The draw is appalling but Ireland are still the best team in the draw so if anyone should be worried its our opposition.
Glad if Earls gets the 100th cap, but really hope this isn’t a sign they are giving him a run of games to try and play him into form. He’s done and shouldn’t be on the plane.
Exactly this. France and NZ would be delighted to avoid playing us, which is saying something.
I'd imagine the thought process might be to give him 100 caps at home in the Aviva. As opposed to away in France v samoa.
Problem with that is that either Lowe or Hansen have to sit out the England game as a result.
I think the team will be:
Porter, Sheehan, Bedhlam
Bierne, Ryan
Pom, Coombes, VDF
JgP, Byrne
Aki, Ringrose
Hansen, Keenan, Earls
Kelleher, Healy, Furlong, Baird, Doris, Murray, crowley, Osborne.
There are more opportunities to slip up that's why the draw is appalling . More bigger hurdles the more chance of falling over one....rwcs are fickle beasts.
Agree with this. I think Ireland will be found out again on the big stage, and all the mental frailties will rise to the surface again. The Leinster final collapse( The core of the Irish team) against Rochelle is case in point
Winning games against NZ 12 Months ago is great , but if we Meet them in a World cup QF. You'll see who the real number 1 team is, and that's NZ
Likewise I don't see an injury prone, back from major injury, unmatch fit 39 year old Johnny sexton going through 1, let alone multiple hard games in a row without abruptly breaking down., Then you have a replacement who the coach doesn't trust to start a game ,1 start in 22 games.. starting a QF
It’s hardly worth their while going to France
Do you all notice posters like this only talk about previous Irish teams and Leinster but you see them post nothing about the current Irish side, don't you think if they believe this Irish side had a serious flaw they would mention it? That should tell you that even then acknowledge how good this Irish side is.
The real number 1 is Ireland which is reflected in the world rankings ;) again funny how beating NZL doesn't seem to count for much to you but Leinster losing matters a whole lot. You're grasping and I would recommend against it in order to save yourself from further embarrassment.
Is Loughnane just temperory injury cover or will he be in the mix for the 33 selected to travel to France
Yeah but then that counts for SA for example and France & NZL. Ireland being number 1 means we of all teams should be backing ourselves to get through this.
Who do you believe would win if Ireland and NZ meet in QF?
Which team would you favour ,the number 1 team Ireland or New Zealand..
You can't see Sexton getting through multiple, high intensity games...as he did in NZ and the 6Ns.
Makes sense
any other world cup NZ probably
given where both teams have been over the last year or so - if it were tomorrow id pick ireland
given how much nz look to be improving at the moment it might be an even call by the time this likely comes around
it cant be underestimated how much confidence winning a series in NZ gives a team. whats more, coming back from losing the first test to then win the series is about as hard an achievement as possible apart from a whitewash.
in fairness, sexton shouldnt have played in the second and probably third test last summer but the HIA protocols are a joke
and didnt he get injured against france in the 6N this year?
Can't remember off the top of my head re: France, but I thought he played the majority of the match
Looked it up there, he went off around the 48min mark
And he went off in the first half of the first Test in NZ.
indeed, forgot it was early in that game
yeah i cant remember specifically what happened but id presume he was injured if he went that early, when he wasnt involved against italy either id say it was more down to injury rather than giving the other OHs time
as a fan of the player, i want him playing as hes still the best option. as a fan of the man, i think he should have retired years ago. the injuries and more importantly, head knocks (not to sound like george hook but he definitely has had way too many) are surely going to have a negative effect at some stage, much as i hope im wrong
And missed some of the Autumn Internationals and wasn't available to play for Leinster since the 1st of January.
Honestly i believe it's foolish to be expecting Sexton to not get injured between now and the world cup knock out stages.
Saying that I am fully behind the Jack Crowley band wagon. I think Ireland will win a 1/4 final V France with or without Sexton.
in any future world cup, Ireland will be at best at 50/50 to beat an All Blacks side or France playing at home. If they fail to do this year, so be it. It is not the mental frailties of World Cup time. Ireland could play above themselves and still see themselves kicked out of the group/lose at QF.
Also the idea that winning a QF is some form of achievement that unburdened future generations of Irish world cups is also nonsense. It would be nice for them to show what they can do.
Are there many French fans worried about France's inability to win a World Cup in 36 years?
The better side at the moment which is Ireland, it'll be close but based on form you'd have to say Ireland.
Getting past a QF would absolutely make it easier for future teams to go well in world cups without the mental baggage we bring with us. We couldn't buy a win against NZ but when we finally did we've had an excellent record against them since. Belief is everything. Irish players go in to every European cup believing they can win it, Welsh players don't. That flips in world cups, even bang average Welsh teams know they can make the Semi Final. "Been there, done that" as they say.
You're right that we could play well and still go out due to the draw but our record tells us we crash out without firing a shot. We've been the easiest quarter final opponents in the tournament's history. Only once have we made a game of a quarter final, when we were massive underdogs 'giving it a lash' - at home. Scotland came closer to a semi final 8 years ago than we have in over 30 years.
We keep hearing about our record over Scotland to downplay fears we might not make it out of the pool but we're told our own horrible record in this tournament doesn't matter. If we're going to talk about Scotland's 1 win in 12 or whatever it is against us then it's fair to mention our record of zero knockout wins ever.
Many of us are fed up seeing the likes of Wales and Argentina in Semi Finals while we're packing our bags with a thousand excuses. They need to perform at this world cup and live up to expectations for once, no crying about the draw or injuries and hard luck stories. It's not accepted elsewhere so it shouldn't be accepted in the home of world's #1 side.
I’d disagree with this tbh. I think, psychologically, it’s definitely an issue for us at this stage.
But I’d liken it to our record vs the All Blacks. Once we got the monkey off our back, we’ve a good record vs them. I’d hope similar will happen once we eventually get passed a QF.
Win rates versus New Zealand from 2016 onwards. If we repeat this kind of form after finally breaking our QF duck I'll be thrilled.
South Africa - 3.5/13 = 27%
England - 1.5/3 = 50%
France - 1/6 = 17%
Australia - 3.5/22 = 16%
Ireland - 5/8 = 63%
Didnt Ireland have a good record against the All Blacks before the last world cup? They are never going to be so far clear of the All Blacks that we don't play close to our maximum to win.
Beating NZ/Fra in a QF and losing to Eng/Aus or whoever in the semis would be a failure for me. The QF issue is nice for pundits to talk about. There have been only two quarter finals where I'd have given us a better than 50% chance of winning - one where we unfortunately had a ton of injuries - Argentina in 2015. The Irish performance vs France was one of the best of the tournament/best of irish world cups, but sadly came at a cost.
The welsh one in 2011 was a 50/50 game against a good Welsh team, that had our number unfortunately. I don't see these as mental failures. It wasnt mental baggage that prevented Ireland from being better than New Zealand in 2019.
I think you are setting them up to fail. Being number 1 in the world is borderline irrelevant, given that the draw for the World Cup was made three years ago. If Ireland was in the other half of the draw and failed to deal with that opposition, then you could talk about mental baggage. But claiming that if Ireland fail to beat South Africa, New Zealand and France (at home) is down to mental baggage is nonsense. Even if they do everything right they could very easily get beaten by a better team on the day. Believing that Ireland only have to get their head right and its in the bag is an immature way of looking at this. They have no divine right to beat these teams. If they play to their potential, they might.
I'd never argue that mental baggage alone is what's costing us, tho. (It's why I said it was an issue). You still have to go out and perform. And to beat NZ or France, we'll likely have to be closer to our best.
But I think not having that mental baggage in future World Cup's would help us to perform closer to our best.
I'd absolutely agree with the following too fwiw:
Beating NZ/Fra in a QF and losing to Eng/Aus or whoever in the semis would be a failure for me
But I strongly think that if we do win a QF, we'll also make a final.
If we can get through Scotland, SA, NZ or Fra, who knows who would be left standing.
I would guess that he's only there temporarily. They need another prop up to speed if there is an injury and, with Kilcoyne and Healy not being particularly young, it's prudent to have Loughman integrated. But they did this earlier in the camp also with others such as Conway coming into the camp for a week before being released due to work load/knocks for members of the squad.
The phrasing of Fogarty's comment yesterday suggests it's for the duration of Kilcoyne's rest period:
"Killer [Kilcoyne] is just looking after himself for the week, so Jeremy will step in with us."
Earls to make his 100th cap v England
The records keep tumbling
What record?
