I never understood why Schmidt decided to be so conservative. Most of his team, certainly the backs, were Leinster players, who he has coached up. Always felt it was an indictment of his coaching that he felt he couldn't get lads playing the way he wanted. He doesn't have Australia playing reductive footy.
Yeah there are two scenarios;
The net result is exactly the same, but the optics of scenario 2 are much, much worse from the "IRFU are only interested in Leinster" perspective because suddenly the IRFU aren't giving money to 12 Ireland players, they're giving the money to Leinster. There would be an absolute meltdown.
Yeah, I certainly don't disagree with your first point. I'd be quite happy if every contract was "an IRFU contract" and we didn't know about any central/provincial payment breakdown. You then wouldn't have non-Leinster fans wailing "why do only the Leinster favourites get central contracts??" and you wouldn't have Leinster fans wailing "why should other provinces be rewarded for failure??" and that's win-win.
Right, and this begs the question, at what point do optics and fan sentiment determine how the IRFU approaches the funding problem, like how sensitive is the IRFU to public opinion? Thats a bit of a slippery slope because, yes, people are pissed off, but they also don't really know wtf they're talking about. The priority for the union is A) keep winning & B) keep building from the bottom up. I'm not sure where on the list ?) keep fans happy, is.
I was going to say I don't think public opinion should be a priority but then equally, the only reason we have Connacht now is because of fan pressure.
What does building from the bottom up actually mean and without fans who attends the matches at national and provincial level. Can the IRFU actually turn their backs to fans
The kool aid jug is well dry at this stage....
Ah, I was referring more to getting players coming through the system by supporting clubs and schools with coaching and resources than I was thinking about getting fans through the gate. You can produce fans through marketing and results, but you can't produce players that way.
Somebody has been on the sauce for a few days it seems.
Leisnter getting pumped in the Champions Cup final to peak saracens, LaR and toulouse is a damn side preferable to losing to the world powers zebre, edinburgh and castres.
On the offensive side, there has been a change over the last few years from tries coming from the backs to the forwards. In 2025 11 tries came from forwards and 6 from backs, but in 2022 it was higher and it was the backs that were getting the tries, 15 v 9 from the forwards.
I’d love if Farrell rang up Lancaster and got Him involved in some capacity. Would probably need him in for the summer to have a decent impact for RWC
I am presuming it was Lancaster who brought Mack Hansen in and it was also Lancaster made JGP first choice for Leinster before Farrell brought him into the Ireland team ahead of Luke McGrath?
Thats true but other countries are now beginning to see how to deal with our forward surges (other than Sheehan). It also makes for turgid viewing. I personally hate mauled tries. There should be some disincentive - maybe no conversion allowed?
A well done maul is a thing of beauty… why penalise it? It would be another pointless change to the game.
Mauled tries are an art itself, commit 2 many defensively & you leave too much attacking space out wide.
Alot of changes in rugby in recent times to make it more visually appealing to a wider audience.
Some of these changes aren't always for the better eg unstraight throws to the lineout,not contesting a line out
You might like Rugby league
I do actually. A better game to watch.
I don't know if this has already been posted, but it's a pretty accurate, and damning review of Irish 6 nations performance, not so much from the players, but the failure of the coaching ticket
https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12317/13331309/a-baffling-change-in-style-how-ireland-blew-the-six-nations-chance-of-a-century-and-a-half
Prendergast, despite some bizarre coverage to the contrary in Ireland afterwards, did not play well against England, missing a simple conversion, kicking poorly from hand, and failing to get the attack clicking. Crowley emerged from the bench on 58 minutes, and the pace and tempo of the Test changed instantly - fellow subs Jack Conan and Dan Sheehan also thrived.
This is just flat out wrong. Both in its criticism of Prendergast and analysis of what Crowley did.
The larger point about a change in style has merit. Evolution was needed, we needed to adapt to defensive adjustments against us. I don't hold it necessitated a compete abandonment of the system that had us as the best team in the world.
Absolute waffle. Tldr: most of the article focuses Prendergast, painting a picture that if only the coaches had not stuck with Prendergast we would have played more like our old selves with Crowley at 10. Completely ignores Crowleys poor form this season (particularly December). It's a shallow reading of what's changed and is nothing but critical of SP. Change the bloody record.
What would you say about an article which was critical of both?
That could have been written by the most one-eyed boards.ie poster. Absolute nonsense.
He cites two reasons for the poor performance;
and goes on at great length about the meeeja coverage of Prendergast as though this matters.
To call it lazy and stupid would be the understatement of the year.
Edit: just in case anyone thought this was some sort of impartial review, here's the guy's Twitter profile. If he posted here (and maybe he does), he actually would be the most one-eyed poster we have;
Michael Cantillon (@mike_cantillon) / X
Some absolute beauties in there.
Journalist is Micheal Cantillon, a proud Limerick man.
massive fan of Lancaster , would be a great addition to the Irish coaching team
It's a bit OTT but accurate in a lot of it.
Prendergast clearly did not have the upside that the coaches were expecting.
In hindsight, it was a pretty giant gamble that didn't come off.
We won 4 out of 5 games in the 6n
It's not just about the here and now.
Each and every one of these new law trials are a farce.
Ireland reaped the benefit at the Lineout. And If it wasn't for the driving maul Ireland would be up **** creek without.
The main take away for Ireland in this 6N was crystalised for me in that abject performance in attack v Italy. -Lack of creativity to offset the lack of pace.-
No easy fix. And still need gain line.
The lack of composure v Italy (and a times v France) was exasperated by lack of 'Catch-Pass' skills and inability to create an offload (and then the subsequent linebreak).
https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/stats/2025
Offloads: France 63 Scotland 63 England 29Ireland 28 Wales 27 Italy 16Linebreaks: France 45 England 36 Scotland 34Ireland 26 Italy 25 Wales 21
Here you go, two beloved journos discussing Jaques https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHZBrxSMxCU/?igsh=MWhzeWhrcDdveDE5dw==
Compounded by having the worst scrum in the 6N.
