The IRISH RUGBY thread

[From the Bunker]

Hard to believe New Zealand game v France was on the 8th of September.

Six weeks later they played Ireland.

In between they hammered Uruguay, Namibia and Italy by 70ish points.

[seafoid]

I don't think you can link this loss to the previous flops. There was a qualitative difference if key moments could be cited as changing points.

[Captain Obvious]

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

Impressive when you consider Ireland is zero. Scotland with a poor record in the World cup also.

[seafoid]

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

Impressive when you consider Ireland is zero. Scotland with a poor record in the World cup also.

Between them France and England have 12 semi final appearances and one title.
6N failure is at every level. It's not just us
Scotland won a qf against Samoa . Jammy bastards

[seafoid]

If you go to page 16 in this strategy doc, the goal was a semi or better in 2019/23 and 2 or more European club titles. 6N results were good but the other 2 were not

https://d19fc3vd0ojo3m.cloudfront.net/irfu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/19161726/IRFU_Strategic_Plan_2018-2023.pdf

[RedHand88]

The footballers are showing the rugby lads how it's done tonight.

[J70]

The footballers are showing the rugby lads how it's done tonight.

 

[rodney trotter]

The footballers are showing the rugby lads how it's done tonight.

A new contract awaits Kenny on this epic performance.

[Joeythelips]

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.

[Redhand Santa]

You have to remember there is only about 8/9 countries that actually treat rugby seriously. And even within that only a couple would have it as their number one sport. So no matter what spin is put on it it is still unbelievable that a so called top team has never won a knock out game at the world cup.

People are reading a lot into the fact it was New Zealand who beat them. But it's probably one of the worst New Zealand teams ever to enter a world cup. In typical Irish rugby fashion everyone is focusing on the great group stages and then glossing over the loss because New Zealand are a top nation. But they then ignore the group stages were New Zealand were comfortably beaten by France.

[RedHand88]

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.

You are comparing apples with oranges though. They are 2 completely different sports.
One has a global following with any number of professional international teams. How many professional international rugby teams are there?
 The fact that Ireland can't get past the last 8 is damning, and that they needed Kiwis to even get that far. But until people wake up and realise they are failing on the biggest stage over and over and stop heaping bucketloads of superlatives on them then nothing will change.
Football fans are not shy of calling a spade a spade when it comes to the team or management.

[JimStynes]

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

Impressive when you consider Ireland is zero. Scotland with a poor record in the World cup also.

Why are Scotland so shite at sport nowadays?

[imtommygunn]

They just qualified in the soccer.

Very similar to us - too many sports.

[bennydorano]

You have to remember there is only about 8/9 countries that actually treat rugby seriously. And even within that only a couple would have it as their number one sport. So no matter what spin is put on it it is still unbelievable that a so called top team has never won a knock out game at the world cup.

People are reading a lot into the fact it was New Zealand who beat them. But it's probably one of the worst New Zealand teams ever to enter a world cup. In typical Irish rugby fashion everyone is focusing on the great group stages and then glossing over the loss because New Zealand are a top nation. But they then ignore the group stages were New Zealand were comfortably beaten by France.

One of the worst NZ teams ever?? Lazy ass reporting on a team who have ridiculously high standards more like,(Rugby Championship results in Summer 2023 - NZ beat South Africa 35-20, Argentina 12-41, Australia 7-38) They're a bit like England in that they've a huge talent pool that's largely been mismanaged. As I've said before tournament football gives teams the chances to iron out issues & build momentum. Ireland came out the wrong side of a 50/50 game, nothing more to it.

[thewobbler]

Another something that continues to puzzle me about rugby, well Irish rugby anyhow.

How is it that players who are past their peak are not phased out in time for a World Cup? Why is it that Ireland always rock up to a World Cup carrying a handful of players clearly on a swan song? And then expect them to play 6 times in 7 weeks?

Surely the professional game should be above this sentimentality?

How can players in their prime pick up big match experience if continually being blocked out by those past their prime?

——-

I make it that these players will all be 34+ by the time the next RWC rolls around... ie they'll not be fit for a game per week kind of schedule.

Kilcoyne, Bealham, Furlong, Herring, Henderson, Beirne, Conan, Van Der Flier, Gibson Park, Aki, Henshaw, McCloskey, Lowe.

Some big names in there, some very big names. But surely Farrell's first job from now is to start phasing them out until there's at most 2-3 left for 2027.