Great effort and Ireland's best world cup performance wise
What a game for the casual viewers!
Ireland needed the set piece to work well and it didn't. Well targeted by Nz. Congrats to them
But have a bad week at the world cup and you are out or on the back foot.
The make-up of the semi-finalists would rather tend to argue against that.
Ireland treat the 6N no differently to any other team. You should probably just accept that and stop inventing stories for Ireland's difficulties in the World Cup.
What's your point? Ireland have won numerous 6 nations. It hasn't helped them with the World Cup. They are two different competitions. You can have a bad week and still win the 6 nations. But have a bad week at the world cup and you are out or on the back foot.
England and Wales may take the 6 nations seriously but equally have a solid record at world cups.
Personally I think the 4 days celebrating the 6 nations was a bit ott.
Eddie Jones got sacked because of poor results in 6 nations and the press turned on him because he belittled the 6 nations
France went all out to win this year, all teams make it a priority and SA are bending over backwards to get into the 6 nations.
Ireland said 2 years they had a focus on winning the World Cup and it was a priority. Both Farrell and Sexton.
Ireland said the exact same thing after the GS this year and the GS in 2018.
I said they don't focus on 6 nations above world cups. This is what Dupont said after winning the grand slam last year.
"We have the World Cup in mind, but first we will all enjoy the end of the Tournament together. We will focus on the World Cup afterwards.”
Also, given England, France and Wales don't focus on the 6 nations above world cups
What are you basing this on? The English were maniacal about achieving the GS before their WC win. France gave this years 6N their absolute all. You are completely inventing this narrative of Ireland being the only team that cares about the 6N.
No, but you implied it when you said we viewed keeping Irish rugby alive as to the reason we focus on the 6 nations. As if focusing on a world cup would suddenly be the death of Irish rugby.
Also, given England, France and Wales don't focus on the 6 nations above world cups I don't know why you think SA and NZ would be different. They treat it the exact same way.
There's a reason the only the only team who dont prioritise the WC are the team who've never been beyond a quarter final.
Not really
2011 - Wales totally out coached Ireland and won comfortably
2015 - team had too many injuries to crucial players
2019 - got hammered, game was over after 10 mins and was the end of a slow death of the team which had started in Feb that year
2023 -
Not sure how you got that from my post. I never said they would come last or have empty stadiums.
The tournament which keeps the light on and rugby afloat is the 6 nations so naturally enough that is the competition we should focus on. As I said if NZ and SA got into the 6 nations they would focus on it as well.
Every QF we played the ball bounced wrong for us.
I don't why you're talking as if Ireland prioritising the world cup means they'll be finishing last in the 6 nations and they'll be palying their matches in empty stadiums. Doesnt say much for the Irish fans if that's the case.
Mayo loses finals.
If we could get to a final we would be happy. The comparison doesn't make sense?
We view keep rugby alive in Ireland. That means been competitive in the 6 nations. A competition which if you put NZ and SA into tomorrow morning I would like to see what their focus is like on the World Cup.
Even if we won a World Cup this year it wouldn't keep Irish rugby afloat without the 6 nations and the money it brings in every years.
FYI we lost to the best team on the day, the top 4 teams in the World, which includes Ireland can win or lose based on the bounce of the ball which is what happened on both qtr finals. That's sport.
Ireland is the Mayo of Rugby.
This defensive nonsense is pathetic. Can't be hurting the feelings of the rich sportsmen! You're so great goys!
Look on the bright side, 8 quarter finals added together makes two whole finals!
Muppet.
Mod: Abuse.
We lost because we weren't good enough.
That's the job of the Irish national coach. Other national coaches arent the same. As I said, Irish rugby doesn't view World Cups as being a priority.
The southern hemisphere sides in some ways cant be compared to the Northern sides for how they rotate players in pool stages because of the timing of the world cup. the timing of world cup suits southern hemisphere sides far more than norqthern hemisphere sides
You do see some northern hem sides do it.
The job of the national coach is to "win today, win tomorrow". The 6 nations keeps Irish rugby afloat, not the World Cup.
Ireland have been the most competitive ever in a World Cup and we should not forget that. Looking at the performance so far of Argie would give an indication of how much of a f**k up World Rugby made of this competition
Hat trick in a World Cup semi final? this is just about worth a group game not a semi
They don't compared to Ireland which is how NZ have 2 of the top 3 most capped players of all time.
You don't normally see Ireland do it either in World Cups. They also played them less in the warm ups than other teams. It was a deliberate strategy given how the fixtures fell.
It's also not why we lost.
They are unrelated in the context of who record is better over the past twenty years.
They do compared to Ireland, especially at world cups. You don't see NZ and SA playing their same best players in every single match at a world cup. You don't see any other NH teams do it either tbf to them.
One more title and years of mediocrity and despair interspersed and I think incredibly poorly set up for the next decade. Those things are not unrelated.
SH teams don't play their best players less frequently than NH teams do.
Absolutely.
England have been far more successful during that timeframe than Ireland IMO.
Even ignoring the world cups then they have won more titles the Ireland over the last 20 years so it's fairly obvious why anyone would take Wales record since 2003. Whether their record is better after 25 years is a different matter.
NZ are a different beast. The NH teams just aren't that good and don't consistently produce world class players. There's a reason they have only won one world cup. Having all the 6 nations teams playing all their best players every single game for the 6 nations isn't going to increase their chances of winning a world cup.
The irritating QF record aside, I couldn't care less about whether someone made a semi or quarter final. This year alone is enough to see that it is as much about chance as anything else. Wales have never beaten a SH team in a knockout for example.
They have one more 6N yes. I'm fairly confident we'll close that gap before Wales stop being a complete basketcase.
The only NH team to win the World Cup did so off the back of consistent 6N wins and NZ are consistently successful at the RC. That argument makes zero sense.
At this point I'd prefer to have Wales' record because its better than Ireland in terms of titles won and performances at the world cup.
In relation to boom or bust vs consistency, I'd argue that focusing on consistency is one of the reasons why we don't do well at World Cups. We don't build towards World cups, we build towards consistently doing well at 6 nations and we then hope to do well at World Cups. Other teams build for world cups and are willing to sacrifice performances at the six nations to do so. Trying to do both is very very difficult.
They basically have one more GS than us and two semi-finals. It's not "much more impressive", it's marginally better and it comes with years of underperformance and a complete inability to win against SH teams.
It's the classic question as to which you would prefer - boom and bust or consistency. But it was a better question a number of years ago before Ireland had more success. I'm not really sure why you'd prefer to be a Wales fan over the last 20 years at this point.
The reality is that over the last twenty years Ireland haven't really come away with that much more success compared to England. One additional 6 nations title and one additional grand slam vs two world cup finals and another semi final. I think the fact that people look at the last twenty years as being great for Ireland and terrible for England more highlights the poor standards and quality that Irish rugby is normally accustomed to.
Also, over the last twenty years Wales have won six 6N's, 4 Grand Slams, and been to a semi final twice. Much more impressive than Ireland.
Yeh but you’d have to have Eddie Jones. Careful what you wish for or on us! 😁
that's an interesting one, would i swap ireland's record post rwc 2003 with england's record? 3 grand slams and 2 6Ns against 1 grand slam, 3 6Ns and 2 RWC finals (quite possibly a 3rd one), tbh as much as ireland have been a more consistent team in that timeframe id still probably take england's record
But the perspective you need to bring is the nature of the losses.
The most recent one was in a game that could just as easily have been a final. Two of the best teams in the world ATM. One of them producing a game a way ahead of their current form.
I'm not sure what the ask is. Nobody left anything behind them IMO and they deserve at least not to be called bottlers.
By all means criticise the mistakes etc. But there is a line.
