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Home / Sport / Rugby / Rugby World Cup

<i>Chris Rattue:</i> Underdog struggles to shake off 'happy loser' tag

Chris Rattue
By Chris Rattue
Sports Writer·
7 Nov, 2003 10:59 AM4 mins to read

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It never takes much to exasperate Roy Keane.

In his glittering career for Manchester United, countless incidents have been like a red rag - or a red card - to a bull.

The £50,000 ($135,000) a week he earns never threatened to turn the Irish and United soccer captain into a fat
cat. He fights to the often-bitter end for what he sees as the tools to win.

While his black and white world of friend and foe must be viewed with some caution, he certainly exposed flaws in Irish sport when he quit soccer's World Cup.

As his autobiography revealed, he had seen everything - from Irish players eating cheese sandwiches before training, to equipment that hardly befitted, or fitted, a national team.

"Finding something as basic as a tracksuit was a problem. You might end up with an XL top and a small-size pair of tracksuit bottoms," he wrote.

He also talked of a "patriotic fraud" that surrounded the team.

While the circumstances of the Irish soccer and rugby teams may be different, there is no doubt that Keane's experiences expose the "happy loser" vein in Irish sport.

Irish journalists quickly raised the topic of Keane to me this week in Melbourne when looking at the rugby playoffs.

So can Ireland shake this lovable loser tag and mentality against France in tomorrow's quarter-final? "We love heroic losses," an Irishman reckoned in Melbourne. "A one-point loss can seem more heroic than a one-point win."

Will this inhibit an Irish team, who have won respect but no trophies in recent seasons?

There are two distinct psyches at work in this quarter-final.

The French, with touches of flair and arrogance, always believe in their game, which is very hard to combat in full flight. They use clever angles, have an instinctive feel for unity and pace.

Ireland are experts at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory. They can be over-spirited, yet without the necessary flair to match. Maybe this is the moment to dispel these notions.

Of tragic losses there are plenty.

In an epic that changed rugby history, they fell to eventual champions Australia 19-18 in Dublin in a 1991 quarter-final, after leading with four minutes remaining.

They also dropped to a shock loss to Argentina in a playoff to make the quarter-finals at Lens in France in 1999.

This result had major effects on Irish rugby and made it even more imperative that they beat Argentina in Adelaide 13 days ago.

"The baggage of Lens was hugely negative ... we are a small sport in a small market," Irish rugby's chief executive Philip Browne said.

"If we had lost in Adelaide, sponsors would not have wanted to know us."

Rugby lags behind Gaelic football, soccer and hurling in popularity. It has just 15,000 adult players, while Gaelic football boasts a membership of 600,000, and Irish clubs struggle to hang on to stars such as Keith Wood and Brian O'Driscoll.

The international aspect, the World Cup, is rugby's saviour in Ireland.

Lens was an opportunity lost, but now Melbourne is a pivotal moment for Irish rugby, which lost £3 million in the last financial year, despite a £32 million turnover.

But does the Irish side really have the confidence to put its plans into action?

That Irish captain Wood even mentioned the need for belief seemed a give-away. Team spirit is a gimmie, but genuine belief in their ability may not be.

Wood said: "Spirit is a strange thing. You want everyone to be eager and happy, fantastic, but it doesn't mean you are going to win. We need to make certain that we have the belief to go out and win the game. We need to be unbelievably accurate."

And that is the key.

The Irish will not want for support, and not just among their own famously wild fans. Australia feels a kinship for the men in emerald green. The two countries have a bond of "larrikinism," as Nick Farr-Jones puts it.

O'Driscoll said: "It's very much peaks and troughs ... come weekend time it's just manic because of the buzz in the hotels."

But it will be cool heads and the accuracy Woods talks about, that Ireland need.

And they must overcome a sporting heritage rich in mystery and imagination, but poor in terms of great success.

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