RWC23 Warmups - Ireland v Italy, Sat 5th Aug, KO 8PM - TV: RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, Amazon Prime Video

We have been strong and had some very good performances over the past 12 months. that doesnt equal or mean winning the world cup is realistic considering we have performed very well before and not then done it at a world cup. winning the world cup isnt realistic, a semi final has to be a minimum of what we achieve but the draw we have is a stinker and if we dont then all depends on how we dont achieve that whether its a failure or not, New Zealand have lost just twice since we last played them. they were a complete mess and are a bit better than that though still with some major flaws we havent completely seen in NZ before...

Did you actually look at the players in the ABs team?

Australia are poor. They won't be contending this World Cup. And I don't think New Zealand have ever been as weak going into a World Cup. France are our only danger in my book.

Nz first string beat Australia fairly handy. The team that struggled past Australia was no more first string than our team v Italy. I'd give France or NZ a slight edge on us by virtue of the fact we will have played close to our strongest 23 in 3 consecutive matches v Tonga, Scotland and SA by the time 1/4 final comes, NZ or France play each other opening day then will have luxury of selecting who they want and resting who they want for 3 games against us, with no disrespect to their opposition they won't be beaten by anyone else. But only just. Very hard to call.

That was another choke. We just couldn't get it together at all. This time is different and beating New Zealand in New Zealand is the major factor. We know we're better than them. They certainly don't want to play us. We have their number. I see us beating them in the quarter final, then getting to the final and beating France then as they won't hack the pressure put on by us and the occasion.

I didn't realise we had a week off. That's a bonus actually.

The biggest factor in our favor is that we have (had) the best defense in the world for the past 2 seasons. We have repeatedly managed to contain DuPont, along with stifling NZ. Edwards might have France improved from the 6Ns, where we absolutely hammered them, crossing the tryline 7 times. SA will be a big challenge to us, their defense is extremely suffocating. I hope Catt has been working on attacking shapes to beat the outside center blitz that has been used against us successfully by England and SA previously.

Ireland won the 6N in about as dominant a fashion as you can possibly win. I dont know what more Ireland could do going into a RWC and not be confident.

After catching up on this thread I'm not sure should I put my house on Ireland winning the RWC or hope to jaysus that we can get out of our pool.

I've been impressed in NZL transformation this year but I keep getting the feeling they are 1 year too early to win the RWC, they remind me a lot of Ireland in 2022 as in they've looked really good but still have flaws that need to ironed out. I almost want teams to try figure us out because by the time they've figured out we've been up to we will have probably evolved our game plan to another level and all the time wasted analysing us will have been for nothing and they'll be even more there for the taking!

True but at the same time we've yet to see the massive drop off when he goes off to prove it's a weakness. Its much worse if Dupont for instance plays every game as 9 is one of the positions that makes up the spine of you're team is built around him, so if he's off form or injured they are in deeps hit whereas if Ireland lose Porter it wouldnt be anywhere near as detrimental if his replacement can at least hold up a scrum.

Why would I have said that?