Over The Lateral: ‘We shouldn’t lose the run of ourselves’

Currently on Facebook you may join the following groups: Take the Handles off the Push Side of Doors into the Jaxx in the Library, Can this Sausage Roll get more fans than Cheryl Cole, and Ireland for the Grand Slam 2010.

The last one is particularly disturbing because if there is one thing that we, as Irish people, should have learned over the last couple of years, it is that we shouldn’t lose the run of ourselves.

We must surely be able to heed the lesson of the Celtic Tiger and realise that astronomical expectations based on short periods of success only lead to disappointment.

The one thing that we can take from the era of boom, bust, banks, bubbles and bullshitters is sense of humility and level-headed expectation of what life can bring.

We should have learned that a house is something you live in, and not something you invest in. Unless you are a bankster, a hedge fund should be used to pay for shears. And Grand Slams rarely come in twos.

Of the 29 clean sweeps in Nations’ history only five have been repeated the following year. This year it would be particularly difficult for Ireland.

There is no doubt that the team can beat any of the teams on any given day but the main problem is that the England and France fixtures are away and in consecutive weeks.

And while there may be some people who think that O’Driscoll scores a hat trick in Paris every two years, that actual feat was accomplished 10 years ago and was the last away success against Les Bleus.

While Ireland beat France last year by 11 points, the last three games against England, Scotland and Wales were won by a total margin of 10 points. And even if last year’s heroes managed two phenomenal victories on the road, what cost would they come at? Could they get back to Dublin fit enough to overcome the Welsh, who have a great record here?

Add to that the scalp-hungry Scottish skirmishers who have form when it comes to taking Ireland down a peg, and it becomes more difficult.

It’s unlikely to get to that stage without the loss of a couple of players and this is where the problem lies. Ireland, while improved in this regard, do not have top class cover in many positions.

While last year’s victory was a team effort it would have been utterly unimaginable without O’Driscoll, and the front row is just one pull or strain away from big trouble.

Winning the Championship is a more realistic target for Ireland and only the people who still think that paying half a million for a semi-detached in a ghost estate in Leitrim is good value will be disappointed with that return.
Lansdowne to Croker

Regarding the capacity loss of 30,000 when the rugby and soccer games move back to Lansdowne Road from Croke Park, if the Italy game is anything to go by there’s nothing to worry about - 50,000 people being quite make the same noise as 80,000 being quite.

There are too many people at the home internationals that are only in attendance so that, during the week, they can say to their friends (and complete strangers) that they are going ‘to the match’. Heaven forbid that they would actually cheer on the team during the match.