Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

M.c.h. Gibson.....agree with above. G.O.A.T.

I'm the same, but in Dublin.

For boys anyway, a huge amount do 2 of soccer/ gaa/ rugby.

Northside more soccer/gaa. West Dublin same. Southside more gaa/ rugby.

When it got to Under 16, it seemed like huge amounts of kids dropped out of gaa clubs in Ballyboden, Templeogue, Kilmacud etc etc as they were basically being told by their schools they had to.

Cistercian College, Roscrea has an enrolment of just 260 students, admittedly all boarders, and produced Gavin Duffy, Tiernan O'Halloran etc historically, and all of the following current rugby players:

• Cormac Izuchukwu
• Michael Milne
• Josh Wycherley
• Fineen Wycherley
• Diarmuid Kilgallen
• Jerry Cahir
• Max Flynn (Connacht Academy)
• Jack Deegan (Leinster Academy)

There are also 3 players starting for the Irish U20s this season who went to Roscrea (Billy Hayes, Joe Finn & Rob Carney).

Clongowes has only 450 students (again all boarders) and has obviously a very long heritage of producing rugby players (including current internationals like Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Beirne etc).

This is wilfully blind to the psychological components of sporting success. Does anyone really believe that no Irish team was never good enough to beat the All Blacks until 2016, when Irish teams had quite often beaten teams that beat the ABs with some regularity? Very often those teams were beaten before they walked onto the field. Similarly, look at how often successful teams first lost semis and finals in Europe, it's a rite of passage. Mayo/Dublin is another relevant example, all in their heads. I'm surprised how many people here discount the psychological difficulty of doing something hard for the first time.

And this is not to downplay the success we've enjoyed over the last couple decades. Thats been astonishing. I first saw Ireland beat England in Landsdowne in the early 80s and it was like a miracle, something that was genuinely novel. The WC is just another competition while the 6N is genuinely part of Irish rugby DNA, but it is the case unarguably that not being able to get past the 1/4 is an epic underachievement.

It not just the perceived problem of concussion, its the actual risk. Anyone considering rugby for their kids just needs to do a google search to discover that rugby is much more dangerous that the likes of mountain biking, soccer, surfing and even boxing, other sports that have head injury problems. Elite players have a 1 in 6 game risk of concussion, lower as you go down the levels but still likely that you will get concussed if you play rugby for any length of time, as anyone who has played will attest.

wrong thread

where was that doing the rounds?

Hate to say I told you so

Doris. Deservedly so.

Beirne, Conan & TO'B are my runners up.

Doris, Beirne, McCloskey all excellent, as they have been all tournament.