The reviews have already been done, and I am still coming back down to earth.
It wasn’t so much at the result as I – as many of us did – believed we would beat France, but it was the occasion that made Sunday’s win against France so special.
I hear people talk about clichés being trotted out about the amazing support Ireland get at sporting events, but Cardiff was at a level I have never witnessed before.
God only knows if our soccer team had managed an equaliser against Poland what would have happened in Cardiff. Already I can’t wait to get back down there for the match on Sunday against Argentina.
The match itself was as ever decided on the smallest of margins, even if history will show and make you feel that the final score line was comfortable.
I texted my brother 20 minutes into the match and said to him that the match was, “Brutal”, and he texted me back, because he is always very exact, and asked me was that, “Brutal physical or brutal terrible?”
The answer was obvious and the fallout from the game is huge.
I know World Rugby are saying that the injury profile is not any different to previous RWCs, and indeed better than the 2007 version, but stats can lie.
Some of the matches – and last Sunday’s more than others – have been ferocious and you wonder how the players will survive.
"Some of the matches have been ferocious and you wonder how the players will survive"
Look at Wales-Australia too and there is still more do-or-die to come where players will do anything to get across the line. It’s what you admire them for, but can they survive much more?
Ireland injury fallout
Look at the fallout for Ireland ahead of the weekend against Argentina: no Paul O’Connell, no Peter O’Mahony, Johnny Sexton will be patched together if he makes it all and Sean O’Brien has been cited and will no doubt be banned.
They are the injuries we see, what you won’t see behind the scenes are the players recovering from the knocks they finished the game with.
I describe the dressing rooms I see after matches like A&E in a hospital, these fellas deserve our respect but we must look after them.
The aftermath of this game to me, despite the euphoria, has been tinged with realism.
If we were in a boat, I feel like we have been holed beneath the water line.
Our replacements on the weekend, to a man, Ian Madigan, Chris Henry, Iain Henderson, Nathan White et al were outstanding, but there is a difference between starting and coming off the bench and mentally through the week we are now asking Ireland to play and prepare without the equivalent of Kieran Reid, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, guys who make New Zealand believe and the opposition fear, it’s just the nature of it.
Does than mean I don’t believe we will beat Argentina? No far from it, but it will be an unbelievably tough task.
From the outset, I have always believed is that if we had our best team fit and on the pitch we could beat anyone. Now we won’t have that and we will have more casualties after the Argentina game because we face another brutal encounter.
Time to face our old nemesis: Argentina
If Ireland aren’t the team of old, then neither are Argentina, our nemesis of tournaments gone by.
They are still raw-boned, tough, rugged men, but with the likes of Juan Imoff, Juan Martin Hernandez and Nicolas Sanchez out the back they have the firepower to hurt us.
The Pumas are better than France, well coached and with good balance to their game.
Up front the likes of Marcos Ayerza, Agustin Creevy and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe will take the game to us. If we thought last week was intense, this will ratchet up another level again, and with the longer term in mind don’t be surprised if we win, but then face Australia in a semi-final down even more numbers.
My expectation is that we will win by a score; the mental feel good from the win against France will imbue enough confidence in the squad to see us through to our first ever semi, but my overall fear is that this group of players, who want so much more, will have suffered injuries which will be terminal to what they want to achieve.
You can prepare and be prepared, but in sport, like in life, you need luck: luck on the pitch and in the treatment room, so hopefully we get a modicum of that off the pitch too.
For the moment I am just going to sit back and enjoy it, whatever the outcome, both the atmosphere in Cardiff and the bravery of our players that will live with me forever.
I can’t wait to get back down to Cardiff and see them do it all over again on Sunday.
