Rugby world cup post mortem

In ,circa, the last 10 min of the match and especially in those 28 odd passes before the final whistle most / all of the Irish players were ‘ on their last legs’ - but most especially was Sexton. He was basically just standing in the line and just passed the ball as soon as he received it and then just stood there again to repeat same. Looked like as if he was bereft of ideas, looked like as if he had given up , was going through the motions , etc, etc. I reckon that he was totally, totally exhausted , was probably carrying some physical pain. It was not like him at all. Management should have SPOTTED it and replaced him. It’s not up to the players to tell management that they need to be replaced.

maybe management felt that Sexton ‘s rugby brain was reason enough to leave him on for the full 80 min? We are all experts in hindsight

Yet plenty of people have mentioned the advantage the SH teams have.

World Rugby is looking at a global season. Plus at the moment SA are nearly playing a full 12 month season, it's not sustainable.

The Roy Keane act is laughable here.

We did not win the game did we. It was a crazy decision to leave Sexton on for the full match he is 38 years old he is a shadow of the player he was last year not to mind 5+ years ago.

O'Gara WA right on one thing Johnny wound not play second fiddle to another player. He was never redl team player. On more than O E occasion he threw a wobbly over being taken off.

If Farrell had no confidence in Crowley or banned him for the late concessions against Scotland he should have Ross Byrne on the bench.

NZ knew with 10+ minutes to go that JS would not be making any serious runs and would be passing out along the line or kicking so they did not need to actively mark or shadow him.

It was a serious error letting him on.

He brought a squad but gave them very little time, even against the minnows. Beating 3rd rate teams by 70pts was of no use to us when our back up players weren't getting up to speed and taking the workload off the first 15.

Jimmy O Brien was excellent for the 20mins we saw him for. Had he been given his chance against Scotland we would have had a fully fit Lowe or Hansen in the QF.

The Scotland game wasn't overly physical but we lost some key players and preparation time due to fielding the same 15 yet again.

I cant see how anyone could argue that we should have been going full strength or close to it for Tonga and Romania.

I can almost guarantee that if you look back through world Cup winners or finalists of the last 3 or 4 tournaments you will find no teams that rotate their players as little as we did.

Honestly why are people acting like this was a shock result. FFS they haven't lost to Samoa in the QF. What I thought was obvious before the tournament began was 4 teams were ahead of the rest and 2 of them would be gone at the QF. The tournament so far has shown the gap between the top 4 and the rest. 4 years ago was an embarrassing disaster beaten by Japan and hammered by NZ. This time we hammered the 5th ranked team beat SA and lost a close game to NZ.

Both QF have shown there's a score between those 4 teams and on the day small margins will win it either way. In the series we beat them 2 1 but again the games were seriously competitive. Yes Ireland's scrum and lineout were poor but to suggest Ireland completely flopped is ridiculously negative. Yes it's very disappointing but Irish rugby is clearly in excellent condition and plenty of talent coming through still.

Who said it was a WC success? we lost the match.

Rugby is as successful as soccer over the timespan of the respective WC’s. Irish rugby has won everything available to win bar a WC.

It really doesn’t require the affirmation of all. If it doesn’t rock your boat, find something that does. My partner hates it and manages to avoid it in a rugby mad house. Enjoys soccer and enjoys it in a soccer mad house, ditto GAA

I don’t know why you think you are being defrauded, what have you invested and why did you do it, thinking what you do. Sounds a bit deranged to me TBH

The fact you straight away are calling them frauds kind of bars the rest of the nonsense you have written. Just shows you are delighted with the loss, which allows you to have a rant.

Go watch it.

He was active around the ruck for the very last play trying to keep the ball moving.

He was not 'standing still' in the middle unable to move for that entire last play as stated.

I.E. 'he was out on his feet' is a totally wrong take.

Like everyone else on the field he was tired.

After that, second guessing the decision a coach is paid to make, because you have the benefit of hindsight and a bee in your bonnet about one player is wrong. Or pointless. Take your pick.

Totally agree here. I posted that exact same take earlier. Except I think Barnes was extremely harsh on the team going forward when ignoring multiple infringements and particularly Whitelock not releasing in the final play.

Sexton, the player 'out on his feet' was buzzing around that final ruck doing the marshalling as you say. I too believe he was trying to engineer a penalty, based on previous success with the lineout maul and the phenomenal NZ defensive line that was proving difficult to breach late in a gruelling game. The correct play in my opinion.

Yeh, it's so easy to do.

Still bleating on about Sexton. Unhealthy.

Well they had done it twice. And would have learned from the held up one.

I'm still absolutely gutted about that exit. The most frustrating thing is that Ireland didn't play at their best, it was there for the taking if they had got the performance right but they didn't. Despite the shambles of a draw, we still should have been in the final.

I would be very hopeful that given a more sensible draw in the future we will break the QF curse. Also I think the acheivements and performances of this team have been incredible and there is a lot to be hopeful for in the future.

As someone else stated, we should prepare for the next WC. Not just the 6N and the test series/tours. We need to do a full squad review and focus on geting the next generation of players up to speed for 4 years time. If can be competitive and maintain our high rankings in the interim (which we absolutely should be able to do) then great. But there should be a long term plan for the next WC. And I think Andy Farrell is the right guy to keep at the helm for the foreseeable future.

Ur right, was porter trying to win an early scrum penalty, just keep it up and keep square for first one anyway and see, also the all blacks were definitely encroaching on our line out but we didn't on theirs, if the referee isn't reffing it then work away but no point being the good boys, we just seem to try to be the non sinners but other teams push every limit. We need to wise up, and kelleher should have scored 100%, no excuse if in doubt stay in maul until he has more protection and then drop, very bad mistake to make that cost us the game and the opposition getting a drop out is a ridiculous reward.

We also saw the value of not doing it and going for the max.