A Test match worthy of the name
For those Rust readers who watched it – perhaps ‘because they were there’, or on TV (whether in company, or just with family sitting at home) – there is no need this morning to report upon the detail of yesterday’s 13-9 Ireland victory over England in the Six Nations at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
Suffice it to say that stuff happens. On the day, in that place, between two well-matched teams, in those conditions, in front of that crowd, anything can.
First and foremost, credit to Joe Schmidt, Kiwi coach of the home nation and one of the smartest operators around, who had devised the right tactics to wrong-foot England – and, of course, to all 23 of the Ireland match-day squad whom executed them with aplomb. It’s worth emphasising how much pressure they were under in having lost Conor Murray and Jamie Heaslip to injury before the game.
On the day the better team prevailed and fully deserved their win. It was a great occasion that lived up to its hype. Better a tight, tense contest such as this than a 30-point victory to one or the other!
It was one of those strange and awkward situations afterwards – the crowning of a champion team that had just got beat. Hats off too, now I think of it, to both coaches and also to the players on both teams interviewed afterwards: gracious words all round – no crowing in victory or indeed excuses in defeat.
So now that’s 2016 over. The planning and preparations for 2017 will already have begun.
The thing in all sports, and probably life too, is that you cannot stand still. If you ain’t going forward, it’s not that you’ll be just standing still, you’ll actually be going backwards.
It’s a cliche (I know that because my husband once used it in consoling our eldest when his team lost a prep school house cup final football match!) but you can often learn more about yourself, or even a team, from a reverse than a victory. Once the final whistle goes, the game is done. From that point, all that matters is the next time.
