"I started a joke, that started the whole world ......" | Ireland v New Zealand.

Or headbutt them

The big thing the more casual fans need to realise is top 14 (playoffs especially) that one HEC game a year the odd six nations decider and rwc knockouts are another level to everything else entirely.

We have coped that what wins between rwc cycles may not be enough at rwcs and took the more time together to our advantage to develope a very sophisticated attacking style that needs a lot of practice in order to make up the deficits in power skill and dare I say natural talent that we have compared to France SA and NZ. I feared it would fall apart come RWC and it didn't although there were some moments. Funnily enough we were undone this time by the more basic stuff ball security kicking game chase and lineout scrums which is probably a bit of neglect or opposition having 3 months prep to dial theirs in more.

The stuff Schmitt used hammer home but we didn't emphasise as much in this cycle is what undid us but then I'd if we kept just doing that we'd be out of the pool/playing France tomorrow or losing by 20-30 tonight.

We need to keep making progress in depth/talent/athletisism/size that way we can get the balance right of what gets emphasised on the training pitch.

NZ did little in the past year only get their fundamentals right and keep backing their talent.

Mistakes.

We made mistakes and that was the losing of the game.

Some forced some not.

Doris knock on. Jgp ‘pass’ to POM. Sexton missed kick.

The great thing about rugby is that the bettet team normally wins. NZ the better team.

The RWC final is on tomo at 8pm.

Beirne had a great game.

Job was flawless.

Porter emptied the tank, and then some.

Tradition, culture & success at the highest level breeds real confidence.

The All Blacks remind me of the Kilkenny hurlers, they might not always win the main big prize but the players never ever feel inferior to their opposition.

Porter was poor in the scrum. Very poor. Costing us dearly. Cmon man. Constructive criticism.

Edit: everyone knows of the hyperbole they come up with

In fairness unless they win 3 grand slams in the next 4 years there's no achievement they can keep banging on about ...no matter how well they do and I expect success but feet will be back closer to ground even by the media.

An NZ tour will never happen again an SA tour isn't as formidable given their mid cycle form

I agree to a point. Our lineout wasn’t good enough. That’s been ongoing for 2 months now and cost us dearly (they scored a try off one of our lost lineouts). I’d be critical of that. It wasn’t an execution thing on the night, it’s been a system weakness which we didn’t manage to solve despite different personnel calling and throwing.

NZ managed to slow our ruck ball and make it a mess on the night. They brought an intelligent kicking game and found space behind our defensive line. You have to give them credit, they managed to disrupt our game plan and were clinical with their chances (they scored 3 tries almost out of nothing).

We made errors, but I’d put that down to the scoreboard pressure NZ managed to put on us and some of the slow messy ball we were trying to play with. We were constantly chasing the game.

I don’t think we left anything out there. NZ were near flawless, came with a gameplan to disrupt us at source, executed it perfectly and sucker punched us a few times with superbly taken scores.

Absolutely gutted. Really hard defeat to take.

For me, the Irish team's levels are so high that with maybe 4 max of the team playing to their level, they lost by 4 to an AB team playing to the max of their ability.

Let’s never forget all the talk on here about easier quarter finals, meeting South Africa in the final and having the edge after the group game and even some shite today about cruising past Argentina

such **** spoofers the lot of you

Fair post, but have to completely disagree with you on point 4, because if that game tonight is what passes for a classic game of rugby, then the game is finished. Maybe you’re young , but take a look at the Welsh team in the 70’s, or France/Australia 87 WC, NZ/England 95 WC or France/NZ 1999 & 2007. Those were classic games of Rugby.

Lessons learned from 2023 RWC, if we beat a top international team like the All Blacks in an autumn international or series we shouldn't go on to think we are the best like we have from 2018-2023. Ireland rugby has ticked every box except two ones. 1. Advance past the quarter final stage of RWC and 2. Win the World Cup. Number 2 might not happen but they should focus on number one. I just don't know how after tonight's result?

Wouldn’t be surprised at all if NZ go on to win this now. They just got over a big hurdle and are trending upwards.

Wouldn’t be surprised either if Southern Hemisphere SFs.

A marginal 1-2 series loss might have been more of a blessing

All completely logical.

Not sure of your angle. We won 17 games on the trot, saw off the World champions, that entitles you to be confident and to look forward.

I knew it could all tumble with a defeat and almost all if not all posters knew that.

What point are you trying to make? We shouldn’t have been confident? That’s wee boy bollix to be honest