Is this a "one liner knockout" game or something??
Your doing zero to develop any argument to back up your opinion. Maybe because you know it's an incorrect one??
A case in point that took me about 5 seconds to find. They're even talking about making a special exemption for him to continue playing for NZ while being based abroad despite the fact he's 32.
His experience to pass onto the young players will be critical to them progressing. He is playing fantastic rugby so why would you dump him?
When someone has been good enough they have got into the team, look at Hansen/McCarthy etc....players that most people wouldn't have picked but Farrell did it.....
The issue I find is people just want XYZ picked because they have a soft spot for that player. Then expect them to suddenly become an incredibel players once "they get some minutes" which is not really how it works.
Are Aki, Henshaw and Ringrose not all on central contracts for the last few years? We don't start three centres.
Completely. The argument that “we’ve never done..” has had an ever diminishing list of examples over the last 20 years*.
To the point that the RWC is the only blot left on our copybook. Yes, a fairly major one, and there may well be some things we need to change.
But I’m not in the slightest bit convinced discarding a current World Player of the Year nominee is one of those things.
(*You might call…. it ‘the BOD of the gaps theory’).
That's pretty much what France did after 2019
After a decade of underachievement.
Wasn’t their highest 6 Nations finish something like 3rd over those 10 years?
You can’t remotely say the same for Ireland.
Fat lot of good it did them
(yes....the perfect recovery)
And we know from their QF exit that this was a complete waste of time
/s
Great news that they got Aki to stay on another couple of years.
Now the goal should be a grand slam in 2024 with this same side and a big effort against South Africa in the summer.
From September on there’ll be loads of time left to sort out what new players deserve a run out in the autumn internationals.
Absolutely zero interest in a tour to SA. Can we not play the south Americans or Georgia or someone?
IRFU may only do that during a Lions tour if even.
Any tour to Argentina should now have to include Urugua/Chile but thats unlikely...
if we just do nothing than focus on 2027, short term pain for potential long term gain. If we arent in the top seeds for the draw, that is immediately going to make life harder....
Not sure how much difference it will make in the new format and I would struggle to see us dropping below 6th anyway.
The problem is that people massively overestimate the "long term gain" side of the argument.
Not going to make the irfu much money but would be great for the game and a great opportunity to blood some newer players
How much would a tour to Argentina make anyway? If every rugby championship/6 nations side played 1/2 more games a year against Uruguays/Namibias/Georgias every year the sport would be in far better place
Ive yet to see any example of where a team sacrificing games for success at RWC's has actually worked long term.
And btw when I say this I mean good teams deliberately being sh!t, as oppose to sh!t teams being sh!t (i.e SA under Alister Coetzee).
What Ireland need to do is keep going the way they have been and keep building momentum at least for the next 2 years and then when we enter the 2nd half of the RWC cycle then start making tweaks. That is actually how the best sides have actually won RWC's.
Any team that cant maintain a top 6 ranking doesnt deserve to be a top seeded side, I don't think Ireland have been that low in like 7-8 years.
I completely agree with you on you're 2nd point, its a complete myth with no evidence supporting it.
Agreed with a small but...did we go into this tournament with sufficient depth and might that depth have been better if we had rotated more in the previous 2 years? Farrell brought in a lot of new players and he certainly promoted most of the players who showed a lot of promise at provincial level but he's also had a knack for selecting players who maybe aren't sing lights at provinces and coaching them to become far better players. If that continues and our selection policy remains as is and/or improves we should be in good stead both for success in the 6N and for 2027./
For all the talk about we need a different approach, we’ve actually had the most successful international 12 months in our rugby history.
A Grand Slam, followed by what is (sadly) probably our best ever showing in a World Cup. We won all the games in our group - despite having the reigning champs in our group - and were inches away from winning the QF and having a very favourable semi-final to follow.
Given how well the team had performed from late 2021 onwards it was a disappointing World Cup exit, but let’s not lose sight of how much better it was than the 2019, 2011, 2007 or 2003 exits.
We’ve improved massively over the past 8 years, and the last 4 in particular. Advocating a complete and utter overhaul of the things that have shown consistent improvement over the better part of the last decade seems incredibly short-sighted
Aki deserves this. By far our best player at the world cup. I reckon the benifits of having Aki around Forde, Gavin etc are beneficial. Connacht are loaded with inside centers. They're probably deeper than all of the other provinces.
David Humphries to replace Nucifora according to the IT.
Not massively inspiring, given his time at Gloucester...
IRFU/Nucifora getting so much stick over the Pienaar issue... hope it wasn't a factor....
Not sure what he has done to warrant this appointment but I wouldn't be totally against trying him.
One issue for the sad argument that Ireland should "peak" for the world cup is that under our system we have the players available at all times, their minutes managed by the IRFU to have them at peak when the national team needs them. From that we are more or less always at our best, we don't have the club v's country that the UK has, we don't have players heading to Japan or Europe for a while and returning for the world cup cycle. We have our best available all the time. Therefore it stands to reason that we should perform to the same or similar standard all the time.
On a different related point, more B team tours should be undertaken, as a step between underage and full senior rugby the last one was a great opportunity for players to be tested in situations several weren't getting at their provinces.
Now that's a tour I'd love to follow as a fan. Sounds brilliant.
What do you mean? What would Ruan Pienaar have to do with this?
Belfast Telegraph running with the Humphreys to o replace Nucifora as well but no quotes from anyone to confirm it.
It would. And to include Uruguay wouldnt need too much extra travel with Montevideo in Uruguay so close to Buenos Aires....
The Pienaar decision will be pointed to as a success by IRFU, in the end Ireland ended up with Cooney who is a option at 9 available to Ireland and played some games. Ulster fans might not like it but after all the main job of the provinces is to provide players to Ireland. If Pienaar stayed would Cooney have got the chance he has with Ulster?
All that is fine, but I still don't know what it has to do with David Humphreys potentially replacing David Nucifora other than Humphreys was the man who signed Pienaar back in 2010 (or around about then).
