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According to the Irish Times article he is a Tullamore player who wasn't involved in the match. I know one of their players did play in the county final and did not play in the Summerhill match due to injury and he has played for Offaly so that would add up. If it is a player as reported then thats a 96 week suspension you would imagine.

Aussies and NZ sledging is the norm, its not something I like personally but its common place. Watch any GAA match nowadays (especially one involving Tyrone) and you see players winding opponents up. Who cares anyway, its all BS, do your talking on the pitch. Cane certainly did that against Ireland in fairness to him.

Hi I have no argument in Justin's appointment.  Except my long held belief we should be trying to promote Laois based managers.  But my question how exactly is Justin a massive appointment ?  His previous spell in Laois I'd argue was 7 out of 10, he was very professional and there was a good culture in the squad.  But even at time it was a style of football which at the top level was reaching its sell by date.  So to move to now, how is Justin a massive appointment ?  He to my knowledge hasn't been involved at top level GAA in quite sometime, Laois are going to lose quite a few this year.  The conveyor belt coming through is poor.  So to say a massive appointment  ? His a gamble,  As it seems for whatever reason the powers that be do not want to give it to Billy o Loughlin or Eddie Kinsella.  They may be proved right the only positive is that we now have severally lowered expectations to a point where getting out of Div 4 is seen as a breakthrough.

I would go along with this, development squads should be about developing players and coaches so Laois CB should have some long term plan to help develop potential coaches who may be potential future senior managers. To be fair they did give Sheehan a go of it.

McNulty is a decent appointment in terms of his recored with Laois and our current status but lets be honest here he has his work cut out for him. Its all well and good saying he got to AI quarter finals last time out and was a success but he did have players like Cahir Healy, John O'Loughlin, Brendan Quigley, Colm Begley, Ross Munnelly at his disposal. That squad is worlds apart from the one he will inherit now.

I guess his goals will be more realistic now also, promotion from Div 4 and Taitleann cup final should be achievable.

The football team certainly does put things into perspective. I know people say we should not celebrate failure but we just witnessed a great Irish rugby team beat South Africa, hammer Scotland and just be pipped at the post by the All Blacks in a World Cup. They have been playing unbelievable rugby for the past couple of years. Then we look at our football team and lets be honest its a sad joke.
Could you imagine an Irish football team getting to a World Cup only to lose out at knockout stages, it literally would be beyond our wildest dreams given our recent history.

[Rugby World Cup Semi-Final Appearances.]

Courtesy of Ewan McKenna....

Rugby World Cup Semi-Final Appearances.

New Zealand 9
Australia 6
England 6
France 6
South Africa 6
Argentina 3
Wales 3
Scotland 1

I don't know or get this McKenna fella on Twitter (or X as its now known), he seems to get off on the Irish Rugby team failing. Odd to say the least.
Let's be honest, the only reason Ireland did not make a semi final this year was the fact the draw was made 3 years ago. The NZ v Ireland and France v SA games were a level above the other quarter finals. The semi finals will be a massive anti climax after those two epic matches but at least we get a top final.
SA and NZ seem to fully have a winning culture, nothing seems to phase them when the stakes are at their highest. Ireland and France are both fantastic sides who gave it everything and still ended up losing out. NZ dropped one of their best players for the game over a protocol breach and moved on like it was nothing, the team and jersey is far more then one individual.
Imagine the uproar if we dropped a top player for a big match for some protocol breach? The public and media would lose their minds. The All Blacks just got one with it just as they did with the 2 yellow cards. When is the last time you saw a side call a scrum penalty in their own 22? or someone actually block down a conversion? SA do both in the biggest match of the year. Incredible team. Should be some final

Ireland have every right to be confident, history may indicate that the AllBlacks will turn us over given we have never won a knockout game in the world cup but records like that are there to be broken.

Anyone who says Ireland will definitely win is mad given the opposition and anyone who says we will definitely be beaten is also mad as we are ranked No 1 in the world for a reason. It is very hard game to call but Ireland on form are rightly favourites. Fingers crossed.

Ireland's performance on Saturday night was that of champions in waiting.

Can Ireland win the world cup?
of course, they have shown they are more than good enough when at their best.

Will they win it?
F**k knows given they need to win 3 massive knockout games to do just that.
A huge game up next against All Blacks, the fact remains Ireland have never won a knockout game in a world cup so lots of pressure against an All Blacks side who are experts at exposing any chinks in the armour. McKenzie has been one of the best players I have seen at this world cup (albeit against weaker opposition) and he cant even get in the side.
Get over that massive hurdle and will most likely have to tackle a Welsh team on an upward curve, like the Scottish game Ireland would be expected to beat them but it would be a tricky fixture.
Then the final most likely against a French side with home advantage. Hopefully it is Ireland v France as they have been the 2 best sides and would make for a great final. Ireland would have to produce their absolute best rugby for 80 mins to beat them imo.
Still a long way to go and no real point of looking past the next hurdle. Fingers crossed.

The job is to be a good pundit, convey the game tactically and critically in s a somewhat entertaining manner. The vast majority of sports pundits are awful regardless of gender.
Of the female pundits I have heard I'd say Karen Carney and Emma Hayes are very good in my opinion (or at least as good as the male ones)

I would like to think we'll beat Scotland - though not a given - but I'd be very (pleasantly) surprised if we won the world cup. I think it's too big a stretch.

Why too big a stretch? We are number one ranked team in the world currently having won our last 25 games and just beat the holders and one of the favourites in toughest game of the competition so far despite our lineout being a disaster. I get our WC record in knockout is a disaster but we are entitled to be a bit optimistic surely.

We have Scotland up next, tricky game but Ireland should be beating them.
Then we have All Blacks. Can they beat us, of course they can. Can we beat them, absolutely. No one should be surprised with either outcome.
If we do win its Wales or Argentina. Again a tricky fixture but if we can beat SA and All Blacks by that stage no reason we cant beat either of those.  Then its a final most likely against France or SA. Again a massive game but we have beaten both in the recent past so again for me if we have made it that far its a 50/50 game.

Seriously tough route, granted but this is a World Cup and you have to beat the best to win it, same applies to the teams we face.

The All Blacks game will be massive given the narrative of Ireland never having won a knockout game and the All Blacks will bring their A game so any drop off from Ireland and we will be packing our bags but if Ireland play to form they have every chance of winning.

Again I get its tough to win it but I cannot say it would be a huge surprise if they did go all the way.

Ireland showed against SA that they are certainly in the running to win the WC, but they also showed plenty of weakness in that game. Lineouts were an obvious issue and certain players did not perform to usual levels but still to come through such an intense game and have a break before next challenge is a big bonus.

We can only take it one game at a time though given the draw, beat Scots and we face All Blacks in QF. They may not be the best AB team ever but they will fully believe they can beat Ireland and any chinks in our armour will be exposed. If we do get over them we most likely face a Welsh team on an upward curve since 6 nations. Again they would fancy themselves against Ireland, get over that and its most likely the French on home turf or SA again in final.

Can Ireland win it? of course.

Will they? No one can say for sure, they will need to play their best in each game and a sprinkle of good fortune. Its great for a small country such as ours (for arguably its 3rd most popular sport) to be in with a shout of being world champions.

Im living in Wales and they would fully believe they can beat either Ireland or the All Blacks if they get over Argentina of course. Ireland showed against SA that they are one of the big teams in this tournament, if they show up and play to their potential there is no reason they cannot win it out. I would not be at all surprised if we end up with a SA v Ireland final. I think the Dupont injury is huge and SA would really fancy turning them over.

See Ole McKenna over the moon about Ireland beating SA, hard believe that lad was a good writer one time.

I seen his tweets where is almost giddy with excitement that Ireland will get knocked out in QF stage. Strange.

I e

Elon Musk says Twitter, now X, could charge all users subscription fees.  Most should quit using it if that happens.

I do enjoy Twitter, cant stand Facebook or Instagram but I would not pay a penny for it. The only people who pay currently are ones who have a decent following but once the followers all head off they will also. Threads is apparently the nearest thing but have not looked into it.

Whatever about consensual sex and the legal age of someone having sex, when a 31 year movie star is having sexual relationships with a 16 year old then I'm sorry, that guy is fucked up, and there is no justification for him in any shape or form.

On a personal not, I never found him funny or relevant and his rants about the 'establishment' go way over my head when he lives the lifestyle he does.

You reap what you sow in life and things will always come back and bite you in the arse

I fully agree, loads of people online defending him saying 16 is the legal age of consent in the UK so he did nothing wrong. That may legally be true but 16 in UK and everywhere else is still a child. So this adult has sex with a child, not only that according to her claims he had a BBC car come pick her up from school and told her what to say so she could get out of school etc. Sounds like grooming to me.

People also saying why the victims didnt go to the police need to take a look at the statistics on rape in the UK, its horrific. Never mind cancel culture if you are a woman it seems you live in a rape culture.
This post I watched the other day summerises it perfectly.

https://twitter.com/supertanskiii/status/1703462553525846106

Good interview with one of the people behind the investigation