Bleak future for Irish rugby ?

thejollyrodger

Looking at the underage level there is little coming through and there doesnt seem like a great future for Irish rugby. EOS did a great job in bringing irish rugby so far but as Hook said, it looks like a Jack Charlton set up. We relied on set peices but little on individual ability.

Rugby is about picking the ball up and running. A system can stop that but its usually ability that suceeds. We contained the welsh a lot but couldnt really go and win the game.

Just watching that welsh game. We looked too regimented and over relied on the system. Wales rightly won on the day.

Other problems are that all the resources are being pumped into the proviences and there is less and less clubs now. I think there is even less people playing rubgy now!!

Kevin_rc_ie

I'm getting a bit sick of guys hearing something on tv/radio and then regurigating it here and claiming them as their own.

the irish 21's weere hammered in every game in their 5 nations i think. not sure about the other levels.

i think everyone knows we're a bit short up front for new young hungry players.

rugbug86

wales deserved the grand slam, they were amazing. played great rugby and did justice to the sport.
ireland were appalling, and thats being bad to the word. they were pure muck. but i think to say that the future is bleak is a bit harsh.
and congratulations to the women international team for beating wales last night!

thejollyrodger

I did say Hook made that comment and I am just agreeing with the panel analysis. This is probably one of our worst seasons in quite a few years. Its time to start rebuilding in the next year or so but there doesnt seem to be much to rebuild with.

Kevin_rc_ie

3/5

not so bad. i can remember worse. beating england?

thejollyrodger

we were lucky to beat england it has to be said. A couple of those ref decisions could have went the other way.

England are rebuilding at the moment, this irish team is meant to be at its best. I wouldnt want to see what the score line would be like next season.

rugbug86

thejollyrodger wrote:

This is probably one of our worst seasons in quite a few years.

i dont agree with that! i think we've had a good season, fair enough we didnt play the best but we still won 3/5 matches...

thejollyrodger wrote:

Its time to start rebuilding in the next year or so but there doesnt seem to be much to rebuild with.

we should try and organise a few away friendlies to rebuild with, those 3 matches we played (usa, sa, arg) would have been perfect times but if we rebuild then, nobody would go to watch, so the irfu wont make as much money. so if we're away, there wouldnt be too many travelling supporters. we need to have a rebuilt team for RWC 2007. theres a few players who'll still be there but a few on their way out. we need a new front row cos the bull aint gonna be around forever and corrigan/byrne are just getting a tad too old. BRING BACK KEITH WOOD!

goldenbrown

my brother was lookin over my shoulder as i read this post and he went a bit mad, he said he hopes irish rugby dissappears and that it is elitist and the games are attended by weasely snobs who have an apartheid outlook on vast sections of irish society who regard many irish people as second rate and sub human because they do not rub shoulders at a small number of rugby holy cow shrines and schools, i think i need to get him looked at by a doctor and allow me to apologise for him now :rolleyes:

he went out the door roaring something about soccer the beautiful game and excellence not addiction to exclusion, i might drop crushed valium into his ribena when i get a chance

Kevin_rc_ie

lol all i can do is laugh.

rugbug86

quick, lock him up. its too risky to wait for the doctor!

rugbug86

i think theres more ppl playin rugby in ireland that ever, when u take the whole country into consideration. womens rugby is on the up.

the problem is lack of clubs, simple as that. When you can put 20,000 supporters in for an under 19's leinster final (senior Cup) and see the quality of some of these players, you've got to wonder what happens after that for most of them. Take the Terenure College team of 4 years ago that won, there's only one player (David Macallastair) who still plays rugby at a decent level, there's no opportunity for those freshest and hungriest players to get games on a decent level. It's disgraceful!

cgf

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

I'm getting a bit sick of guys hearing something on tv/radio and then regurigating it here and claiming them as their own.

the irish 21's weere hammered in every game in their 5 nations i think. not sure about the other levels.

i think everyone knows we're a bit short up front for new young hungry players.

Beated badly by Welsh & English. Lost by 7/8 points to Scots & French resp. Not quite a hammering.


v. ham·mered, ham·mer·ing, ham·mers
v. tr.

1. To hit, especially repeatedly, with or as if with a hammer; pound. See Synonyms at beat.
2. To beat into a shape with or as if with a hammer: hammered out the dents in the fender; hammered out a contract acceptable to both sides.
3. To put together, fasten, or seal, particularly with nails, by hammering.
4. To force upon by constant repetition: hammered the information into the students' heads.
5.
1. To defeat soundly.
2. To inflict a heavy loss or damage on.

there's no need to be pedantic

damnyanks

Actually a few of them are playing for the Terenure College RFC. Maybe not Leinster or AIL 1 but still at a reasonable level.

Players aren't given a chance as far as the Irish team goes. Changes should of been made it has been obvious through out the tournament some players just werent up for it. They have the ability but just didn't want to perform (Or couldn't).

I think Ireland went into the tournament sure that O'Driscal and D'arcy would be unstopable and once that plan went they were up the creek.

Well its over now. Always next year, not the best of years in comparision to recent times but I personally think we got what we deserved out of the tournament. The only teams that should feel hard done by perhaps would be the Italians. Everyone else played and got what they deserved

Kevin_rc_ie

cfg
lol, you suck.

but playing for the RFC is actually a drop in quality from coming out of the cup, training 5 days a week, etc. What we need is for our basic rugby to be played at a level in between the AIL set up and Provinces set up.

Nukem

Deleted User wrote:

What we need is for our basic rugby to be played at a level in between the AIL set up and Provinces set up.

Hammer-Nail on head.......................Damn right

swalsh

it has to be said that all our hopes went down the drain when d'arcy got injured. o driscoll needs a proper partner in the centre and maggs just isnt it. too much for o driscoll to do

Hugh_C

swalsh wrote:

too much for o driscoll to do

yeah, the hair and all those endorsements.

Crash

It was interesting to see though how the Ireland game changed once Sheehan and O'Callaghan came on - now personally i've never really had great faith in O'Callaghan (especially after the north south match) but having the younger players did seem to change a few things.


Interestingly enough, my brother was saying that in fact, Shane Byrne is six months older than Woody - though then again i dont think many internationals put themselves in to the level of punishment that Woody did.

cgf

He was a sub for Ireland in 95 WC in SA

wilky76

crash_000 wrote:

It was interesting to see though how the Ireland game changed once Sheehan and O'Callaghan came on - now personally i've never really had great faith in O'Callaghan (especially after the north south match) but having the younger players did seem to change a few things.


Interestingly enough, my brother was saying that in fact, Shane Byrne is six months older than Woody - though then again i dont think many internationals put themselves in to the level of punishment that Woody did.

We did look better when they came on, but come on! It was Humphries you brought new life in the last 30mins. Why he wasn't brought on sooner to replace O'Gara who was terrible is beyond me!?

evilhomer

If you look at France and England, France especially. you see that they start to rebuild their teams at least two years before the next World Cup. I know we had a very good team this year but when players got injured no one new came in. D'Arcy injured - put horgan in the centre and put dempsey on the wing!! Dempsey on the wing is pointless at this level(I would have played Bowe on the wing IMO). he may be a good defender but he offered nothing in attack. if that was England or France they would have thrown in a young player who was playing in his correct position Benoit Baby for example and Tait. Now Baby worked out for France but Tiat didn't for England, but at least they took a chance. now baby will be competing for a centre position on a regular basis. After this season a lot of new players for france and england will have some experience at the highest level, our new players have practically none.

If you look at the wales game we brought back Maggs, the reason he was dropped in the first place was because he was one dimensional (I would have put O'Driscoll and Murphy at 12 and 13 and put Dempsey back to 15, at least we would have kept the Welsh guessing)

O'Sullivan was far too conservative after the french game. some players didn't perform at all! but if they don't have to worry about losing their place what kind of motivation do some of them have?

I can't understand for the life of me why Simon Easterby still holds that number 6 shirt, sure he does a lot of grunt work at the rucks but he offers nothing else!

I'm just concerned now that we are going into rebuilding a team who will only have one six nations to prepare for the RWC. Will the team have enough time to gel?

Sorry in advance for the Rant

MG

Deleted User wrote:

What we need is for our basic rugby to be played at a level in between the AIL set up and Provinces set up.

Quite right. We need a proper pyramid structure. I'd like to see:
* Celtic League with about 15 games per year, no games clashing with 6N etc, this allows for smaller provincial squads
* a AIL Super league of about 12 clubs (say 4 Dublin, 3 Munster, 3 Ulster, 2 Conn), pro/semi pro (and peripheral provincial players dropping back to this level and developing there). Possibly allow an Ireland U 23 squad to play instead of one team.
* Amateur provincial leagues of the rest.

Unfortunately, I don't see the old school ties being taken off long enough for this to happen.

daveirl

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MG

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Yes but probably still have the elite players missing 5 or 6 games under the IRFU policy.

Would be good to get the games back on terrestrial tv. Always thought it was a blunder going to setanta and starving the competition of the oxygen of exposure.

Using it as qualification for H Cup will help too.

while we're on the subject of underage rugby, notice how the welsh under 21's who won the grand slam a few years ago are now filtering into the senior setup, they also have an under 21 grand slam team this year. Wales become the superpower of the Northern Hemisphere? you heard it here first.

daveirl

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in fact read yesterday, Wales have won 5 out of last 7 Under 21's!