With 79 minutes gone in Japan v South Africa last Saturday my mother was so beside herself that she needed to call someone; this was an experience that she couldn't go through alone. Caught between calling me, her bother or my 95-year-old grandmother, she decided the only option was to ring all of us.
The funny thing is that we're not a rugby family in the slightest. In fact I doubt my mother would know how many points a try is worth.
Fast forward to last night and I had the exact same urge when Wales scored that glorious equalising try. This mixture of excitement and will for the underdog to come good once again.
We were obviously not alone in how we reacted. Videos of Irish fans going nuts for Japan were as common as peanuts throughout the week while Twitter lit up in the wake of the Welsh triumph yesterday.
Brilliant Wales😀😀😓😓
— David McWilliams (@davidmcw) September 26, 2015
England had no balls. They were all over Wales and couldn't nail it down. Another illustration of how amazing sport can be
— Niall Breslin (@nbrez) September 26, 2015
Delighted for Wales. It takes brass balls to sell real estate.
— John Duggan (@JohnDugganSport) September 26, 2015
Is this a distinctly Irish trait?
I hate the 'sure where else would you get it, wha?' nonsense that surrounds the perpetuated definition of 'Irishness' but when you peruse the internet there genuinely seems to be little in the way of the hysteria that can overcome Irish sports fans for teams - or individual sports stars - that we really should care nothing about.
Where does this love for the unlikely story come from? How can we can jump head-first onto a bandwagon so quickly? Don't get me wrong, I love it but it just got me pondering where does it originate from?
I mean, imagine the shit that's going to go down when Mayo win the All-Ireland. They'll definitely have to build another Coppers.
Maybe it's because we've generally been the underdog too so we can easily empathise, maybe it's that we just love sport so much (a cliche I don't buy for a second), maybe it's Maybelline - I haven't got a clue to be honest but it's a question worth asking.
