RWC Discussion thread: Ireland are bulbous and ready to dominate

[Leonormous Boozer]

Oi oi oi!!!

 

[munstermuffin]

Zebo injured his knee in open training sesh apparently.

Zebo. Boss and D'arcy all pulled up but none serious.

 

[johnto20]

Who do you reckon will make it out of Group A? Pool A is previewed here http://tinyurl.com/of66473. I reckon Wales will be the unlucky team to finish third.

 

[Kiwi_]

Welsh forward pack might be too much for the Aussies.

 

[johnto20]

agree, but the australians back line is pretty good - if they can click.

 

[Scrum Bum]

I hope the Wobblies get sent home early.

I want Ireland to do good. I like them, England have a history of being worshiped by their media and we can't have a repeat of the early 2000s... And I don't like the Welsh who were the benefactors of some questionable calls in 2011 and are also overhyped. Ireland are good, but if they want to dominate they've got to equal something to the ABs recent record. World cup + dominate 6N + grand slams and clearly being the bane of the ABs. I remember times in the early 00s where the Wallabies and English were absolutely hated in NZ, and years where the South Africans dominated

 

[big ginger 8]

[video]https://youtu.be/VH2fq3zN0JU[/video]

Just gonna leave that there....

Some good new today as Joe Schmidt signs and extension up until 2017.

http://www.the42.ie/joe-schmidt-ireland-2015-2230258-Jul2015/

 

[bw245]

Fantastic news about Joe. I was convinced he wasn't going to stay.

 

[ncurd]

Does this rule out him coaching the Lions Tour? I'm not convinced you can coach the national side in the same season as coaching the Lions.

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

Does this rule out him coaching the Lions Tour? I'm not convinced you can coach the national side in the same season as coaching the Lions.

Wouldn't that have ruled out Warren Gatland?

 

[Peat]

Presumably he'd take a sabbatical in that event, so no.

 

[ncurd]

Wouldn't that have ruled out Warren Gatland?

Well I could be flippant and say he didn't take a Lions tour but a Welsh tour with some other players...but I shan't

TBF Gatland took a sabbatical starting during the AI's (I'd have preferred him to start before but hey ho). However correct me if I'm wrong didn't his contract extension specifically note the Lions tour?

 

[Duck a l'Orange]

Presumably he'd take a sabbatical in that event, so no.

Sorry, who were you replying to?

 

[munstermuffin]

Big point circling the provincial camps is Schmidt has his eyes firmly on the Lions job. He knows the All Blacks gig isn't available so sees the carrot of leading a Lions team to beat All Blacks.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Coaching the Lions against a decently put together New Zealand side must be career suicide.

 

[munstermuffin]

Coaching the Lions against a decently put together New Zealand side must be career suicide.

Yes but he's the type that likes to achieve. If he has a decent RWC with Ireland and crazily wins that Lions tour.
It's not a questions of 'Will he get NZ job?' more a case of 'What price will he tell the All Blacks to pay?'

He's nothing left to achieve on this side of the world other than a Lions tour win. And you call it suicide but the truth is he's very capable of producing it.

 

[Scrum Bum]

Who's this? Warren Gatland? In 2007 Graham Henry had a lot of detractors, and I mean a lot who wanted him out and Robbie Deans for ABs head coach.

How silly they must feel now that 2011 went well and GH left the team in a good place to be taken care of by his minions, and now that he is doing pretty well in the latter stages of his career, while Robbie Deans is coaching in Japan. Warren Gatland like Robbie Deans would have difficulty putting such a good team of assistant coaches together. Robbie Deans has blatant Crusader bias and has a track record of alienating players (such as Christian Cullen who ultimately left) whereas im not sure if Gatland has the connections in NZ to work with some of the other better coaches here, but having said that Graham Henry initially coached in the NH before moving back and putting his team together, so Gatland probably can do it, but it depends on who he works with.

Can England please have the following coaches for 2019: Mark Hammett and John Kirwan.

 

[Bluemoon]

Can England please have the following coaches for 2019: Mark Hammett and John Kirwan.

Yes please do ...

 

[munstermuffin]

Just said I'd put it here but rumours in overdrive Cian Healy had suffered a setback in his recovery from neck surgery and is 50/50 to get to World Cup now.

 

[lynam1104]

Given that bad tend to rumours turn out to be true this does not bode well. We've done well without Healy in the past but realistically he is one of the few players we have who is the best in their position in the world.