Standing on the precipice, a leap of faith awaits Wexford hurling

It would be quite the symposium for sports psychologists if they could gather the Wexford hurlers and Leinster rugby players together this week, what a rich petri dish for analysing epic collapses that would provide.

Okay, 17 points, discuss.

For Leinster, their lot for now is a cocktail of shellshock and regret. But for Wexford, the most significant test of their character awaits. Their fate is still to be decided. It’s like that scene in The Last Crusade when Indiana Jones is standing above a bottomless chasm and faced with the dilemma of whether to take a leap of faith. Fear or fortune. Wexford are standing on that precipice now. And the fall is very real.

“There was no leadership, I would say spineless in lots of ways,” remarked Jackie Tyrrell on The Sunday Game. “They totally gave up, didn’t bring the fight at all.”

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There are three teams battling to avoid the one relegation spot – Westmeath (2pts), Wexford (2pts), Antrim (1pt). If Kilkenny beat Wexford in Wexford Park next Sunday and Antrim get the better of Westmeath in Cusack Park, then the Model County will be relegated to the Joe McDonagh Cup for 2023 on the basis of the head-to-head record between Westmeath and Wexford.

How did Wexford end up here?

You could argue the toss for several reasons, but firstly it should be acknowledged that while this is certainly not Wexford’s year, Sunday was most definitely Westmeath’s day. Their resilience and defiance in the face of what appeared to be a lost cause was quite something. Despite Westmeath’s second-half surge, it’s unlikely the Wexford players ever really believed they would be reeled in, until it actually happened.

Darragh Egan has had to contend with the absence of some key men through injury and unavailability, but Wexford were Leinster champions as recently as 2019.

Of the team that beat Kilkenny in that provincial final four summers ago, nine started against Westmeath last Sunday. Add in Diarmuid O’Keeffe (who came off the bench on Sunday) and Cathal Dunbar (who started at the weekend and came on as a sub in 2019) and 11 players who featured in that Leinster final victory were involved last Sunday.

Wexford’s concession of goals has also become an issue over the last 12 months. Between league and championship this season, Galway are the only team not to have scored a goal when facing Wexford.

In the group stages of the league this year, Wexford shipped 11 goals and scored only three. In last season’s group stages they conceded just four goals and raised seven green flags at the other end. However, Waterford did hit them for five goals in the 2022 league quarter-finals.

In last summer’s Leinster SHC, Wexford scored eight goals and conceded just four. With one game remaining this term, they have scored five goals and already conceded six.

From a long way out, Wexford’s round three meeting with Dublin at Croke Park was seen as a pivotal game in the championship. It was essentially knockout hurling – where the winner would push on towards the All-Ireland series and the loser would finish, presumably, fourth in the group.

And yet that game never felt like do or die, it shared none of the characteristics of those epic nights in Wexford Park over recent years when the team played with real belief and purpose and passion, the 2017 and 2019 epics against Kilkenny stand out. That game lacked something.

And there has been a nagging feeling following Wexford around all season that they too are lacking something. Still, when they led by 16 points at half-time on Sunday and pushed that out to 17, who would have predicted such a plot-twist?

As collapses go, it was a Hollywood detonation. Westmeath came out after the break hoping to restore some pride, but ended up taking down an entire county. The manner of the win was almost too far-fetched to believe. Roy of the Rovers with a hurley.

Inevitably, it has generated questions about the state of hurling in Wexford? There has been a degree of catastrophising. First Waterford, now Wexford, somewhere up in his ash tower Dónal Óg is sharpening his bas to demonstrate how this is all football’s fault.

However, as a county board, Wexford have been proactive in relation to getting proper structures in place. They are currently in the middle of a Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and appear to be one of the few counties genuinely trying to balance both codes. Of course, there are some who believe that is part of the problem.

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Wexford have contested eight of the last 11 Leinster Under-20/21 hurling finals – though their three victories came between 2013 and 2015. They were Leinster minor champions in 2019 and lost a final to Kilkenny in 2021.

Of course, none of that really matters right now. All that matters is what happens in Wexford Park next Sunday.

Wexford’s best performance under Egan was probably last year’s victory over Kilkenny in Nowlan Park. But where has that Wexford team gone? They must find themselves again, quickly.

Following the Westmeath defeat, Egan admitted: “The confidence is low at the moment.

“The players will have to stand up, they will need to look at themselves. Things happen when you are falling off a cliff, so we have a difficult week ahead.”

They must attack the Kilkenny game with absolute ferocity and ambition. They cannot allow fear to win. Leinster are unable to salvage their 2023 rugby season now, but Wexford still have a chance to at least maintain their championship status.

They stand on the precipice. A leap of faith awaits.