up and do right by your teammates, your family, all the people who made sacrifices for you along the way to be here on this journey. I don’t think you can fault the performance.
“New Zealand took their scores unbelievably well. We had a few unfortunate errors at big moments that didn’t go our way and we had that held-up try at the end. These things happen and it’s no-one’s fault but just some of those big moments didn’t fall right for us.
“We were full of belief and that’s something that has been instilled in us by past results, by the coaching staff.
We thought, genuinely, we were going to be the squad that got past a quarter-final and just gutted that we couldn’t do it.
“You can’t fault the effort by the players or the coaching staff. It’s not like years previously where we were not, not in the running. We fought to the end. It just wasn’t to be for us unfortunately.”
The campaign ends on a low, but this Ireland team have thrilled supporters over the past two years and can take solace from the fact that unlike previous World Cups, in Paris they went out fighting.
“You can’t take (away) what this squad has done. So many firsts. First Test match victory in New Zealand, first Test series win in New Zealand, first Grand Slam at home (in Dublin), there’s been so many firsts, and it’s been a joy to be a small part of it along the way.
“I wouldn’t trade anything for what we’ve been through as a squad. It’s tough to say now but you’d have to think that we’ll be better down the line. There’ll be new faces and new people coming in who will get opportunities to push us forward and I’m hoping I can be a part of it and go on to achieve more, because it’s the greatest joy in my life to pull on this jersey and wear it for the people that helped me to get here to this stage.
“There’s just so much more in the squad and the people.”