Do we need more southern hemisphere Irish on the team to give us a new injection of energy? Bundi, Gibson Park, and Lowe have been great New Zealander Irish to have on the team but form has been dipping. The Aussie Irish are not much better atm. I think another 2 kiwis and 1 Aussie or a South African would be good. Perhaps we could increase the mixture to 2/3rds of the Irish team being southern hemisphere Irish as opposed to just a third. I think we would be better then.

Lot of talk over lots of positions and opinions, but wanted to do a sense check on what we’re thinking (and honestly interested to get some alternate opinions)

Assuming everyone’s fit, what’s the team you’d love to see Ireland roll out against England in Feb

For myself no huge changes:

Porter Sheehan (I hope) Furlong

Beirne McCarthy

Baird Doris VDF

JGP Crowley

Osbourne Ringrose

Lowe Keenan Hansen

Bench: Loughman, Kelleher, Clarkson, Ryan, Izzy, C Prendergast, Frawley, Casey

What an incredible jersey. Its genuinely the best one since the 03 one. Ive never been a fan of any of the jerseys over the past 20 or so years. The 150th shade of green, the collar, unbelievable.

With countries like SA, NZ, Sco, Arg etc all beginning to use collars, it seems as if its becoming in fashion again thankfully, a rugby jersey should NOT be collarless.

Im sure sales on the top is going to skyrocket, is there any hope going forward that Canterbury is going to see theres a real want for this style and see the euro signs everywhere, and actually start designing good jerseys?

With Henderson moving onto an Ulster contract, and rumours of Henshaw moving to France serving as an indication he might be moving off one, there's probably budget for another central contract or two in the near future.

McCarthy is probably the closest in that he's a guaranteed starter at the moment, but he hasn't reached the form he showed at the beginning of the 6N since then.

Before this series I'd have said Crowley was the other obvious choice, but with Farrell trying to push Prendergast ahead of him that's looking less likely.

Not sure anyone else is particularly close. Hansen would be if he'd kept up his pre-injury form, but he's looks a good bit off that right now.

He mentions two potential Irish props in his latest piece, albeit they are only starting out Andrew Sparrow Niall Smyth

Anyone have a view?

Valentini is charging at him leading with his forearm but for some reason McCarthy gets penalised for absorbing the hit. Doesn’t make any sense to me ?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2006/oct/23/rugbyunion.heinekencup2006071

Leicester vs. Munster in Welford Road in October 2006. I'm particularly interested in rewatching the last 10 minutes and O'Gara's winning penalty. Been trying to find it for a while but it seems to be nowhere online. Kind of a core rugby memory for me. Anyone have better experience finding obscure rugby footage know if it's out there somewhere?

This is nothing new I know, but lately I’ve seen so much mention of “blue media” and the IRFU having a bias for Leinster and being in Leinsters pockets (the Prendergast starts definitely don't help). Would love to get the honest opinions of anyone who actually feels this way on a couple of things, open to any discussion on something I might have a bit of a blindside on

Couple of my own thoughts:

1. If the conspiracy theories are right, why would the IRFU actually be pushing Andy to play Leinster players? Yes Leinster are the best team in Ireland, have the biggest fan base and our best chance of winning European trophies but is that enough to warrant that kind of bias?

It just got released that 80% of the IRFU revenue comes from our national team, support for which is related to performance. Why would they risk this performance for the sake of pressuring Andy to play Leinster players over potentially better players from other provinces? It’s also arguably worse for the IRFU to play so many Leinster players as it potentially alienates other rugby fans around the country. I just don’t understand the logic of the IRFU supposedly prioritising Leinster in the Ireland setup

2. At the end of the day we are all Irish rugby fans that want the team to succeed. Ireland winning a rugby World Cup would be a life long dream come true for any of us. Who honestly cares who a player plays for if they are getting us closer to that goal. Rivalries are great at a club leave but one of the greatest things about supporting Ireland is we can come together and be proud of our country

I am a Leinster fan and have lived in Dublin for most of my life, but would take a successful Ireland team over Leinster any day of the week. If Ireland lift the World Cup in a few years with zero Leinster players in the starting 15 I would be so happy I wouldn’t even notice. I'd take Leinster winning zero trophies over the next 2 or 3 years if it means Ireland finally break the glass ceiling at the world cup

Interested to hear people’s thoughts. Maybe I’m spending too much time on social media but things are feeling a bit toxic lately despite how amazing Irish rugby is right now overall, although that could be a whole other discussion in itself

Does anyone think the south african hatred and daily posts might slack off a bit with the break from internationals ? It seems like they go out of their way unlike any other country.

I've never really been a massive fan of his. He's a big boy yea and makes some good carries but it's not like he's a proper game changer for Ireland? Still sickened that he got POTM in a game where he had to sit out for 10 minutes for being silly.

Maybe I'm wrong, what do ye think. Munster bias but I'd love to see Tom Ahern getting a shot going forward

I have seen a lot of positive opinions about Prendergast tendency to delay his passing, and I can see how doing this at times can be affective. However I think he overuses this hugely and it really leads to hesitancy in the attack as well as defensive. I could see it making the other players around him hesitating and not being as in sync which I think made a difference in the flow of the game and not taking it to the line enough. I really think he needs to balance it out more

After watching those 4 games and going to the New Zealand one I feel as if Irish rugby is at a crossroad ,with a new manager coming in now and a lot of talk about the six nations coming up (in which Ireland seem not to be favourites).In my opinion POC needs to go ,the lineouts have been brutal since wc, o ‘Mahoney,herring,Ryan ,Henderson ,Murray etc need to retire ,we need to bring through new talent for next wc.

I think our attack has been figured out ,unless we get a penalty and then a lineout (which we usually fuck up) we can’t score ,we lack pace ,we lack power ,we also lack numbers in the ruck ,like usually it’s only 2 lads usually vdf and Beirne clearing it out ,we have lost so many rucks just because the rest of the team is getting ready for our predictable attack.I believe we have been figured out…

Rant over,apologies

Why did we leave on 'X' new player for so long, when the more established replacement plays better

At the same time saying

Why arent we phasing out anyone over 28 for NEWER PLAYERS

Geez lads, a bit more nuance would be good.

Also, while I'm on my rant, fuck the fake account scalpers who keep posting here trying to sell their tickets.

Any recent examples of us sacking backroom staff?

Paul O'Connell and Goodman have both failed upwards in their coaching careers and look as though they're diseasing Ireland's game with their ineptitude. Any proper accountability and they should be gone before the 6N

Thank god he never played for Leinster or munster, imagine the pile on.

What was the big glass trophy/award that the team had at the end of the match? Was it the Player award for Dorris?..

Depth is being built:

• 4 debutants who all look like they can play at this level;
• Osborne and Cian Prendergast with more caps (still less than 5 each)
• Stockdale looked close to being back
• Casey has taken a big leap forward

O'Connell should either be fired or given the support of someone who knows how to coach a lineout. He's had years at this point and it's getting worse.

Goodman has failed upwards. Destroyed Leinster's attack and has already started doing the same to Ireland's.

Lancaster is a huge loss to Irish rugby and it becomes clearer every day. He put a huge emphasis on basis skills. Leinster have gone away from that and it shows with so many passes being thrown either forward or behind so the recipient has to check their run

Ireland have not consistently performed well this Autumn

NZ was awful, Argentina was a strong first half and a poor second half, Fiji was very strong, Australia was strong in parts not clinical at all

None of this is a bad thing for Ireland. If I were an Ireland fan I would want to be performing like this in non-competitive fixtures, better to have this now than in a Six Nations or a World Cup. New players like G McCarthy, Izuchukwu, Prenderghast all had promising moments and it looks they'll all be international standard in the years to come

Handling was shocking especially in conditions that weren't that bad but it is clear Farrell's system still works. Territory was very Ireland dominated particularly in that 2nd half and once Crowley and Casey come on things started to tick again

Don't despair Ireland fans things may not have been amazing this Autumn but it was still 3 wins from 4 and things look good on the horizon

Good luck in the Six Nations,

An England fan

Not the cleanest performance but a lot of grit showed particularly in the second half.

What are your thoughts and expectations now heading into Six Nations? What needs to improve/change?

Mentioned here before but how is Paul O'Connell still 1st team coach for lineouts? It's been inconsistent at best and utterly incompetent against top opposition. If Farrell is going to use our lineout as a key attack point, O'Connell needs to go. Harsh but true. He's not a coach for this level.

Obviously Australia have improved since last year but they're not a team we should be struggling against.

Hopefully the deficit isn't too big for Casey and Crowley to fix when they come on.

Is Alan Quinlan the most pessimistic, whingy, commentator on the tv or am I too optimistic? He’s painful to listen to.

Anyone else getting really poor reception for this australia

2 tickets in blk 529 row p. Selling as got hands on better tickets earlier. Will sell for face value 120 for both.