6 Nations - can we win it?

Chucky the tree

GreenHell wrote:

The Grand Slam is the only prize that matters to me in the 6n and has been for the last few years. Triple crown doesn't mean jack anymore. If the attidute in the team is to view a season as successful if they win the triple crown then I'm afraid our international team is a joke.

Did you not see them celebrating it last year? We even had a dvd ffs. A complete joke.

Thats why Ireland arent reaching their potential i think. Its ingrained in the team that 2nd best is acceptable. The only thing for us to win this years 6ns tournament was the GS, we bottled it though. So no matter what happens now, even a championship, this year's 6n has been a disappointing failure.

Steffano2002

Chucky the tree wrote:

Did you not see them celebrating it last year? We even had a dvd ffs. A complete joke.

Thats why Ireland arent reaching their potential i think. Its ingrained in the team that 2nd best is acceptable. The only thing for us to win this years 6ns tournament was the GS, we bottled it though. So no matter what happens now, even a championship, this year's 6n has been a disappointing failure.

IMO, this is the attitude to have about rugby. That's the way we think in France.

Yeah we're happy enough when we win the 6N but it's considered a small failure if we don't do the GS.

Same for the World Cup in September! We're hosting it and we simply have to win it, no other acceptable option. You might think: "How can you expect to win everything like that? You can't always win" and in a way you would be right. But why take part in a competition if not to win it?

Chucky the tree

Its what made Martin Johnson such a good captain. He(and england) were never happy with winning the championship. It was the GS or else the season wasnt a succes. I dont know why the Irish lads dont think the same.

Steffano2002

Chucky the tree wrote:

I dont know why the Irish lads dont think the same.

In fairness, it's very "Irish" to be like that. Now I hope nobody here takes this as an attack but it's one of the first things that struck me as different about the Irish people when I moved here back in 1998.

I found Irish people to always be selling themselves short and never believing they could win this or that... That's what drives me crazy about my mother (she is Irish). Before last week's game she was saying "France will beat Ireland. We'll mess up. I'll be raging!" and it was really p!ssing me off!
I mean before the game, on paper, Ireland was the big favourite! I, myself, thought I was going to be watching France lose. Turns out she was right this time... But still! She's saying the same about England now and I really think this attitude needs to change! Ireland CAN beat teams like New-Zealand! Ireland CAN win the World Cup! Everybody needs to start believing I think...

Chucky the tree

Steffano2002 wrote:

In fairness, it's very "Irish" to be like that. Now I hope nobody here takes this as an attack but it's one of the first things that struck me as different about the Irish people when I moved here back in 1998.

I found Irish people to always be selling themselves short and never believing they could win this or that... That's what drives me crazy about my mother (she is Irish). Before last week's game she was saying "France will beat Ireland. We'll mess up. I'll be raging!" and it was really p!ssing me off!
I mean before the game, on paper, Ireland was the big favourite! I, myself, thought I was going to be watching France lose. Turns out she was right this time... But still! She's saying the same about England now and I really think this attitude needs to change! Ireland CAN beat teams like New-Zealand! Ireland CAN win the World Cup! Everybody needs to start believing I think...

Someone reffering to coming second as a sort of silver medal on this thread somes up are attitudes perfectly i think. Coming 2nd is considered something to be proud of nearly. I suppose the years of getting spanked and battling it out for the wooden spoon seem to have stunted our desire to win.

I think EOS has to take alot of the blame for this.

vorbis

there is a case of being too arrogant too! How many years has it been since we won the Championship? 10, 20? And people are saying that winning it would be a poor result for Ireland!!! Get some perspective. We have a team capable of winning the GS. Guess what, so do France!

davyjose

Diamondmaker wrote:

I think people dont realsie or appreciate how difficult a GS is.

Yeah, I think the fact that a marginally-above average Welsh side did it (in a year we perhaps should) has allowed people to get carried away with the notion tat anything less is a failure.

iwincosimcool

Were certainly not out of It. now that some of the pressures off about the grand slam and croke park thing that were clearly not great with dealing with, we can concentrate on not just winning, but putting together some decent 80 minutes performances. I have a feeling the scotland and England games will be tight, but well edge them. I dunno but I just have a hunch we will murder the Italians, who wont be able to deal with our backline on St patricks day.

Any of wales, scotland and especially england are capable of stopping an experimental French side, I reckon they will lose one game, but my money would still be on that they win the championship on points difference like last year.

shmaido

shrapnel222 wrote:

lol, i think the fans have gotten ahead of the team!!!:D


IRB World Rankings 19/02/2007 Position
(last week) Member Union Rating points
1(1) NEW ZEALAND 94.59
2(2) FRANCE 87.17
3(3) AUSTRALIA 85.55
4(4) SOUTH AFRICA 84.71
5(5) IRELAND 83.99
6(6) ARGENTINA 79.61
7(7) ENGLAND 79.48
8(8) SCOTLAND 76.78
9(9) WALES 75.74
10(10) SAMOA 73.86

I read somewhere that if we'd actually won against france that would have bumped us up to 2nd place ironically. I dont think we were second after the autumns, 3rd at most I thought but people (us irish moslty) we're trying to use "logic" to bump us up to 2nd and it goes: since we nearly beat NZ twice and NZ had thumped france twice and we had beaten everybody else of note, we were therefore better than france because we put up a better fight than france so therefore we were better than the rest but 2nd to NZ....clutching at straws i thought but weren't we a happy little rugby nation for about three months there....blast those cheese eating surrender monkeys for popping our bubble...no offence meant of course....

Steffano2002

shmaido wrote:

blast those cheese eating surrender monkeys for popping our bubble...no offence meant of course....

None taken! I just hate you now...

iwincosimcool

We didnt do the points difference any harm today, which is what is going to matter if we are to have any chance of winning the thing. The bookies had ireland to win by 7 points and france to win by 15 points. We gained 19 points on them today! We also have the potential to blow Scotland and Italy away with this momentum.

Ultimately though, were gonna need England to do us a favour against France, which is hard to see after today. But their always tough to beat at Twickenham. It's still on, Id love an Ireland team to win something worthwhile.

PixelTrawler

The one positive thing is France are not unbeatable. We nearly bet them and wales put up the good fight.

England at home, especially after a record defeat, could rally around and beat France. Also England were well beaten but didnt actually play that bad, just Ireland outclassed them in every way. That young Strettle for instance played very well

Marshy

Joebloggs4817 wrote:

England at home, especially after a record defeat, could rally around and beat France. Also England were well beaten but didnt actually play that bad, just Ireland outclassed them in every way. That young Strettle for instance played very well

Ireland were brilliant but lets not kid ourselves, this is a very average english side. If France play like they did against us they wont have any problems against them. Although you really never know with the french, they werent very impressive against the welsh.

But if they beat england which they should, on paper, then thats that. I mean Scotland wouldnt trouble the "willow under-11's"(to quote george) the way they're going. The ineptitude of their play in the first 5 mins yesterday was extraordinary.

Saruman

That was a fantastic game i have to say.. one of the best i have seen.
While i thought we would win, i did think England would put up a better fight and keep the scores tighter.
Great game, would have loved to be there.

Sangre

I'm not sure why people are bothered by the championship. The difference between a triple crown season and a chamionship has nothing to do with the Irish team but depends on how the other results pan out. If Wales had beaten France yesterday we could have won it despite playing no differently in any other game.

So what? A championship should depend solely on your team and not the victories of others.