Your prefered QF

The jokes on the rest of the world though as they come from inferior rugby nations. Our current form is being based on us rotating our squad to look at individual players and give them a chance to show what they can do while also making sure we peak at the right time, we are literally doing what you are asking for and preparing for the RWC and now all of a sudden results and performances are most important...dont you see the irony in you're post, what do you want a great performances & results or preparation for the RWC...you confuse me on this occasion.

No you are very wrong, in fact its worse because you could at least be a bigger man and just accept this "peaking to early" theory isn't going to materialise but ofcourse you wont, like a dog with a bone with that theory.

Because bookies take alot more into account than just performances on the field slick, the fact you even bring this up shows you dont have much understanding of how bookies work so why even use it as a point? That's usually the last go to line for a despite Ireland detractor, it's the "hey, I cant think of anything rugby related to bash this team so ill come up with baseless theories and bookies odds".

World Cup matches are literally the most relevant. Something Irish rugby could do with learning.

That’s because you are a fan of rugby and Ireland, unlike the person you are responding to. Their only joy is in Ireland losing. Which explains the bitterness when we lose rarely.

This is a tough one. And my perspective may change over the next few weeks, but right now I’d rather NZ. I think our style works well against them and they are a bit up and down still. But France are a funny side in that they can lose focus and/or concentration quite easily and be vulnerable. The problem is you just don’t know when that might be. We can beat both, but I’d fancy our chances better against NZ as things stand.

I’d agree there is some fragility there. But I think that’s understandable. The likes of England and SA have this innate confidence because that’s part of their national identity, plus they’ve grown up watching their teams deliver in big pressurised games. The more you see it, the easier it is.

Ireland hasn’t exactly got a long history of that. It’s really only been this last generation or so that have built up to a point to have the goods to back it up. It takes time to build that innate confidence. It’s not just a switch that can be flicked. Sadly, you can lose confidence quickly, but building it up is a lot harder and a lot slower!

That said, I think France can be jittery too. Again, I think that’s a cultural thing. NZ can be as well as they have started to see their aura fade before them. Being the generation in place for that is going to hurt and I don’t think they have that general cultural confidence thing at all.

SA and England are the only 2 countries I’d associate with that sort of confidence. And England don’t have it right now for obvious reasons. Which is one of the reasons I reckon that this RWC is well set up for SA. A team that have won just a single Rugby Championship in over 10 years. It’s crazy to think they could have more RWC titles in that time than anything else.

Avoid the home team/ref at all costs plus we know we can beat NZ

Do I need to show you the rankings again?

It's unfortunate that we have consistently ended up playing teams that are in the habit of turning it on against us. If we had played SA in 2019 for example, I think we would have performed much better than we did vs NZ. So naturally, the two teams that have plenty of history of walloping us are our two options. With Argentina likely waiting in the semi.

France won't have Clerc this time out tho, so I'd go with them.

Yet the closest we got to a semi final was in 1991.

And if you look at the last 12 years, we actually haven't been getting any closer. 2011-Lost by 12 in the quarter finals. 2015-Lost by 23 in the quarters. 2019-Lost by 32 points in the quarters. That doesn't suggest progress to me.

I love how you take whatever metrics suit your position and ignore all other ones. Irish rugby has been in a very definitive upward trend for the last 20 years or so. This is literally the only monkey still on our back. We’ll break it eventually. It may not be this year but it will happen. And it’s okay to enjoy all the other stuff in between.