r/irishrugby

>! AUS 31 - IRE 33 !<

>! Holy shit, that was a game !<

>! POTM; Hugo Keenan !<

Edit: added POTM

This is a rant so do apologise but its a every world cup cycle thing. It seems to be with every irish coach between world cups they have this mentality that they can't lose one game ever that irish people will lose their minds or something.

Every other big team bleeds so many players upwards of using 50 or 60 players over the 4 years between. France going to new Zealand with a second string squad last year and look at the benefit that had for them.

South Africa go through a lorry load of players a year it seems.

I totally understand people will say well who do you bring in but there are so many players you could bring in and bleed yes the provinces bar leinster have been shite but the individual players aren't and every one knows that.

It seems again for the 5th world cup in a row now we are coming in with an aging side with very little experience outside of them and they haven't played well for well over a year if you ask me.

Between the age, lack of sharpness and in reality the mental fatigue leinster have from losing the big games every year its so clearly evident on the squad.

Sure we scrape wins but firts important game we get turned over and with the number of genuinely amazing players we have in the country its fucking infuriating to watch the shite we have been throwing up the last year or 2.

Something has to change eventually but it won't with how the mentality of irish rugby is right now sadly

Absolutely depressing in this subreddit.

I'll say it again......kicking the ball away at 78 minutes to the opposition team is never worth the risk. If the attacking team can hold on the ball for 2 minutes, why can't Ireland. Plus there is 100% guarantee in the modern game of an offside or an off your feet call, which allows the opposition to gain 10-15m advantage for a minor infringement and STILL be called back.....lucky.

Honestly I think my grievance is with how long penalty advantage goes on for.

Strange one to analyse. Line-out has brought us 2 tries but given them tries also. Defensively outwide caught napping a few times. That try at the end keeps us in it.

JGP Big Stu the highlights. On the other side, wingers aren't in the game at all.

Thoughts?

The ball handling is so good, every pass is going to hand, there’s no dropping.

France can score tries so easily, we saw that against Ireland.

Ireland for the next few games have to keep the ball skills high and not do what we saw against New Zealand in November.

It’s not a good song but the anthem against Australia was truly awful.

Seeing Bobby B injured again has really hammered home for me how stupid the Ioane signing was for Leinster. I raised an eyebrow as a non Leinster fan when they signed Barrett but ultimately he's a great player and the provincial teams have life outside of the national team setup. But it out back Osborne's development (and Tector and others).

But ultimately it didn't work for Leinster anyway.

Fast forward to Ioane who was pretty washed up, had a middling season, prevented development of others and having cost a wedge of cash, contributed to them not resigning Lowe.

So the winger cupboard is pretty bare for the national team and we still have essentially one 13 unless Hume gets an unlikely call up (and I'd rather we gave Osborne an extended run there).

Entirely predictable imo, and partially down to treating backs positions as wholly fungible but that's a whole other rant...

Really poor performance from Ireland for large parts, where do we start…

1- lineout, still poor still crocking up multiple tries due to throwing it crooked, really poor at this level.I was told by one or two comments last week that I was overly harsh on the team after the England game, but I clear to see standards have further slipped
2-the defence, some of the worst defence I’ve seen at u20 Irish level, half arsed tackles which lead to line breaks which comprised all of Argentina’s tries.
Especially in the backs the defence is awful,virtually all times Argentina broke the like the Irish backs missed multiple tackles and Argentina scored.

3-handling, u20 level and still dropping multiple balls and throwing hospital passes and passes into touch, what can the coaches do when your players can’t pass or catch the ball.

4-style of play, Argentina love unbroken play and Ireland don’t, multiple offloads and flair seems to stump Irish teams.
The Irish backs this year were fast but Argentinas were faster.

•Some good players this year

Mcneice
Barrett
Deegan
O’Leary
Neill
O’Shea
Ryan

But too many errors that teams will slaughter you for.

*end note, Irish teams and the heat don’t go together well,lads looked exhausted in the 29 degree Georgia sun,