The Official Irish Rugby Thread

[cactus jack]

Jerry Flannery joining the South African coaching team

 

[jeepers]

???


Australia is a jokeshop. South Africa have feck all money and NZ while they have the biggest brand, are small.

England and France are where the money is, but World Rugby is based in Ireland.

Absolutely. The northern hemisphere is very much where the power resides.

It's a bit like soccer. Brazil and Argentina have produced amazing players and won loads of world cups, but the power is in Europe.

 

[How bad boy]

Absolutely. The northern hemisphere is very much where the power resides.

It's a bit like soccer. Brazil and Argentina have produced amazing players and won loads of world cups, but the power is in Europe.

Ireland is also used as the example to emulate around the world, with very limited player & supporter base, have managed to be right at the very top of the global game for the past decade.
That value of the Irish system is obvious when you consider that 25 years ago, Ireland were solidly ~10th in the world with a domestic game that wasn't competitive. In 1998, they lost every match in the 5 nations and by my count, 7 out of 15 starters in the match vs England were based in England, not Ireland.
That period from 1995 when the the game went professional to 1999 when Ulster won the European Cup were mightily precarious, it wasn't obvious that Irish provincial rugby was going to be competitive and a lot of players made the move abroad.

Few countries have the capability to insist all of their players play domestically, NZ, England and France are the only others that insist on it. Wales and Australia are great examples of what happens when you get it wrong.

 

[jeepers]

Ireland is also used as the example to emulate around the world, with very limited player & supporter base, have managed to be right at the very top of the global game for the past decade.
That value of the Irish system is obvious when you consider that 25 years ago, Ireland were solidly ~10th in the world with a domestic game that wasn't competitive. In 1998, they lost every match in the 5 nations and by my count, 7 out of 15 starters in the match vs England were based in England, not Ireland.
That period from 1995 when the the game went professional to 1999 when Ulster won the European Cup were mightily precarious, it wasn't obvious that Irish provincial rugby was going to be competitive and a lot of players made the move abroad.

Few countries have the capability to insist all of their players play domestically, NZ, England and France are the only others that insist on it. Wales and Australia are great examples of what happens when you get it wrong.

My fear is that, at some stage, a country with greater resources than us is going to adopt our model and we will revert to the mean.

So get the pints in, lose the run of yourselves and cling onto the bandwagon for dear life.

 

[How bad boy]

My fear is that, at some stage, a country with greater resources than us is going to adopt our model and we will revert to the mean.

So get the pints in, lose the run of yourselves and cling onto the bandwagon for dear life.

France is currently punching below its weight.

 

[nelly sham]

England will get good. Fin Smith looked brilliant for Northampton against Munster

And Borthwick has started making small changes too. Freeman and Dingwall capped, Cunningham-South off the bench. Going with form players too

 

[menace404]

Absolutely. The northern hemisphere is very much where the power resides.

It's a bit like soccer. Brazil and Argentina have produced amazing players and won loads of world cups, but the power is in Europe.

I think you’ll find Italy and Germany with quite a few world cups.

 

[DennyMac]

Some turnaround from getting absolute bate up and down the pitch for years to "it's all a bit boring now we're winning"..

All the games are far from dead and buried.
Italy should give it a good go and we're unlucky not to win last year. Gatland is a prick in charge of 23 pricks, Scotland have spoiled the party in Croke Park before and England at home won't roll over either.
There's a lot of rugbg still to be played here.

Every year we hear Italy should give it a go but the fact is they've lost 42 of their last 43 games in the Six Nations.

 

[jeepers]

I think you’ll find Italy and Germany with quite a few world cups.

You are correct of course, which is why it's not a perfect analogy. Therefore, it's a bit like soccer. Just as I said.

 

[nelly sham]

Every year we hear Italy should give it a go but the fact is they've lost 42 of their last 43 games in the Six Nations.

Yeah but if a requirement to win loads of games was in place Ireland would have been booted decades ago and if the requirement was to always be competitive then Scotland should have been booted 20 years ago.

Italy are in a much better place than they ever have been. They'd be a danger if they won one of the first games and not the last roll of the dice ones.