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Mary Hannigan: Guts wrenched and hearts broken ... this is why we love sport?

Ireland’s Rugby World Cup defeat in Paris; our withering Euro 2024 campaign; and the right time to retire from GAA - cheery stuff in today’s Irish Times

Ireland's Tadhg Furlong, Garry Ringrose and Jonathan Sexton, Luca Sexton and Ireland's Dan Sheehan and James Lowe after the defeat in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

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Mary Hannigan
Mon Oct 16 2023 - 10:29

Hearts? In smithereens. And that’s the overriding theme of all our reports from Paris after Ireland’s gut-wrenching exit from the rugby World Cup. “Sport can be cruel sometimes, I suppose that’s why we love it so much,” said Andy Farrell. Mind you, we probably love it a little less after what it put us through on Saturday evening.

Gerry Thornley heard from an emotional Johnny Sexton after his final game in professional rugby, the Irish captain insistent that this crop of young players “will go on and achieve great things – and I’ll be sitting in the stand having a pint like you lads”.

John O’Sullivan reflects on Sexton’s career after a night that saw him win his 118th cap and bring his final tally of points in a green shirt to a mighty 1,108. A crestfallen Peter O’Mahony paid tribute to his captain, uncertain himself about his own future. “We’ll see,” he said. “It’s a tough one to take, as a lot of my friends won’t be back.”

Johnny Watterson looks back on those excruciating closing moments in the game, ones the New Zealand Herald’s Gregor Paul said would live long in the memory, the All Blacks producing “the most disciplined, committed defensive rearguard of the modern age”.

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John rounds up the reaction from New Zealand, their former winger John Kirwan saying of Ireland’s quarter-final curse, “if you can’t get the monkey off your back, it turns into a gorilla – it’s now a gorilla for them”.

Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign has turned in to a bit of a gorilla itself, Gavin Cummiskey reckoning that “these grim days could become the worst of times” if they fail to beat Gibraltar in Faro tonight.

Stephen Kenny insists he’s “not considering resigning”, but Ken Early has a notion that that decision will be taken out of his hands. “His vision did not long survive contact with reality,” he writes, although “at least he went down trying”.

In Gaelic games, Denis Walsh notes that “this is the time of the year when intercounty careers often come to an end”, players deciding that “the demands of being an elite amateur athlete” become “an intolerable intrusion” on their regular lives. They ask themselves, “if the juice was worth the squeeze?”

Instead of going training on these dark winter nights, then, they can give Lunar Golf a go. David Gorman tells us about this new fangled thing, which involves playing on a course “lit from tee to green with 700 to 800 LEDs”, your ball armed with a LED chip in the centre. The best part? When you lose it, it’s easier to find.

TV Watch: Ireland’s Euro 2024 qualifying campaign hasn’t given us a whole lot to cheer about, but there should be a victory and a few goals to enjoy when they take on Gibraltar tonight (RTÉ 2 & Premier Sports 1, 7.45). Shouldn’t there?