Savour the moments as they may not come again

Perspective can wait. In this sports media game, I’ve learned that looking too far ahead of yourself can lead to a joyless experience. It wasn’t long after Ireland’s Grand Slam win over England – in Twickenham of all places – that talk began to take a turn to “yeah, but what about the World Cup?”. Almost as if enjoying a big fat win somehow became a sinful, decadent thing.

Who cares about THIS win when there’s a future fixture to worry about? I refuse to go along with that train of thought. It’s the preserve of joy thieves, miserabilists and the very worst kind of slobby spoofer.

The latter is something that the rugby media in Ireland is infested with as of late, in line with the second great rise of the sport over the last four years following on from the initial growth in the early to late 2000s.

Some would have us look to the World Cup next year as being the ultimate arbiter of where we are right now but this isn’t perspective – it’s can kicking.

The only perspective that matters is the here and now and right here, right now Ireland are the best rugby team on the planet bar none. The rankings say different – just about – but everyone knows what last Saturday’s result means.

It means that Ireland tangled with the All Blacks with both sides going as strong as they could go and came out on top. Not by the skin of their teeth. Not with some lucky try or a drop goal bouncing off someone’s arse before going over.

It was a dominant, well-deserved win. Too much “perspective” and you’ll miss the important things that are happening right in your face. This kind of analysis isn’t actually analysis at all when it comes to rugby; it’s joyless nerdery that means nothing is ever truly won because there’s always something else.

The players and management – who aren’t affected by media hype one way or the other by the way, despite what the lads in the media would want you to think – are going to focus on the next job because that’s what their job actually entails. This idea that fans and media being excited and living in the moment somehow effects team performance is yet more media buffoonery.

It’s wishful thinking dressed up as insight. That kind of media noise is just that to the players and coaches – noise. They have their own expectations, demands and internal pressure and everything outside that bubble is irrelevant.

The Irish squad will know now that they are one of the favourites, if not THE favourite, going into the World Cup next year. They will look at each other within the group and set the pressure for themselves to live up to their goals.

Twitter and a few newspaper columns are like throwing popcorn at a moving train and expecting to derail compared to what the squad themselves will expect.

For fans and media, the World Cup next year is next year’s problem. For this year, Ireland won a Slam, beat Australia in a 3 game series in Australia and beat the All Blacks in Dublin for the first time. Do yourself a favour and live in that moment because we know how quickly that moment can pass.