General Rugby Discussion 3

Wayne Pivac in 2021 6 Nations? They were jammy that year.

SA probably get a bit of leeway based on the fact that they're back-to-back World Cup and Rugby Championship champions.

Ireland are a team that seems to be past their peak, without a clear vision of what's coming through to replace their aging players.

I don’t see how being double world champions plays into it or should give them any sort of leeway, having an aging squad is having an aging squad.

There is a pretty clear vision, 50% of the squad is between the ages of 25-30…the vast majority of the squad, not to mention the additional squad players along with those that will be named in the A squad this week. Thats great but what you are saying about Ireland is exactly word for word what you can say about SA judging from the two squad selection. Ireland’s squad is 1 year younger, less aging players and to address the point of being past their peak it’s worth remembering…have the 2nd best win record of any nation in the top 10 behind only SA by 3% (81% vs 78%) over the World Cup cycle so far.

I get you want to buy into the media narrative, but it needs to be pointed out that it doesn’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny whatsoever. Surely the way the SA & Irish squads were covered despite being identical in terms of age and squad breakdown should tell you all you need to know about the credibility of the sources covering the squads.

I don't think "Farrell picked the team entirely" or "Easterby picked the team entirely" are quite the only 2 options available tho…

You keep saying "media narrative".

Even if we grant you what you are saying (i.e. it's being covered in the media for Ireland but not for SA) doesn't change the facts behind that i.e. that Ireland are picking conservatively.

Agree with this, depth is really important. Having a few players in their mid 30s isn't necessarily the end of a world cup campaign, if their backups are experienced and trusted. If there is no trusted replacement then it can be.

Some kind of age and cap combination might be a better metric.

I wouldn't know anything about the media narrative. I'm basing my opinion purely on being a non-Irish person living in Ireland and watching their national side.

Most of Ireland's best players are aging and/or past their peak. I guess the AI series will give us a bit of an insight into where they are right now, but my concern would be that I can't see them being better in 2 years than they are now, and that's undoubtedly what they need to be.

Cool story, Whats you’re opinion of SA and their aging squad?

Who are these players? Furlong, Beirne, VDF, JGP, Henshaw/Aki, Lowe? Conveniently forgetting Porter, Sheehan, McCarthy, Ryan, Doris, Crowley, Ringrose, Hansen, Keenan, are they all aging? All the players mentioned are coming into their prime/will be in their prime in 2 years, that’s also excluding the up and coming players that will likely step up. Most of Ireland’s best players are between 25-30 years old, this narrative doesn’t step up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny.

I mean that’s fair if you want to believe that, but what you’ve done is describe SA in a nutshell also, wonder wil you admit the same thing in their regard, have even less young players, less players 25-30 and more players who are +30.

No they don’t, they have one squad and, like I broke down, their age profile is a full year older than the Irish squad you claim has aged and passed their peak. This sort of comment just makes me more convinced that this is just you reading what the media has to say rather than just being your opinion as if it was based on what you’ve been seeing you’d have also pointed out the SA squad’s age profile just as much which you didn’t. And like I pointed out, no they ARENT in a very different position, I’ve already broken down in detail.

What signs of player development have you seen with NZL so, which players specifically and how does it contrast with what Ireland have done?

Also where is this significant drop off, Ireland have the 2nd best win record this cycle so far, only slightly worse than SA and significantly higher than NZL while using 51 players…

You are making a lot of claim and precisely zilch stand up to any scrutiny.

Ireland have the 2nd best win record this cycle. That's good. For context, of their 19 matches; 6 of them were against Italy, Scotland and Wales, 1 was Fiji at home and 3 of them were a tour of Georgia and Portugal.

How do you get 76% from the other 9 matches? 4 losses in those means a 55% win percentage.