Will Andy Farrell get the adoration Jack Charlton got?

Ah, really they did bottle it. Of the top four teams in the quarter finals, Ireland were always going to be the ones most likely not to make it through. (I know France didn't either.) Ireland just have that mental block getting to the semi-finals. If they had beaten New Zealand, I'd say that would have won the competition. The fact is that they couldn't beat a very beatable New Zealand side while having an extra man for a quarter of the match.

Those lads you list might not be from South Dublin, but the majority are from the same world of fee-paying school education, rather than your regular secondary-levels schools.

(And it was Cagliari, not Calgary.)

I enjoy watching rugby but I think it's real problem is it's a brutal sport.

Knowing what we know now about sports science I doubt it would allowed become a sport now. It would probably be considered a field version of cage fighting with teams and a ball.

Were people treating New Zealand as a gimme? I think people were confident we would put in a good performance and that it would be a 1 score game that we could easily fall on the losing side which ended up being the case.

New Zealand could have been beaten by us no doubt but that we didnt doesnt mean we bottled the game.

Which private school guys in the media?

The draw was a huge factor in us going out in 1/4s. there is no way you can question/query that?

Trying to bring in Romania is nonsense for a number of reasons. they realistically were aiming for a win in maybe 1 game anyway. Romania qualified for wc and our pool because Spain wereq thrown out for fielding an ineligible player in uqualifying games.

Any reply to the 17 games unbeaten and worlds number 1 team not making it to the semis?

To the OP. No. Never with rugby union. A niche game played with varying levels of skill by 8 to 10 nations globally of whom only two to three can feasibly claim greatness and boast actually prospects of winning the world cup. Ireland, to the many who've claimed they're bottle jobs? Well, in Paris against a more average New Zealand it seems they are as they shouldn't have been so poor.

Apart from asking a bizarre question, notwithstanding Jackie Charlton's temper and propensity for crude football despite his many stellar players it was the perfect storm and a generational era defining, never to be forgotten period. The early Charlton years and peak climax of Italia '90 will never be replicated in terms of the effect on the zeitgeist in Ireland. The period is historically and culturally unparalleled and unforgettable

Good Irish sportspeople have come and gone since but nothing will ever match that period and what Charlton managed to achieve by hook or crook, fortunately or otherwise, cannot be recreated or matched because the other thing that matters is making the people happy and football will always be infinitely superior and greater than anything rugby will ever bring.

But the context of this whole thread is rugby and Ireland.

Not rugby and South Africa or New Zealand.

Soccer makes people happy, especially kids

They deserve a proper organisation and a proper route to professional soccer in Ireland. Something we are sadly lacking in 2023. When Charlton had his era in 1990 that should have been a crest of a wave which the FAI could build a league with a whole new generation of young players wanting to emulate the team of 1990. But we are 33 years later and they have done nothing but fill the pocket of a load of dodgy men.

As I said a few times on this thread, if the so called soccer fans would spend as much time demanding the FAI to provide Ireland with a proper setup instead of slagging off rugby because it has managed to get a decent setup you never know what might happen. Getting hammered at home by Greece might not happen

From a registered player point of view the FAI still have 340k across Ireland more than GAA with 294k and way more than rguby with 150, based on google.

Yes playstation etc is an issue but that's a lot of people playing a sport which at the moment is been let down by the organisation in control

How would the rugby team do if they have 340k players?

Norway/Denmark etc would have similar population, they have 390k registered player in Norway. They have a pro league. I struggle to see why can't have a pro league that young players can progress in and then if they are good enough move to England or other leagues.

Genuine question to the rugby fans.

Is that era of rugby, late 90s and into the early 2000s not the most enjoyable period of rugby? The players seemed to be more exciting and more off the cuff type of running. They also seemed to be more relatable. They weren't the big machines they are now.

Personally I think the players got too big. And that made the sport less attractive to me, one of the reasons I tuned out too I think.