Rugby Union 21/22/23 Discussion | RWC time!

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kidbob said:
Heartbreaking. Nerves definitely played a part as we made errors we don’t usually make and kicked away a lot of possession. Fair play to NZ, they put in a great performance. I’m hoping France can do it now, be nice to see a new winner.

Be interesting to see where Ireland go from here with a few big names likely retiring. I’d like to see us assess the squad and quickly start phasing out who might not be there in 4 years. For me the likes of Lowe should be replaced with younger players for the next 6 nations. It’s a horrible thing but just the way sports is. Anyone the wrong side of 30 we need to be looking to find their replacement and start building towards the next one. It’s probably somewhere we haven’t been strong at in the past.

Gutted for the players but they can be proud of themselves and their effort, went down swinging until the end.
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Some great points. In the past we've put too much emphasis on the 6 nations and hang onto older players past their best as we feel it'll give us a better chance of winning the 6 nations (which it often has) but it hasn't helped us develop players ready for the World Cup.

So phase out the lads who'll be too old for the next WC, and start blooding some youngsters. Even if it means a few years of finishing 3rd, 4th or even 5th.

But I don't think we'll do that.
 
moses said:
Nah, although it is what it is, from an objective POV the draw was crap and I personally feel Scotland were the real losers of it.

Having to beat Ireland and or South Africa to get out of a group is nuts.

It did hinder Ireland but so did our choice not to rotate.
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Scotland the big losers, so far. New Zealand and South Africa also properly disadvantaged by having one week’s rest ahead of their semis, after having to dig so deep in incredibly tough games. Hopefully the gulf in class between them and their opponents will help them limp through the semis and set up the quality final a WC needs.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Imagine watching those four games and not thinking it’s a farce that France don’t make the last four but England and Argentina do?

Let’s ignore Ireland for the sake of argument, as I know how triggering that is for many in this thread.

The WC has had two absolute classics in the QFs but there’s an extremely high chance the semifinals will be completely one sided, crap entertainment. Which is not how these competitions should be run. The quality of the games is supposed to get better with each round.
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You've had 4 absolutely classic matchups instead of 2 by this point. So if you're making this case as a neutral, it doesn't work either.... plus you should get another, or if not, a seriously massive underdog semi-final victory at the worst.

I'd be more pissed off if I was South Africa or New Zealand than anything, consistently consistent yet still have to have faced two of the greatest European sides ever before the semi's... whoever it was that said "You should of done better previously" when asked about the draw was right.

It can still be changed mind you :lol: The logistics of this tournament don't need for it to be made 3 years out!
 
Also I think the mini world cup tournament is launching in 2026, so it will be interesting to see how that affects team selection and bringing in youngsters.
 
moses said:
Nah, although it is what it is, from an objective POV the draw was crap and I personally feel Scotland were the real losers of it.

Having to beat Ireland and or South Africa to get out of a group is nuts.

It did hinder Ireland but so did our choice not to rotate.
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That’s not directed at you but just look back at this thread and you have a large number of Ireland fans repeatedly moaning about the draw and churning out the ‘we are all on another level, everyone else is shit’ line.

It’s really sour grapes and not a good look.
 
Zen said:
You've had 4 absolutely classic matchups instead of 2 by this point. So if you're making this case as a neutral, it doesn't work either.... plus you should get another, or if not, a seriously massive underdog semi-final victory at the worst.

I'd be more pissed off if I was South Africa or New Zealand than anything, consistently consistent yet still have to have faced two of the greatest European sides ever before the semi's... whoever it was that said "You should of done better previously" when asked about the draw was right.

It can still be changed mind you :lol: The logistics of this tournament don't need for it to be made 3 years out!
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See above. I’ve never tried to argue that Ireland is the most inconvenienced team here. I think Scotland got fecked most of all. Then South Africa and Ireland, equally. Then NZ and France (who at least had the benefit of only one strong team in their group)
 
I can hardly believe there's still talk about the draw.

You could say that it is better for the tournament this way. It had 4 competitive quarter finals, now two (presumably) easy semi finals, and then a close final. With a 'better' draw, most or all of the quarters would've been a bore, then 2 great semi finals, and possibly two tired and beat up teams in the finals.
 
TheReligion said:
That’s not directed at you but just look back at this thread and you have a large number of Ireland fans repeatedly moaning about the draw and churning out the ‘we are all on another level, everyone else is shit’ line.

It’s really sour grapes and not a good look.
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Why must you make stuff up like that? I thought you were just trying to WUM? Is transparent lying part of the act now?
 
Assuming the semis go as expected, it's surely Barnes as the ref in the final.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Why must you make stuff up like that? I thought you were just trying to WUM? Is transparent lying part of the act now?
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I think he is talking about the top 4, which is correct to be fair - we've all been saying it.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
More importantly NZ played very close to 100%. And when any top team produces such a perfect performance it’s an uphill battle.

I don’t think Ireland actually made that many errors. Apparently Tadhg Furlong was only involved in three scrums the whole time he was on the pitch. And I reckon they were all from up and unders. The handling of both teams was immaculate. Over 80 minutes we only made one obvious defensive error (the Jordan try) and Sexton only missed one kick at goal. The lineout was a problem but we fixed it as the game went on and didn’t lose any in the second half. Our maul defence was solid and good going forwards. Our penalty count was fairly low (and similar to NZ’s)

It was one of those games where a very good team produced a flawless performance, so the sort of minor errors that happen in every game get magnified out of all proportion. Ireland shouldn’t be too hard on themselves. Although they will be, of course.
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The Dorries dropped catch from the NZ restart was a killer. That wasn't a minor error, I'd go as far as to say it cost us the game. Harsh as that may sound.

And for the love of God, can someone more versed in rugby explain to me why in the 2nd half James Lowe, with Ireland a man extra, kicks the ball back to NZ?! WE HAVE A MAN EXTRA, WHY ARE YOU KICKING IT BACK TO THE OTHER TEAM??!! Madness!

NZ were able to eat up most of the sin bin clock and ended up winning the sin bin period 3-0. Make it make sense, please!
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Imagine watching those four games and not thinking it’s a farce that France don’t make the last four but England and Argentina do?

Let’s ignore Ireland for the sake of argument, as I know how triggering that is for many in this thread.

The WC has had two absolute classics in the QFs but there’s an extremely high chance the semifinals will be completely one sided, crap entertainment. Which is not how these competitions should be run. The quality of the games is supposed to get better with each round.
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Pogue Mahone said:
Scotland the big losers, so far. New Zealand and South Africa also properly disadvantaged by having one week’s rest ahead of their semis, after having to dig so deep in incredibly tough games. Hopefully the gulf in class between them and their opponents will help them limp through the semis and set up the quality final a WC needs.
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Make your mind up
 
The best part of today is despite being the only undefeated team left in the tournament.... Englands odds for the outright win have worsened :lol:
 
Ireland winning that game against us and setting them up for a NZ clash I think was one of those can a win be a loss moments.

I think Ireland would have won it against France and we would have lost it against NZ.

I was actually relieved in the end, but couldn't speak it out loud in case the rugby gods had something else in mind.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Maybe? Although why would he mention Ireland fans only? Because the French and South African fans on here have made the same point.
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True I didn't see the mention of Ireland.

Anyway, our points have been proven. These games were fantastic. The final won't live up to then purely because it's a final
 
SirAnderson said:
Ireland winning that game against us and setting them up for a NZ clash I think was one of those can a win be a loss moments.

I think Ireland would have won it against France and we would have lost it against NZ.

I was actually relieved in the end, but couldn't speak it out loud in case the rugby gods had something else in mind.
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It now means we play NZ in the final though. The old enemy
 
That was one of, if not the best, rugby match I’ve watched I reckon. First half was arguably the best sport I’ve ever watched. The quality, the pace, the intensity, it was ridiculous.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Maybe? Although why would he mention Ireland fans only? Because the French and South African fans on here have made the same point.
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because the majority of the whinging is coming from yourself and other Ireland fans (not all mind but it is rather constant as others have mentioned)
 
That was an incredible game of rugby.
Best of the tournament so far by a long way, SA have been extremely boring in terms of playing style for a while but that was very different.
Lots of very bitter Irish fans in here upset they still haven’t won a World Cup knock out match.
You’ll get to gloat when England lose in the semis as we all expect we will.
But at least we were there…………
 
The Purley King said:
That was an incredible game of rugby.
Best of the tournament so far by a long way, SA have been extremely boring in terms of playing style for a while but that was very different.
Lots of very bitter Irish fans in here upset they still haven’t won a World Cup knock out match.
You’ll get to gloat when England lose in the semis as we all expect we will.
But at least we were there…………
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Can’t argue with that.

It’s the titanic battle you faced to get there which is so impressive…
 
unchanged_lineup said:
Of course there would, tonight. Because this should have been a semi final or final.
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The thing is though this kind of scenario is being made out to be totally unique and never seen before in the history of sporting tournaments..

There are often groups of death and teams can end up with easier paths. There’s even some giant killings along the way.

The continued moaning and underhand comments are rather tiresome. Just accept it and move on.
 
TheReligion said:
The thing is though this kind of scenario is being made out to be totally unique and never seen before in the history of sporting tournaments..

There are often groups of death and teams can end up with easier paths. There’s even some giant killings along the way.

The continued moaning and underhand comments are rather tiresome. Just accept it and move on.
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Yeah from an Ireland perspective it's frustrating because the quarter finals have been such a tough barrier to overcome, although on most occasions I would say Ireland were underdogs going into them and then still underperformed on that lack of expectations, but to win the tournament any side was going to have to beat 2 of the top 4 sides in knockout games and Ireland weren't good enough on the day to win the first one so moaning about the draw (despite everyone agreeing it was silly that it was done so early) is a bit pointless.

There is a justifiable concern that the semi finals might not be that close but the other option was potentially having 3 or 4 not very competitive quarter finals, that's the reality when you have a sport that is only played by about 10 countries and several of them aren't currently that good.
 
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