Irish team come home to apathy
A weary Brian O'Driscoll arrives back home with actress girlfriend Amy Huberman but is in no mood to speak to the media
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WHEN fans gather to welcome their sporting heroes home it is usually difficult for journalists to estimate the numbers present.
Yesterday, it was easy. We simply counted the 15 loyal souls.
The Irish rugby team came back to earth with another bump yesterday, landing at the VIP section of Dublin Airport only to have their status re-checked when greeted by the smallest of small gatherings rather than anything like a crowd.
Perhaps the Ross O'Carroll-Kellys of this world felt they couldn't negotiate a trip to the northside. But Bertie Ahern is only from down the road, and even he didn't bother.
Perhaps we're all just very, very fickle.
"It's not a relief, no," under-pressure coach Eddie O'Sullivan said, responding to suggestions it might be good to get a small bit of comfort and get out of France after all that's happened.
"We're hugely disappointed. It's just sinking in now that we're back to Dublin, that we're back, that the World Cup is over. That's hard to swallow.
"We went out with great hopes like everybody else, and it didn't happen for us and now we're back and as disappointed as we were yesterday, if not more so."
Every cloud and all that, however, and yesterday's recipient of the silver lining was Ethan Baxter, a seven-year-old pupil in St Mary's in Rathmines. With little in the way of competition, he was able to secure the signatures of about 12 players on his rugby top. "They did good, they did their best in France," he said, beaming.
Nice to see that the cynicism hasn't enveloped at least one of us. As a true fan, little Ethan should have little difficulty getting a ticket for the upcoming Six Nations games at Croke Park.
The players' flight from Paris landed at 4pm, but at one stage as we waited from them to leave the VIP lounge it seemed probable that the coach waiting for them was, in fact, a Dublin Bus double decker.
But they haven't quite fallen that far. Three white coaches eventually pulled up and that was the signal for them to emerge, suited and booted.
By that stage, the crowd had dwindled still further. Three girls from Cork had waited for over an hour, but couldn't delay their check-in any longer.
"Tell the Munster lads we're proud of them," one laughed.
The World Cup memory is already fading for some. The players, presumably, wish it would for them. Like most people at airports, they looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here yesterday.
But they got a warm reception from the loyalty card holders and, despite the stern faces, signed the jerseys and posed for photographs.
"There was going to be no good way to end it, in fairness," the newly retired Denis Hickie said with a shrug, when asked about his final game in an Ireland shirt.
Brian O'Driscoll, accompanied by the actress Amy Huberman, said "thank you" to a woman who had shouted her support. His jaw set, he said nothing else. None of the players wanted to speak. We weren't too pushed to ask questions.
No one knows what went wrong. Eddie O'Sullivan has already said he is determined to stay on. The IRFU has already said it wants to keep him. What's to ask?
Gordon D'Arcy jumped in his car and headed for the car park exit, and there was nearly a nasty incident when one of the players' partners was struck by a falling car park barrier. She seemed fine, if a little shaken. She really just wanted to get out of there.
There was no sign of Simon Best but the player who made a full recovery from his mystery injury was due to fly into Dublin last night. A bespectacled Paul O'Connell was one of the last to emerge from the lounge, looming over little Ethan as he added the last signature to the jersey before slowly trudging towards one of the buses.
"Wow, he's massive," another young fan said. In fact, the Munster man seemed a little smaller yesterday.
The Irish rugby world squad 2007 was splitting up right before our eyes but, if there were any emotional goodbyes or late recriminations, they had taken place in the VIP lounge.
They drove away to no fanfare at all. The circus is over, for a while.
