The World Cup

vavavoom14

After chatting in the pub last night a few of us were at odds as to how far Ireland could go in the World Cup.

Assuming NZ continue their current form and considering that France are at home it will be difficult for us to hope for anything better than a semi final place i think.

Bearing that in mind we might be doing well to get out of our group if Argentina hit the right kind of form.

What do you think?

Also, did anyone see these guys at the match on saturday?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoIeqPRBRiM

Hilarious!!!

daveirl

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Danger_Dave

daveirl wrote:

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Totally agree. Should top the group and destory the scots, and fancy are chances to get to final. The Team is building nicely to the world cup not perfectly thats what NZ are doing.Aussie's/Ireland/NZ not in any order to win WC. NZ to choke.......hopefully

Heisenberg.

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mike65

The next world cup is about who finnishes runner up. New Zealand will walk it - they have two world class 15s practicaly. France can be a bit flaky esp if they start poorly and the locals get er...French! I think the worst Ireland can do is play one stupid game against either Argentina or Scotland (likely runners up group c) to stop them reaching the semis.

Mike.

Diamondmaker

Lets measure this on current form:

It will be a bit more clear after Fr v NZ and Ire v OZ matches are settled thi w/e.........But.....

Last time out Ire went TO NZ and came damn close, twice!, perhaps it was only home advantage which was the eventual difference in NZ favour.

NZ then come TO Fra. NZ absolutely annialate the French!

Meanwhile back at the ranch Ire are quietly buidling in confidence and depth while the provincial rugby excels.

If NZ beat Fr again and Ire do a job on Oz I would happily go to France expecting to top that group. ( Major injuries aside...our Achilles heal ! )
Arg will be toppled by the Irish they lack anything out of a good pack and 2 genius half backs. The Irish are much more street wise than that rookie English team who they beat.

KELTICKNIGHTT

after tonight performance,even do the weather didnt help the aussies much,if we do good in 6 nations,would have goo cahnce going all the way:D ,have to hope;)

daveirl

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jank

Sure any team would miss Carter but they have so many players that it would take a lot of injuries to make a dent to their world cup ambitions.

Remember their B team destroyed ireland last year!!

bucks73

But how many times have they gone to the World Cup as favourites and ended up with nothing? They still have only one win, way back in 1987, and contested one other final.

Its one thing beating France twice in a row when there is absolutely no pressure on. Another thing doing it when its the biggest game of your career. I'm not saying they will blow it but in a cup competition when players are under most pressure anything can happen. I wouldnt mind coming second in the group and having a crack at NZ in Cardiff. Prefer to top the group obviously but a quarter final in Cardiff is the nearest thing you will get to a home game.

Linford

Remember Ireland this time last year? We were the worst Irish team in recent years, but one year later look at us! I think it is too early to rule out the French in our group so early on.

daveirl

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jank

True but New Zealand had a lot more of their first team out and yet still beat us out of site in first gear. If we had POC and BOD it still would have been a sizeable beating.

mike65

If O'Gara got injured....:eek:

Mike.

Amazotheamazing

France, at home, in a World Cup, against an Irish team they beaten frequently. Only LaPorte will stop France winning that one I'm afraid.

daveirl

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Macka

correct me if I'm wrong but aren't Argentina in our group too? They're not exactly gonna be a pushover. I'm not saying we shouldn't get out of that group, on current form it should be expected that we do but the French at home and Argentina, its a tall order

Villain

Well I'm hoping we come 2nd in the group then beat NZ in Cardiff, that would be nice*

*especially seen as I have tickets for that game

Chucky the tree

Linford wrote:

Remember Ireland this time last year? We were the worst Irish team in recent years, but one year later look at us! I think it is too early to rule out the French in our group so early on.

Excactly. A year in rugby is a long time. Hell, even a weekend in rugby is a long time(just ask sale rugby club).

To be talking about us as potential world cup winners is crazy. One injury to ROG and were ****'d. If we manage not to bottle it in the 6 nations i might take our chances seriously, not until then.

kinaldo

If we're now to be considered amongst the top 3 rugby nations in the world, how come we're still only the 6th favourites on Betfair to lift the World Cup? Without knowing much about rugby, is it not a well known fact that the Irish almost always bottle it when we go from underdogs to favourites? Surely this great expectation is bound to have some adverse effect... unless we really are that good?

Nukem

kinaldo wrote:

I is it not a well known fact that the Irish almost always bottle it when we go from underdogs to favourites? Surely this great expectation is bound to have some adverse effect... unless we really are that good?

We were favourites for both SA and Aus - were favourites to beat England last year. We are staring to grow accustomed to being favourites.

Think Argentina will be a good game but we need to slow ball at ruck time,for that reason I think Boss will have to go SH for that match. For france if we are injury free and field a similar if not the same 22 to be in Paris in the WC we could hammer France. We lost last year in the 6nations in the first half with silly handling and 50/50 passes. Remeber we were down by 29-3 at Ht. Scored 4tries unanswered in a 30min period in the 2nd hald and France looked nothing special. Bottom line we give scrappy ball and France will punish. We play half as good as we did Saturday against Arg and France, a Semi-Final spot is ours!

Linford

kinaldo wrote:

If we're now to be considered amongst the top 3 rugby nations in the world, how come we're still only the 6th favourites on Betfair to lift the World Cup? Without knowing much about rugby, is it not a well known fact that the Irish almost always bottle it when we go from underdogs to favourites? Surely this great expectation is bound to have some adverse effect... unless we really are that good?

The reason that we are only 6th favourite with betfair is our group. We are in the toughest group. We are in the a group with the current 2nd best ranked team in the world as well as the Argies and if we finish second in our group we meet the 1st ranked team in the world. If we were in any other group (including NZs) you would fancy our chances of making the semis easily.