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Ireland, not Wales, are now the main Celtic power of rugby (if we didn't know that already)

Yet a made up team of ur best Nh players couldn't beat a Sa team not played since WC final.Nz and SA and France are ahead of ireland.and that will be proven next year
And your SA team couldn't beat a crap England when your toured the NH, despite having the ref firmly on your side and NZ lost to both Ireland and France...

Must be a boring day in SA for you to pop on after all this time to continue trolling.
 
And your SA team couldn't beat a crap England when your toured the NH, despite having the ref firmly on your side and NZ lost to both Ireland and France...

Must be a boring day in SA for you to pop on after all this time to continue trolling.
No trolling just the plain fact that every year before world cups Irish fans and the rest of the NH but mainly Irish fans come out with some amount of white talkinh themselves up yet every time in the world stage u get humiliated.u have never won a series in SA or Nz,u have the least 6N apart from Scotland and Italy.ur teams are full of foreign players and coaches and yet u still cont compete
 
No trolling just the plain fact that every year before world cups Irish fans and the rest of the NH but mainly Irish fans come out with some amount of white talkinh themselves up yet every time in the world stage u get humiliated.u have never won a series in SA or Nz,u have the least 6N apart from Scotland and Italy.ur teams are full of foreign players and coaches and yet u still cont compete
And you can't spell to save your life, nor see the English flag under my name. Ireland can compete and will compete. That monkey will be off their back on day as they have been up there as one of the more successful teams in the world the past half decade. To that readily dismiss them, especially for things that happened a decade ago in cases, is stupid and arrogant.
 
And you can't spell to save your life, nor see the English flag under my name. Ireland can compete and will compete. That monkey will be off their back on day as they have been up there as one of the more successful teams in the world the past half decade. To that readily dismiss them, especially for things that happened a decade ago in cases, is stupid and arrogant.
Check ur spelling to muppet.u say the one of the most successful teams in the world last decade yet can't win a series in SA or Nz,can't get past a 1/4 final either.there's only one world stage and that the WC.but for argument sake u want to talk about just NH comps why only last decade??why not go back 20yrs and see where ireland stand in 6N ***les?they have only just surpassed Scotland in wins against each other and every other team excluding Italy has a better win ratio over ireland than they have over them.so again I'll say it.Ireland not near top 3 in the word never mind top 2
 
I'd say we're 2-4. Not enough NH v SH rugby in the past few years to determine.

SA seem to still be living off the World Cup for their claim as no. 1, they've looked a lot worse than 2019 when I've watched them.

NZ had a disaster NH tour.

We've only really had 4 good games against T1 opposition, two were against Argentina and Wales so hard to judge, and we lost one of them to France.

France are currently very much the real deal.

There seems to be a reasonable dip after that. I suspect there'll be a very clear top 5 or 6 leading into the next world cup and I don't see us shooting ourselves in the foot this time, not that that means we reach a semi with our second consecutive worst possible QF draw.
These "best team" debates are always silly as hard to quantify but fun to have nonetheless. I think what you've said here is very fair, though, and hard to argue with to be honest.

Personally, and speaking from a place of systematic trauma, I still find it hard to put NZ anywhere other than number 1 though you kind of have to say looking at all the evidence that France are the best. I'd probably still have NZ in second but Ireland and SA there or thereabouts.
 
No trolling just the plain fact that every year before world cups Irish fans and the rest of the NH but mainly Irish fans come out with some amount of white talkinh themselves up yet every time in the world stage u get humiliated.u have never won a series in SA or Nz,u have the least 6N apart from Scotland and Italy.ur teams are full of foreign players and coaches and yet u still cont compete
I can't imagine you'll have many Welsh talking ourselves up next WC. But I think this is all part of Pivac's master plan to fly us under the radar. Lull you in with a false sense of security. Cuthbert will be player of the WC. You heard it here first.
 
Check ur spelling to muppet.u say the one of the most successful teams in the world last decade yet can't win a series in SA or Nz,can't get past a 1/4 final either.there's only one world stage and that the WC.but for argument sake u want to talk about just NH comps why only last decade??why not go back 20yrs and see where ireland stand in 6N ***les?they have only just surpassed Scotland in wins against each other and every other team excluding Italy has a better win ratio over ireland than they have over them.so again I'll say it.Ireland not near top 3 in the word never mind top 2
That playing ratio you mentioned is due to Ireland being pretty mediocre during most of the amateur era. Professionalism has benefited them more than most countries it seems. If you look specifically at the pro era, Ireland have very much superior winning ratios over Wales and especially Scotland, and are close to 50/50 with England.
 
Aye, I dislike the Lions and make no bones about it - should be left in the amateur era (like the Barbarians)

I like the Barbarians.
IMO it would work better in a unified international window where non Internationals from all nations could be picked for a full tour without worrying about club commitments.

That 2007 game v SA will always stay in my mind
Barbarians: Robinson, Rokocoko, Smith, Nonu, Neivua, Giteau, Marshall, Pucciarello, Regan, Ma'afu, Cockbain, Harrison, Elsom, Williams, Collins. Replacements: Brits, Moller, Flavell, Owen, Shanklin, Grant, Cohen.

Hell of a team that
 
I like the Barbarians.
IMO it would work better in a unified international window where non Internationals from all nations could be picked for a full tour without worrying about club commitments.

That 2007 game v SA will always stay in my mind
Barbarians: Robinson, Rokocoko, Smith, Nonu, Neivua, Giteau, Marshall, Pucciarello, Regan, Ma'afu, Cockbain, Harrison, Elsom, Williams, Collins. Replacements: Brits, Moller, Flavell, Owen, Shanklin, Grant, Cohen.

Hell of a team that
Unbelievable team that
 
Check ur spelling to muppet.u say the one of the most successful teams in the world last decade yet can't win a series in SA or Nz,can't get past a 1/4 final either.there's only one world stage and that the WC.but for argument sake u want to talk about just NH comps why only last decade??why not go back 20yrs and see where ireland stand in 6N ***les?they have only just surpassed Scotland in wins against each other and every other team excluding Italy has a better win ratio over ireland than they have over them.so again I'll say it.Ireland not near top 3 in the word never mind top 2
"Check ur spelling to muppet"

Says it all really. As for why not go back 20 years, because it is completely irrelevant to the team at present? Who cares what Ireland were like 20 years ago? 20 years ago England were on their way to winning a world cup, that's counts for sweet **** all now. I think the fact that you want to extend the time you look at to the period when Ireland were bad whilst steadfastly refusing to recognise the relevant, more recent information is very telling. Why don't you tell us what Ireland's win % against the top teams in the world over the last 5 years has been? Hell Ireland's win % against NZ recently has been better than South Africa's.

Better yet, where were SA 5 years ago? Shall we judge SA present on some arbitrary time where they were much worse? You seem to want to pick and choose what period of time you wish to judge a teams current ability by, anything except the present when it suits you. For SA, you act like they are still the 2019 team, for Ireland you act like they are still the team of the early 2000's, for the British teams as a whole you act like they are fully represented by their performance in the last Lions tour... How about just judge teams on their most recent results? Going by that, Ireland have beaten everyone you have said are clearly superior to them a fair few times in the last 5 years, at least 50% without checking it.
 
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South Africa may have lost to England but they beat Scotland. Who does the precious transitive property give the ***le to now?
 
If the World cup winner is not NZ or Ireland I will show my backside at the AJ Bell. That is my nearest btw.
 
Sexton is going to be 38 at the World Cup. You're not winning a WC with a 38 year old fly half.
 

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