most gut wrenching sporting memories

[QLD]

In rugby it would have to be:

Losing to England in both the 2003 and 2007 world cups.
Losing to the AB's last night.
Watching any Queensland Reds games.


Other sports:
Watching England win back the Ashes in 2005.
Poofball world cup 2nd round match vs Italy.
Any time NSW beats Queensland in State of Origin.

 

[The Seeker]

I know this is a very old thread but it gives me an opportunity to vent. Watching my Los Angeles Dodgers win 111 games (the most in Major League Baseball for the 2022 season) and then lose to the San Diego Padres in the playoffs, a team they've dominated for years was gut wrenching. The Padres went on to lose to the Phillies, but it didn't soften the blow much for me.

 

[Lancashire Nick]

In Rugby Union .... My team Orrell being destroyed by professionalism. We were just a little club on the edge of Wigan, once famously described as a "lay-by off the M6"; who punched above our weight in the amateur days. Without the money needed to compete in the modern pro era, we lost our ground, lost our identity, and are now playing at a very low level, at a local college.

In other sports .... Saints losing 5 Super league Grand Finals in a row (2007-11), Everton losing two FA Cup Finals in a row (1985 and 86).

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Leinster v La Rochelle in Marseille or Ireland v NZ 2013. Haven't been able to watch either game back.

 

[Which Tyler]

1991 RWC final - Reaching the final with forward dominance, about to play a team we'd expect to beat with forward dominance; being goaded into throwing the ball around to show that we can do that too, without having practiced it.

Hurts worse than dropping out of the 2015 RWC in the pool stages (at least I knew enough about it all to know in advance that we were being mis-managed from the pre-RWC camp onwards)

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Eagles- Saints 2015 playoffs
Couldn't sleep at all afterwards cause of leg pain and just being ****** we lost. Went to the hospital the next day. Ended up getting diagnosed with Crohn's a few months later. Literally the must gut wrenching.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Rugby:

ABs smashing the England Grand slam winning side in that RWC semi in 1995. Looking back should have appreciated it more with the birth of the first Rugby Union superstar.

Other sports:

Football - the ones where England went out of penalties which were plenty. Italia 1990, Euro 96 (after Anderton hit the bar and Gazza was a toenail away from scoring a golden goal) , Euro 2004, WC 2006, Euro 2012, Euro 2020(1).

Liverpool - 1988 FA cup final v the Crazy Dons denying them a double, losing the 1989 league to a last minute goal v Arsenal when only required to not lose by 2-0, and after Hillsborough.

Tennis - Becker losing Wimbledon final 1990 after coming 2 sets to love down to Edberg.

Federer - 2008 Wimbledon final and 2019 final after holding championship points.

 

[Which Tyler]

Rugby:

ABs smashing the England Grand slam winning side in that RWC semi in 1995. Looking back should have appreciated it more with the birth of the first Rugby Union superstar.


Federer - 2008 Wimbledon final and 2019 final after holding championship points.

1995 didn't hurt anywhere near as much for me - because NZ we're the better team and had the standout player.

Those Wimbledon finals are good points, but mitigated by 2 titans of the game going up against each other.

Aus '91 wouldn't have won had we just kept doing what we'd been doing for 2-3 years - we were like Marty McFly doing stupid shit because someone called him chicken

 

[Bada-Bing!]

1995 didn't hurt anywhere near as much for me - because NZ we're the better team and had the standout player.

Those Wimbledon finals are good points, but mitigated by 2 titans of the game going up against each other.

From my POV they did at the time. Of course 1995 was not close, and that ABs team was something very special despite going on to lose in the final. More the shock as that England side were at the peak of their powers and got destroyed. Hindsight being a wonderful thing.

Federer was great but if he had weaknesses it was throwing matches away he should have won those were just two of them.

2008 was such top sustained quality though but losing to Rafa on grass after all those losses on clay was gut wrenching for me. 2019 still hurts after outplaying Novak that day.

But he won so many more. That is top level sport for you.

 

[dullonien]

2011 RWC Semi Final v France is the one that stands out for me. Warburton red card (looking back now it was fully deserved, but at the time it was a bit of a shock), was a massive blow, but then we stood toe to toe with France for the rest of the match and had me believing we coulf still do it against the odds, only to lose it at the end.

 

[McTallshort]

The All Blacks losing in the semi-final to the French and Wayne Barnes

Wasn't that a quarter final?

 

[McTallshort]

2009, 2nd Lions test. RoG you muppet.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Losing that 2nd Lions test v Wallabies way back in 2001 after Nathan Gray knocked out Richard Hill, who had kept George Smith so quiet.

 

[McTallshort]

Losing that 2nd Lions test v Wallabies way back in 2001 after Nathan Gray knocked out Richard Hill, who had kept George Smith so quiet.

Got married the day of the 3rd test. Was in pub in Nottingham eating breakfast, nursing a hangover and watching Justin Harrison out jumping Martin Johnson in the line out.......marriage didn't last

 

[miccloarch]

2019 still hurts after outplaying Novak that day.

Weirdly, it stings even more now that he's retired and Rafa+Djoko have broken his record, prompting people to (wrongly) estimate that he's no longer the goat.

 

[miccloarch]

ABs smashing the England Grand slam winning side in that RWC semi in 1995

A week later that same dominant All Black team losing the final in extra time = my first memory of pain in sport. My brother even cried and cursed the TV lol.

2007 maybe hurt a tad more because now there was the historical context of the ABs not winning the thing for two decades.

Other sports for me:

F1

• Felipe Massa losing the championship on the last corner because reasons
• Copemilton Hamilton equaling Schumacher's record.

Football

• Brazil WC 2014 -- Neymar, who was player of the tournament until the QF, almost breaks his spine (for the haters, Neymar wasn't a diving diva at all in those days). Everyone knows what happened in the SF. The idiot who kneed Neymar in the back should've been charged with reckless endangerment for denying the world a Brazil v Argentina final.
• Liverpool 2013/14 -- Gerrard slip + losing to Mourinho's Chelsea = losing the t!tle. Couldn't get much worse.
• Liverpool 2014/15 -- Suarez leaving, resulting in me becoming more of a Barcelona fan.
• Barcelona 2018/19 -- Me now liking Barca more and watching my old team come back impossibly from 3-0 down in the UCL SF. Hilarious in retrospect.

 

[The Seeker]

When Seattle beat my team San Diego (in red) 26-23 at the 2019 Major League Rugby championship game in San Diego.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

Union just lost mls cup on penalty kicks
Phillies will probably lose World Series tonight.
If usa loses to Kenya tomorrow I'm never watching sport again.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

2011 RWC Semi Final v France is the one that stands out for me. Warburton red card (looking back now it was fully deserved, but at the time it was a bit of a shock), was a massive blow, but then we stood toe to toe with France for the rest of the match and had me believing we coulf still do it against the odds, only to lose it at the end.

And Wales had the chance to win it despite being down to 14 men. IIRC Halfpenny(?) missing a convertible penalty. Even more gut wrenching.

I think those are the ones that hurt most where your team or individual have it in their hands to win it but just don't or can't take the chance.

 

[Which Tyler]

As a Francophile, yesterday morning comes into the equation here - as @Bada-Bing! says, it's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.