Madam, - This Rugby World Cup campaign has brought shame and
despair to the entire nation. Eddie O'Sullivan must resign, and so
must his successor. - Yours, etc,
DOUGLAS SLOANE,
Bishopstown Road,
Cork.
Madam, - Prior to the Rugby World Cup, Jack Kyle, a famous member of the only Irish team to win a "Grand Slam" (in 1948), gave a talk in Belfast, followed by some questions. One listener asked how the 1948 team would compare with the highly skilled, highly paid team of today. His answer: "Well it would be close. However, half our team are over 80 and the other half are dead".
Although tongue in cheek, I think Jack's answer to the question
is a fitting comment on our 2007 World Cup team and management
which, in the final analysis, was in world terms seriously
overrated. - Yours, etc,
WILLIAM G BLACK,
King's Road,
Belfast 5.
Madam, - The scale of negativity and criticism heaped on the Irish rugby team by the media and "supporters" over the past two weeks is sickening - and is yet another example of a definite change in our attitude towards our sports men and women. The idea of celebrating heroic defeats may be all but gone (and that is probably a good thing); but it may have been replaced with something much more harmful - a complete lack of respect for anybody who is not winning.
In recent years the Irish rugby team has raised the standards by which they are judged and our expectations have risen with them. By taking on that burden of expectation and having the confidence not to play down their own chances in this tournament, as teams in the past would have done, they gave us the rope with which we are now, with great enthusiasm, hanging them. We are almost taking pleasure in our own outrage at their failure.
This phenomenon is not limited to rugby. It has crept into soccer, where players such as Kevin Kilbane (who has never given less than 100 per cent for Ireland) and Steve Staunton are a source of amusement (and worse) for people who have never set foot on a pitch at any level. It can be found in hurling and football, where amateur players (who train five or six nights a week after work when the rest of us are sitting at home) are vilified for missing "easy" scores, which no doubt we would have put over in our sleep. No longer is a "good run" in the championship acceptable. If you are not successful, then you are nobody.
Maybe all of this is simply a natural by-product of the 24/7 coverage of sport on television with its endless replays and analysis that have made all of us "experts", together with our exposure to English tabloid journalism, and every ex-player who has ever laced up their boots in anger being wheeled out to tell us what we should think. But it doesn't have to be like this.
Sports people in Ireland representing club, county and country have almost always done us proud - none more so than the current Irish rugby team. They have competed at the highest level and played with a professionalism, a confidence, an ambition and a skill level which at times in the past couple of years has left us speechless. They owe us nothing.
Yes, they have raised the standards by which they are judged,
and yes, we are bound to be disappointed when they fail to reach
those standards; but disappointment is as far as it goes. We do not
have the right to criticise and ridicule them. It is time that we
started giving them, and the rest of our sports men and women, the
respect and the support they deserve. - Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNY,
Fethard,
Co Tipperary.
Madam, - Rugby is not one of my favourite sports but, given the magnitude of the contest being held in France, I decided to watch Argentina-Ireland on TV last Sunday. As an Argentinian I was supporting our national team and felt very happy about the victory of "Los Pumas". But for me the most important thing about this spectacle were the gentlemanliness and the superb attitude of the Irish players, who formed two lines to congratulate their opponents and winners as they were leaving the pitch.
This lesson is barely seen in sport, where there's only victory or humiliating defeat. In Argentina it is spoken everywhere and has been shown many times, so we have learned from these splendid Irish players the right spirit of sport.
No matter about the wounding words of Frank McNally about our
national anthem. My acknowledgment and congratulations to those
honourable men. - Yours, etc,
DANIEL ANTUNI,
Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
Madam, - The IRFU have made a shambles of Irish rugby by anointing their "special one" with a new contract even before the World Cup tests.
It resulted in utter malaise and complacency in the Irish camp, with pathetic excuses for their disastrous performances. When will this "special one" fall on his sword.
The IRFU could aptly compound their error by naming the new
Landsdowne Road stadium "Sully's Folly". - Yours, etc,
WG CONDON,
Monaloe Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - What do Bertie Ahern and Eddie O'Sullivan have in
common? Both had 22 players not show up. - Yours, etc,
KEVIN DEVITTE,
Westport,
Co Mayo.
Madam, - Gerry Thornley claims there is "widespread anger" at
the performance of the Irish rugby team. I think he needs to take
some chill pills, have a rest in a darkened room and get some
perspective. For sure there is disappointment - and I would hope
this disappointment is for the players and staff who put so much
work into the World Cup and who got so little for their efforts.
One thing they neither need nor deserve is the exaggerated
opprobrium of journalists and commentators. - Yours, etc,
EAMONN O'REILLY,
Sion Road,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - If a vineyard produces the finest crop of grapes in
many decades and the wine-maker produces a dull and dispirited
wine, who is to blame - the wine-maker or the grapes? - Yours, etc,
CIARAN DALY,
Sandyford Hall Green,
Dublin 18.
Madam, - It is surely now obvious that we need to institute a
Hurling World Cup. This would ensure that our sportsmen win a World
Cup trophy. Obviously this would have to be a once-off,
never-to-be-repeated competition. - Yours, etc,
FERGUS JORDAN,
St Alban's Park,
Dublin 4.