It's all been building up to this. World Cup quarter-final day, Irish rugby's carnival of horrors.
It began back in 1987, when the Rugby World Cup was still a novel enterprise of questionable prestige. Doyler, the hero of the '85 Triple Crown, returned home from our inaugural World Cup quarter-final defeat, crowing that we had "won the second half".
We've won a few more second halves since then, though the pedants in World Rugby never let us through to the semi-final on the strength of this. Four years ago, in one of the most harrowing World Cups outside of '07, we could only win the last 15 minutes. No one was inclined to boast about this then, least of all the pallid and shaken-looking players.
'Bottling' is a loaded term in sport and generally the preserve of bar-room slagging. However, Ireland's 2019 World Cup woes were attributed to "performance anxiety", which the layman will understand as 'bottling.'
Amazingly, the last time Ireland even led a World Cup quarter-final was just before half-time in 1995, back in the era when they were happy to just get that far. France, as anticipated ran away with it in the second half, the game concluding with Mr Ntamack Snr scampering away for an intercept try while Brendan Mullin, in the final act of his international career, gave hopeless chase.
It's a big day for the rugby diehards for obvious reasons. And it's a big day for the haters. Should Ireland lose to New Zealand tonight, the latter will get four more years dismissing any and every rugby triumph by referring back to this failure when it really, actually mattered.
We could even expect a boisterous chant of 'FOUR MORE YEARS' emanating from a recalcitrant corner of the pub.
Four Grand Slams on the trot would make no odds, whatsoever. It is the official consensus among the Irish team's most ardent critics that the rest of World Rugby is just running drills and messing about for the other three years and 10 months of the World Cup cycle.
If Ireland win, they will have to find new ammunition - or raid the begrudgery cabinet for old ammunition - with which to attack the local oval ball community, though one would be foolish to doubt their resourcefulness on that front.
On the RTÉ Rugby World Cup podcast this week, Cork Con coach Jonny Holland expressed the frustrations and fears of many.
"That's what's going to annoy me. If the tragedy does happen and Ireland lose, it's going to be another long four years of talking about quarter-final bottling.
"It won't be a bottling. It's New Zealand who are obviously so, so strong in World Cup tournaments. It's going to be really frustrating to have to listen to that again."
The glee among native rugby haters will almost be matched by rugby lovers from outside this country. As world no. 1, Ireland are currently basking in hatred, as the New Zealand Herald's Gregor Paul made plain during the week.
Few teams achieve the distinction of being "universally unpopular", according to Paul, but Ireland, he says, have managed to pull it off. It's them and Will Carling's England out on their own in that respect, supposedly.
"This Ireland team have perhaps become the new England, as their prolonged stretch as No 1 in the world rankings may be fostering a culture of entitlement," Paul wrote.
One senses a hankering for the funny, self-deprecating Irish rugby archetype of yesteryear, before our 'brain transplant' took hold. [Standard after-dinner anecdote - President of French Rugby shakes hands with Willie John McBride and the France captain. "May the best team win!" "Jaysus, I hope not," says Willie.] Anthony Daly's line about them wanting us "to go back to the aul' traditional music" springs to mind.
There are other gripes.
Fans on the other side of the draw, it's fair to say, have gotten annoyed at all the whingeing fans of teams on this side of the draw have been doing about the draw.
It has perhaps been excessive, though of course the context is Ireland's poor/unfortunate record at this particular phase.
That Ireland should amass a 17-game winning run, finish top of the toughest pool in the competition and still now have to face New Zealand before going any further does feel like someone somewhere has been playing a prank of some description.
Next week's World Cup semi-finals are currently being billed as akin to that bit in the hurling championship when the Joe McDonagh teams briefly enter it.
The third place play-off - preferably Fiji-Argentina but likely between Wales and England - could be re-branded as the 'Shield' or the Conference League final for the year that's in it.
Warren Gatland's uncanny ability to mould an honest group of guys around a simple game plan could yet be a fly in the ointment there.
Gatland this week had a pop at those countries whingeing about the draw, saying they should simply have done better in the last World Cup.
It would have been hard for South Africa to have done much better in the last World Cup, while the All Blacks were also first seeds this time around in any case. That leaves Ireland and France in the moaners' corner and we haven't heard inordinate moaning from the latter.
Warren proceeded to marvel at his own stoicism back in 2015, though predictably internet sleuths unearthed quotes of him bemoaning their 'group of hell' and the 'ridiculous' decision to hold the draw three years early on that occasion.
There was a more bizarre burst of paranoid dread on Tuesday when it was confirmed that Wayne Barnes would referee the game.
On this, and so many issues, consensus was hard to find on X.com. In the replies to the news that Barnes was to officiate the game, one of our correspondents argued that this was conclusive evidence they were trying to make sure New Zealand won, while another sighed that "that's New Zealand f****d".
Barnes has been around so long he probably sent off Willie Duggan at some point and it feels like he's reffed every second Ireland game for the last 15 years.
The residual hostility towards Barnes seems to stem from a run of poor Irish results against Wales in the games he was officiating in the last decade [it was hard to blame the Englishman for Peter O'Mahony committing a stonewall red card offence in the first quarter in 2021...].
The fact that he was ref when Ireland won the third Test in Wellington last summer, and before that when they finally beat New Zealand at home in November 2018, hasn't changed the ancient narrative on this.
The opacity of the rules - or laws - of the game to most the drinking public mean that anyone is free to form any view on a referee's performance. Either way, the fixation with Barnes feels fairly outdated.
Should Ireland win on Saturday and progress to the forbidden palace of the semi-finals, then chances are Barnes will be awaiting them on finals day.
Irish rugby is weighed down with baggage. The implosion of Japan. The catastrophic injury crisis in 2015. Worst of all the hideous, excuse-free letdown against Wales in 2011.
There's a lot to shed.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow a live blog of Ireland v New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday with kick-off 8pm. Listen to live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1.
Watch England v Fiji and France v South Africa in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow live blogs on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app.
