The IRISH RUGBY thread

[seafoid]

Conor O'Shea is England Performance Director
Felix Jones has been involved with South Africa since 2019 and won the World Cup with them
There is some good talent coming through

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/gerry-thornley-anticlimactic-ending-to-a-ho-hum-six-nations-1.4398241
The Six Nations, and to be precise its financially-stricken unions and federations, are still exploring the possibility of putting the start of the 2021 version back from early February by a few months. Were, by some miracle, a vaccine to be found and that two or three month delay to facilitate full stadia, it would be worth well over €100 million to the six.

[sid waddell]

Think the Irish cycle needs to begin again ahead of the next World Cup in France in three years time.

Some might not make it that far, will Sexton, Healy and O'Mahoney make it for example or will it be a Best type situation when we aren't ruthless enough to move them until it's exposed too late?

Aki is 30 now, his type of play, what will be left in 3 years, Stander something similar? Conor Murray is older, but age might be less of a problem if he can still get around the park.

Carberry/Ringrose highly rated...but it's rare to ever get them both fit at the same time unfortunately. Zebo will probably come back at some stage over the next few years which might be a short term fix for full back if nothing else looks like happening.

Are the players there coming through to replace the above?

Think Ireland are going back to the 1990s to be honest

Players coming through aren't as good and I wouldn't have much faith in the coaching team

Wales are on the downslide as well - Gatty did some job with them, one of the great coaches

I expect England and France to dominate for the next while

[GetOverTheBar]

Have to admit I do think the French are on the verge of something big. Provided the world is back to what we hope in a few years, full stadiums in France, home world cup. I can only see two teams stopping them in NZ and South Africa.

[Taylor]

Have to admit I do think the French are on the verge of something big. Provided the world is back to what we hope in a few years, full stadiums in France, home world cup. I can only see two teams stopping them in NZ and South Africa.

France are a team on the up for sure but the thing with them is they could self implode just as quickly

[GetOverTheBar]

Have to admit I do think the French are on the verge of something big. Provided the world is back to what we hope in a few years, full stadiums in France, home world cup. I can only see two teams stopping them in NZ and South Africa.

France are a team on the up for sure but the thing with them is they could self implode just as quickly

That's half the attraction, you just don't know

[imtommygunn]

They're a bit like cork hurlers year on year lol.

[sid waddell]

Have to admit I do think the French are on the verge of something big. Provided the world is back to what we hope in a few years, full stadiums in France, home world cup. I can only see two teams stopping them in NZ and South Africa.

France are a team on the up for sure but the thing with them is they could self implode just as quickly

France have now what they haven't had since 1999 - a really good coaching team

Fabien Galthié is a totemic figure in French rugby, maybe a bit like Didier Deschamps is in French football

The positive effects of his involvement could already be seen last year when he was brought in as assistant

[Main Street]

Perhaps I  wasn't the only person who was not aware or even cared that Ireland were playing Wales this evening.

[square_ball]

I think it's more to do with Amazon giving the home nation bosses 20 million reasons to care about these few games. I can't imagine there to be too much enthusiasm about them really from supporters.

[Hound]

Pretty good performance by Ireland.

Gibson-Park is no world beater, but to have a scrum half who consistently passes quick ball, snap-snap-snap, made a big difference.

I didn't think Lowe had as good a season for Leinster as he did last year, but he'd a really good Irish debut. So hungry, really got stuck in, probably our best player in the first half and fully deserved his try at the end.

Our best back row performance in quite some time. Stander is very good at what he does, but he's a total one-trick pony, so the opposition know exactly what he's going to do, which makes it easier to defend. I think Doris-VDF-POM could well be our best combination. Doris won the man of the match and he'd a great game, but POM was just as good. He looked really fresh and fit, and he makes a huge difference to our lineout.

Porter came of age in the international stage, dominant in the scrum. Billy Burns had a good run out too after Sexton got injured in the first half (hamstring I think). Although Burns had to go off for the last 15 mins too due to HIA and Murray played as out half and did absolutely fine, kicked a couple of very good pens.

All of the above has to be heavily caveated due to Wales being cat. It'll be a different story in Twickenham next week!

[JPGJOHNNYG]

We are great when the pressure is off as usual. We actually coughed up points all over the place which is very worrying for Wales. How the hell have they collapsed so much in a year.

[Milltown Row2]

We are great when the pressure is off as usual. We actually coughed up points all over the place which is very worrying for Wales. How the hell have they collapsed so much in a year.

New management for Wales possibly the reason.

[6th sam]

We are great when the pressure is off as usual. We actually coughed up points all over the place which is very worrying for Wales. How the hell have they collapsed so much in a year.

New management for Wales possibly the reason.

Couldn't bring myself to watch it. This "autumn series" , Seems a bit contrived .
What are thoughts on the likes of Lowe , playing for Ireland? Can anyone change allegiance , even though they have no Irish blood? Say They just came here to work/play and then declare , presumably because they are not good enough to play for their native country?
The whole essence / motivation of international sport should be patriotism

[Estimator]

Decent bit of edge to the start of the game last night. Ireland had too much for them, Wales have definitely gone backwards since their Grand Slam year, and really look to be on the slide. Porter seen off his opponent before half time. J G-P definitely had the side moving a lot quicker. Lowe played well and looked delighted with his try. Keenan was caught a couple of times in the second half, though he was a bit isolated. Ireland coughed up a couple of handy penalties, but Wales never really threatened at all.

England next week will be a different story. Sexton probably won't be risked.