reason for few ireland grandslams!

tughfc

the way our fixtures pan out is one of the biggest reasons in my opinion! france and england either home or away and then tricky matches against scotland wales and italy home or away! i think theres a massive influence on home and away in the 6 nations and i feel the years where we play france and england away it hinders our chances of winning it due to the massive performances that both of these fixtures need! what you guys think?????

Spore

According to that logic we should win it every other year, considering we'd have the traditional power-houses of France / England at home with the 'easier' route of Wales / Scotland / Italy away.

There's no perfect fixture. To say that we've been denied a grand slam for 61 years due to consistent poor fixtures is beyond absurd. It points to a confidence issue or a poor player-pool or poor management or just the fact that rugby is the fourth most popular game in a relatively small nation. Simple as.

tughfc

Spore wrote: »

According to that logic we should win it every other year, considering we'd have the traditional power-houses of France / England at home with the 'easier' route of Wales / Scotland / Italy away.

There's no perfect fixture. To say that we've been denied a grand slam for 61 years due to consistent poor fixtures is beyond absurd. It points to a confidence issue or a poor player-pool or poor management or just the fact that rugby is the fourth most popular game in a relatively small nation. Simple as.

what would you say to having italy scotland away or home and wales england france home or away id bet we would win more grandslams, due to the advantages of home matches!!!

chupacabra

tughfc wrote: »

what would you say to having italy scotland away or home and wales england france home or away id bet we would win more grandslams, due to the advantages of home matches!!!

No, thats silly. It has nothing to do with the fixtures whether or not a team wins a championship.

Spore

Yeah, it really doesn't have much to do with the fixtures, really when we've been in the few positions in the past (and they've been few) since '48 we've either been beaten hansomely or it could be argued, choked. We've never had the player base to consistently challenge for the grand slam like Eng / France / Wales. I just don't get how the fixtures determines chances over the long run. In a single year, yes, it matters who you play at home, but over a run of seasons it doesn't matter a bit as you have the same fixture only the away home and vice versa. Really, what are you trying to prove?

getthegarglein

tughfc wrote: »

i think theres a massive influence on home and away in the 6 nations and i feel the years where we play france and england away it hinders our chances of winning it due to the massive performances that both of these fixtures need! what you guys think?????

...interesting theory alright... though worth noting that the one year we did win it we played the france and england games away!

vantasic

If bad home/away fixtures is the case then surely it would effect the other teams like england/france/wales too???? no no, they have won as many as they have regardless of home/away fixtures...

chupacabra

chupacabra wrote: »

No, thats silly. It has nothing to do with the fixtures whether or not a team wins a championship.

Yes it does,France and England are historically the 2 best teams so of course if we play them at home a certain year its an advantage.

louthandproud

Victoria Ashy Tray wrote: »

Yes it does,France and England are historically the 2 best teams so of course if we play them at home a certain year its an advantage.

And we play them at home every two years in the same year yet we haven't won a grand slam in 61 years.

Main reason we haven't won more grand slams is because most of the time we haven't been good enough, simple as that. We were also unlucky on a few occasions. So lets cherish this one today if it happens.

tughfc

chupacabra wrote: »

No, thats silly. It has nothing to do with the fixtures whether or not a team wins a championship.

so tell me this if we had 5 games at home we would clearly have a better chance of winning grandslams so the fixtures clearly have a hindering on it! just look at our records of home and away wins!

Stev_o

louthandproud wrote: »

And we play them at home every two years in the same year yet we haven't won a grand slam in 61 years.

Main reason we haven't won more grand slams is because most of the time we haven't been good enough, simple as that. We were also unlucky on a few occasions. So lets cherish this one today if it happens.

Nail on the head.