Ireland vs New Zealand - 01/11/25

[Leonormous Boozer]

Man Ireland don't really have anything in attack anymore

Sam obviously brings other problems but we score far more points with him on the pitch, probably concede more too.

14 lads did really well out there, lineout aside, Crowley was shocking.

Harry Byrne is the answer.

 

[dirty harry]

Ref all NZ now...

 

[O’Doyle Rules]

Sam obviously brings other problems but we score far more points with him on the pitch, probably concede more too.

14 lads did really well out there, lineout aside, Crowley was shocking.

Harry Byrne is the answer.

Ireland work HARD for their scores.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Ah this is embarrassing

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Scrumhalf should not be scoring from there

Excellent footwork but Ireland won't wanna be watching that back on Monday

 

[dirty harry]

Scrumhalf should not be scoring from there

Excellent footwork but Ireland won't wanna be watching that back on Monday

Roigard MOTM by a mile

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Well that might be the worst kick for touch I've ever seen

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I'm just glad that we're only the third biggest losers after the ref and collared shirts with all the buttons done up.

 

[General Melchett]

Cullen to Ireland. Faz to Leinster I say.

 

[Scotty]

How many of this Ireland 23 are over 30? Seems like quite a few? I'm thinking Furlong, Henderson, Beirne, JGP, Mcclusky, Lowe. Any others? Obv being over 30 doesn't retire them but won't some ove 35?

I worry they could have a quite sudden decline as they move on post WC, and pre WC they havnt got the time to get enough experience to replace them.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Don't know what to make of that. Can't really fault the pack bar the lineout (NZ went bad there too). Felt the backs all had decent to good games bar Crowley. Lowe, McCloskey, JGP and Osbourne all played as well as you could ask for and Ringer and TOB did their jobs.

I don't think an overhaul is needed but we also don't have the players to play top class rugby without a top class 10 like NZ can.

We've fell off but it's frustrating because the fixes aren't big, we just don't currently have the horses to make them.

 

[OllyM97]

I think that game just showed where Ireland are at the moment. They are still competitive but don’t appear to have the attacking cohesion to really trouble the top teams like they did at their peak. 2023 will always be Ireland’s missed chance IMO. Everything had aligned for them to crack the RWC. They are comfortably behind France, SA and NZ now and England are trending in a better direction too.

 

[O’Doyle Rules]

How many of this Ireland 23 are over 30? Seems like quite a few? I'm thinking Furlong, Henderson, Beirne, JGP, Mcclusky, Lowe. Any others? Obv being over 30 doesn't retire them but won't some ove 35?

I worry they could have a quite sudden decline as they move on post WC, and pre WC they havnt got the time to get

I think that game just showed where Ireland are at the moment. They are still competitive but don't appear to have the attacking cohesion to really trouble the top teams like they did at their peak. 2023 will always be Ireland's missed chance IMO. Everything had aligned for them to crack the RWC. They are comfortably behind France, SA and NZ now and England are trending in a better direction too.

I think this is right tbh - end of a golden era. Don’t think we will ever slide like wales with all the talent in the Province's, but think 2023 was missed as we had overseas players at their peak. I think we’ll go into the next World Cup not a threat but with a favourable fixture list we could well just randomly get to a semi final.

It’s not like we will become terrible, but think we’ll slide back into “ah you never know we could beat NZ” rather than “yep we can have them today”.


Big 2 years for Faz! I think he’s gone 2027 and ROG will come in

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think this is right tbh - end of a golden era. Don't think we will ever slide like wales with all the talent in the Province's, but think 2023 was missed as we had overseas players at their peak. I think we'll go into the next World Cup not a threat but with a favourable fixture list we could well just randomly get to a semi final.

It's not like we will become terrible, but think we'll slide back into "ah you never know we could beat NZ" rather than "yep we can have them today".


Big 2 years for Faz! I think he's gone 2027 and ROG will come in

So good until the last 4 words!

 

[OllyM97]

I think this is right tbh - end of a golden era. Don't think we will ever slide like wales with all the talent in the Province's, but think 2023 was missed as we had overseas players at their peak. I think we'll go into the next World Cup not a threat but with a favourable fixture list we could well just randomly get to a semi final.

It's not like we will become terrible, but think we'll slide back into "ah you never know we could beat NZ" rather than "yep we can have them today".


Big 2 years for Faz! I think he's gone 2027 and ROG will come in

To be honest, that’s the kind of mentality that I’ve always had when England have played New Zealand - although this year, I genuinely think we’ll turn them over. Assuming of course that the referee isn’t an ABs fanboy. We should have beaten NZ last year and we were average then, we’re better now. The ABs won’t win the Grand Slam - England and Scotland both have a good shot at it I think.

 

[Duct Tape]

32mins played in 45mins since kick off

Doubt this is doing much to win over the locals

Soldier Field was sold out and literally every person there was in green or black, with jerseys, scarves, etc. All rugby fans. Crowd was very vocal with song until AB’s pulled ahead at 14-13. From there, wind out of sails and Ireland looked lost on the field.

 

[O’Doyle Rules]

So good until the last 4 words!

To be honest, that's the kind of mentality that I've always had when England have played New Zealand - although this year, I genuinely think we'll turn them over. Assuming of course that the referee isn't an ABs fanboy. We should have beaten NZ last year and we were average then, we're better now. The ABs won't win the Grand Slam - England and Scotland both have a good shot at it I think.

Oh i think it’s a shootout for 27 between SA, France and Eng

 

[Becca]

That was a disappointing match, wasn’t it ? Ref was poor and both sides struggled to get some cohesion for the most part.
England/NZ might be interesting now….

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

If WR can sort one thing out it has to be doing everything you can to get some semblance of consistency wrt to refereeing. Actually, scratch that. Even just consistency within games themselves would suffice. This was bad but the URC is doing a good job of eroding my expectations.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Yeah about right.

Feeling flat enough this morning, very little excitement for either of my teams but it's the first time I can say that in 9 years realistically, just a shame both didn't reach their potential in that time and I think we had a bit of a golden generation that will retire with a lot of regret, can't all time it like Rob Kearney did I suppose. I was thinking last night that this cements Johnny Sexton as Ireland's greatest, his vision and ability to run a game papered over cracks we had as an attacking outfit, the backline hasn't changed really and we're seeing now that it's full of guys who can be very good attackers at international level but only in certain circumstances that neither of our current 10s can produce at any level of consistency. In comparison, BOD was replaced with Jared Payne and we got better.

I think we'll come out of this autumn realising what a mockery the Sam v Crowley debate is, at the heart of it we have two average 10s, one who can't defend and one who can't attack. Crowley didn't have the passing game that a team like Ireland needs from it's 10 and he added a lot of inaccuracies to that in his kicking and decision making.

Getting lucky to only lose by 13 in a game that was there for the taking with our pack on top for 60 minutes confirms that we're not a top side anymore, it'll take losing in Twickenham for our media to accept it but there's no denying it. Two consecutive comfortable losses to NZ and a hammering to France in our last three games against other top 4 teams.

I think the challenge of the next two years is to stay somewhat in touch whilst getting minutes for young props and centres. Hopefully a 7, a 10 and some back three players show up in the meantime.

I've said before that Ireland have to work more in 8 year cycles than 4 just on a pure numbers basis but the dips hurt all the same.