The Official Irish Rugby Thread

[outdagap]

That was written by newly inducted NCBI member, John Fallon.

 

[How bad boy]

Does anyone actually give a shit that the game yesterday was part of the Nations Championship?

I certainly didn't, was asked by someone this morning what's it all about and really couldn't give much of an idea, beyond "it's a noddy tournament to justify not having to play against smaller countries and hopefully get more cash. I don't understand the format fully yet, it's arguably worse than the absolute dogs dinner that is the European cup."

Maybe there'll be a point in the future when I care. Today is not that point.

 

[nelly sham]

James Ryan is just a liability at this stage. Get him out of there.

We were haunted to get a win.

Does anyone actually give a shit that the game yesterday was part of the Nations Championship?

I certainly didn't, was asked by someone this morning what's it all about and really couldn't give much of an idea, beyond "it's a noddy tournament to justify not having to play against smaller countries and hopefully get more cash. I don't understand the format fully yet, it's arguably worse than the absolute dogs dinner that is the European cup."

Maybe there'll be a point in the future when I care. Today is not that point.

Absolutely not.

It's still the summer / autumn games, nothing more and nothing less.
Unfortunately Andy and the IRFU seem to be taking it seriously where other teams have already begun having a look at new players.

The only difference here is that it's not NH Team versus a SH team over a 3 game series like it used to. The SH teams never returned the favour when they came north in winter.

 

[MerchantOfEnnis]

We've now beaten Australia 6 times in a row, which is nothing to turn our noses up at

 

[Colonel Lee Fields]

Does anyone actually give a shit that the game yesterday was part of the Nations Championship?

I certainly didn't, was asked by someone this morning what's it all about and really couldn't give much of an idea, beyond "it's a noddy tournament to justify not having to play against smaller countries and hopefully get more cash. I don't understand the format fully yet, it's arguably worse than the absolute dogs dinner that is the European cup."

Maybe there'll be a point in the future when I care. Today is not that point.

Probably have a bit more relevance when it comes around to playing the finals


On in Twickenham.

 

[How bad boy]

Probably have a bit more relevance when it comes around to playing the finals


On in Twickenham.

All of them? If so, FFS.

 

[How bad boy]

I've avoided looking at this Nations Championship format to date. It's worse than I had assumed.

So we've got the "southern" round in the summer*, then the northern round

Al matches are 6N vs SANZAAR+Japan & Fiji, so everyone plays everyone from the other, er, hemisphere.

The finals weekend is literally the following weekend, which has every one of the 12 teams playing in Twickenham over 3 days in November. Which, depending on the weather, could be an absolute shitshow. The positions of 1v1, 2v2 etc is going to be on the smallest of differences, as 6 rounds of a league is fuck all.

Presumably they're banking on rugby fans from every one of the 12 nations just booking their trip over to London for the weekend. I'm sure there'll be some who will be up for almost 24 hrs of rugby over 3 days, not sure how big that market will be.

It'll make a lot more noise than the normal international window, at the same time, sounds like a logistical nightmare. There's just under half a million seats to fill over the 6 games in a 82k stadium. No doubt fans will travel, but are there going to be a lot of empty seats?

I assume they're going to look to local interest to fill a good few seats, albeit it's £202 for the cheapest tickets for the Sat/Sun all day tickets.


Will anyone give a shit? Will it make a profit? Hard to be sure yet, could see that final weekend either being a massive disappointment or a great buzz, but one thing is sure, the format is an absolute dogs dinner.



*Japan isn't in the southern hemisphere, but anyway...

 

[Colonel Lee Fields]

Thank goodness Henshaw and Conan are getting minutes.

 

[nelly sham]

Conan at 6. Jesus wept.
Delighted for the 3 new caps all the same.

Also, can he just play Osborne at center and atop this dicking around. Another Leinster player that's going to have a massively impacted career by being thrown around the positions.

 

[How bad boy]

View attachment 51685

Thank goodness Henshaw and Conan are getting minutes.

Also good to see 26 cap Stuart McCloskey getting game time ahead of his 34th birthday next month.


Aki will really be able to change it up from the bench. It'll be vital in the world cup that we'll have a 37 year old on the bench, who never really had pace, to provide injury cover against the likes of LBB and Cheslin Kolbe in the crucial knockout stages.