The IRISH RUGBY thread

[Dinny Breen]

No it was a great step forward as it demonstrated that we can compete with the best, sustaining that effort is the task for the coaches. 3 home wins and a win in either Paris or London is a realistic goal and could gives us a 6 nations title. Our bread and butter, not one off tests.

[gallsman]

NZ won that, Ireland didn't lose it. Simply best team in the world, that's the aspiration and today was a great step forward.  f**king gutted mind!

"Has the potential to be" should have preceded that! Ireland have put in monster performances before (nothing as big as that though) and have failed to build on it. Have to hope it will be different this time.

It's not a bad start from Schmidt, in fairness, considering where they were last season.

I'll reserve judgement until after the 6N. At the end of the day, they still lost (or were beaten in) a match they should have won. Last week was abysmal, lest we forget.

If they can play like they did today, they'll beat everybody bar the All Blacks. The challenge now (as always after a heroic loss) is to do just that, rather than produce one great performance every few years.

[rodney trotter]

Hard to judge how big a step forward it was. It was playing New Zealand at the end of the season for them, they have had a very long season and been quality all the way being unbeaten, were without Dan Carter. O Driscoll is in his final season, O Connell is 34

That was the best  chance to beat them. Ireland  put in a huge performance in the tour in 2012 getting a draw,the following week 60-0 defeat. Players shattered from the previous weeks effort. It will take those players a good while to get over todays defeat

[gallsman]

No it was a great step forward as it demonstrated that we can compete with the best, sustaining that effort is the task for the coaches. 3 home wins and a win in either Paris or London is a realistic goal and could gives us a 6 nations title. Our bread and butter, not one off tests.

We've done that before though. Outplaying NZ in their back yard and then getting hockeyed as comeuppance. Beating Australia in the World Cup and then losing to Wales.

We have and have had over the last 15 years the talent to compete with the very best. The challenge is to a) compete regularly and consistently and b) turn competitiveness into wins.

[ONeill]

Worse feeling than Australia '91?

[seafoid]

NZ won that, Ireland didn't lose it. Simply best team in the world, that's the aspiration and today was a great step forward.  f**king gutted mind!

"Has the potential to be" should have preceded that! Ireland have put in monster performances before (nothing as big as that though) and have failed to build on it. Have to hope it will be different this time.

It's not a bad start from Schmidt, in fairness, considering where they were last season.

I'll reserve judgement until after the 6N. At the end of the day, they still lost (or were beaten in) a match they should have won. Last week was abysmal, lest we forget.

If they can play like they did today, they'll beat everybody bar the All Blacks. The challenge now (as always after a heroic loss) is to do just that, rather than produce one great performance every few years.

It's all very reminiscent of the Galway hurlers.

[SHEEDY]

gutted. that was heartbreaking for the irish players who had given everything. costly miss by sexton.

[J OGorman]

So unbelievably close. Heart in the mouth stuff. Gutted for the players. .JESUS! !!

loving the line from someone earlier 'we will never beat NZ'...until the very end of time?? :-)

[seafoid]

gutted. that was heartbreaking for the irish players who had given everything. costly miss by sexton.

You have to score those. Shefflin would have. Ciaran McDonald would have. 

[Hardy]

It never pays to annoy the NZers. Going 19 up was bound to piss them off. They reminded me of what we used to be, winning it in the third minute of added time.

Seriously, though, have you ever seen a mental crisis like Sexton's as he stood over that kick for what looked like a full minute? You just knew he was psyching himself into missing it. And who'd have expected a Munster scrum half to kick the ball away twice with two and a half minutes to go, in their half, five points up and all we had to do was keep the ball?

Great performance, though. Happily the days are gone when it would have been hailed as a moral victory.

It was all nearly as entertaining as Cake's theatrics in the Hyde. What a clown.

[INDIANA]

Hard to judge how big a step forward it was. It was playing New Zealand at the end of the season for them, they have had a very long season and been quality all the way being unbeaten, were without Dan Carter. O Driscoll is in his final season, O Connell is 34

That was the best  chance to beat them. Ireland  put in a huge performance in the tour in 2012 getting a draw,the following week 60-0 defeat. Players shattered from the previous weeks effort. It will take those players a good while to get over todays defeat

ireland didn't get  adraw in 2012

[rodney trotter]

Hard to judge how big a step forward it was. It was playing New Zealand at the end of the season for them, they have had a very long season and been quality all the way being unbeaten, were without Dan Carter. O Driscoll is in his final season, O Connell is 34

That was the best  chance to beat them. Ireland  put in a huge performance in the tour in 2012 getting a draw,the following week 60-0 defeat. Players shattered from the previous weeks effort. It will take those players a good while to get over todays defeat

ireland didn't get  adraw in 2012

Ah yeah had a draw snatched lost by 3. In a game they dominated.

[gallsman]

Great performance, though. Happily the days are gone when it would have been hailed as a moral victory.

This, for me, is the problem - it will be hailed as a moral victory. They definitely deserve credit for the effort but that does not mean they should be immune to criticism for letting the AB's back in.

[seafoid]

It never pays to annoy the NZers. Going 19 up was bound to piss them off. They reminded me of what we used to be, winning it in the third minute of added time.

Seriously, though, have you ever seen a mental crisis like Sexton's as he stood over that kick for what looked like a full minute? You just knew he was psyching himself into missing it. And who'd have expected a Munster scrum half to kick the ball away twice with two and a half minutes to go, in their half, five points up and all we had to do was keep the ball?

Great performance, though. Happily the days are gone when it would have been hailed as a moral victory.

It was all nearly as entertaining as Cake's theatrics in the Hyde. What a clown.

I was thinking of the 96 final as well.

[Myles Na G.]

Ireland didn't do a lot wrong today. That performance would have been good enough to beat most teams in the world, but I don't think there's any way we can sustain that level of intensity over a tournament. If there was another game next week or the week after, how many of that team would be out injured? And how many of the rest would be able to repeat today's effort?