Pulsating Irish win over Australia in Rugby World Cup

Ireland's Jonathan Sexton tackling Australia's Kurtley Beale(Photo – Sandra Mu/Getty Images)

Ireland's win over Australia in the Rugby World Cup today was incredible. Fantastic. Tremendous. I'd have to consult my thesaurus if I want to do justice to what the whole country watched this morning.

It's not a massive upset on the scale of say, the "USA!" win over the USSR in the 1980 Olympics, but it's a stunner nonetheless. What made it great, what made it so much fun to watch is that it was one of those sporting events that anyone can enjoy without necessarily understanding the sport.

The noise in the crowd - most of the fans in the New Zealand arena were rooting for Ireland - made for an electric atmosphere. The dedication, desire and drive of the Irish team were awesome to watch.

It was gritty stuff. Fans of old time football (gridiron variety) would have appreciated it. Woody "Three yards and a cloud of dust" Hayes would have loved it. For long stretches of the game a three yard burst would have seemed a long run.
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Rugby can be that sort of game. Sometimes there are great moves with lots of passing leading to tries. Other games both teams push and shove with equal intensity and it's only a little break here or there that makes the difference. Ireland won such a game this morning. Every man defended with all his body and spirit could give.

Unlike in football there are no timeouts and players play both offense and defense. Other than a few players who are substituted, most players play the full 80 minutes. Their only break is the 15 minutes at half-time. It can be a grueling affair and today was about as grueling as you could hope to see.

Yet it wasn't dull. The game was fraught with tension from the start and it only grew as the contest played out. With the clock winding down the Irish players, who had kept pace with and actually outplayed a team that was - on paper - superior, made a determined stand on their line to deny Australia a try in the closing minutes.

When the final whistle sounded Ireland had won 15-6. It was a fantastic spectacle and, thanks to the 9am start, the party in Ireland will be a long one.

{I only learned the other day that American Scott LaValla was a student and rugby stand-out at Trinity College in Dublin before playing professionally for Ulster.}

I wouldn't bet on horseracing's popularity

One of the biggest racetracks in the country, Leopardstown, is not far from where I live and racing on St. Stephen's Day (Dec 26) is one of the biggest days of the year on the sport's calendar. I'm not a big fan of horseracing, but I've always assumed St. Stephen's Day racing is a big deal given all the media coverage Leopardstown attracts on the 26th.

However, a report in today's Irish Independent has me wondering about things: Is the Stephen's Day festival that big? Is horse racing as popular here as I've always thought?

Why am I asking such questions you ask? Well, the Independent says the attendance at the racecourse on Saturday was 14,605, down by 1,400 over last year. So 16,000 attended the year before and, I'm guessing, that is about normal for Stephen's Day.

Like I said, I'm not a big fan of the sport, but when I was younger I used to go to Saratoga, which is near where I grew up. And on a big day at Saratoga the crowd would be a lot closer to 50,000 than 15,000. Yes, it's winter here and yes Saratoga is only on during the summer, but still.

If horse racing as a sport is as big as the media coverage would indicate I would've expected a much bigger crowd at Leopardstown on St. Stephen's Day. A million people live in this city and although it was cold, it was dry. The Leinster vs Ulster rugby game on the same day - a relatively minor affair based on media coverage - attracted a bigger crowd.

Irish people love gambling; there's no argument on that. Horseracing and gambling are closely entwined and it can be difficult to separate the fans of the sport from those who simply like betting, but the small crowd on Saturday tells me that gambling and not the racing is the real attraction.

Real fans would like to see the action live, no? 18,000 rugby fans could have watched Saturday night's game on t.v. but opted to put up with low temperatures to experience the game in person. If horseracing were truly a widely popular sport then a big event like the St. Stephen's Day meet would attract a much bigger crowd than that which turned up for the rugby game. It didn't, but I assume the bookies - all legal here - don't care.