Irish sports teams down through history have generally performed better in the role of underdogs. This role is often attached to the Irish because of a smaller playing population than other nations in field sports, but it’s also tied into the Irish psyche. We are a people who are averse to bigging ourselves up. Eternally uncomfortable taking compliments. Those who do show confidence in themselves and are willing to broadcast it to others are automatically treated with suspicion! ‘Who does that fella think he is? He’s getting ideas way beyond his station’. That kind of thing. We’ve always viewed the confidence of the average American with bemusement. American people portraying the best of themselves in actions and words is viewed as something that makes them a bit strange to us. As if expecting the best possible service in restaurants and having no issue in sending food back is something to be ashamed of. ‘Oh, we can’t be seen to make a fuss’ or ‘Don’t be making a show of yourself’ would be likely responses by an Irish person at the restaurant table rather than sending something back. So more often than not we’ll tell the waiter or waitress that the dish is ‘grand’, even when we think the opposite.
In the sporting context, Ireland has revelled in the role of underdogs in rugby and soccer as prime examples. While we are now on an even par with the best in the world now in rugby, there were decades when Ireland were the poor relation in the old Five Nations rugby championship. But every so often during those years Irish pride kicked in against the auld enemy England, leading to famous Irish victories. The 2007 Rugby World Cup could be seen as an example of the favourites tag not suiting us. With Brian O’Driscoll in his prime and Ireland consistently finishing in the top two or three in the Six Nations during the 2000’s, we were rightly considered an outside favourite to win the 2007 World Cup. There are a bunch of reasons why it went so wrong at the tournament, as Ireland lost to both France and Argentina in the group stages and went home without making the knockout stages. Overconfidence was given as one of those reasons. It just doesn’t suit us! Give us the underdogs role any day and we’ll revel in it. Thankfully, this mentality is gradually changing within Irish rugby as two successive Six Nations championships has backed up Irish confidence in the teams ability. Having the best coach in world rugby in Joe Schmidt also helps. With the rugby world cup coming around again this September, all of Ireland is quietly confident that we can do something special. But whisper it!
On the soccer front, Ireland has always punched above its weight considering we don’t have a professional soccer league. After decades of failure, Ireland finally qualified for major tournaments under Jack Charlton with the 1988 European Championships and the 1990 World Cup. And in both cases, without being one of the fancied teams, they qualified from the group into the knockout stages. At our next two tournament appearances – 1994 USA World Cup and 2002 World Cup – again we overachieved and qualified for the second phase. We had to wait until 2012 before Ireland appeared in a major tournament, the European Championships in Poland. Despite a mixed qualification phase, the team was generally solid and it was generally felt that we had a fighting chance against group rivals Italy, Spain and Croatia. As it was we were well beaten in every game, finishing bottom of the group with no points. Granted it turned out to be the strongest group as Italy and Spain were the eventual finalists. But it seems the hype and euphoria of qualifying after so many years led to us getting ahead of ourselves and expecting too much. Perhaps if the entire country had written off our chances before a ball was kicked and accepted our fate as underdogs, then the performances and results would have been better!
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