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

Completely agree, many capable and fit players were underused against the weaker teams.

As the days go on the more I think it was critical.

And I was ok with Farrell sending out the full team for the pool games.

Faith in our squads ability rather than the A team might be the key we are looking for.

Me too, in the heat of the moment i was one of the first to call it a bottling, but looking back to Beirne running the length of the field to score a last minute meaningless try against Romania in that heat and contrasting him to receiving the ball from Murray in what the 32nd phase late on against NZ and just standing still only able to raise an arm to absorb the tackle has made me think again.

Seemingly two Irish players played every minute of every game, Keenan was one, was Beirne the other? That is just too much.

South Africa had just played the ruqby championship. we were coming in from the off season with players having played only 2 or 3 games before the worqld cups started.

It wasnt foolish. would it have been better to have more players going in cold with having played even less before the biggest game of pool stage?

Yes very foolish. Look at the end result, an absolutely shattered team knocked out in the quarter finals.

There is a squad for a reason. Across the Romania and Tonga games it could have been arranged for every player to play and also therefore rest.

These guys play together so frequently they didn't need glorified run outs against 2 filler teams to knit as a unit.

Would we have done better with players not having the game time built up needed to peak in a 1/4?

We primarily needed our main players to get game time to be best prepped for the bigger games. The players didnt need game time to get together as a unit but to get minutes in the legs. in any other year bar a world cup year we would be aiming to peak for games far later than September/October.

I don't personally subscribe to this fatigue theory. Keenan had a good game on Saturday. Aki also had started every game, and was probably our standout player. We are also probably the luckiest team so far with injuries, which is a major indicator of our fatigue being low.

Saturday's game was just an exhausting affair, that had both teams out on their feet by the end. If Barrett isn't under that ball and we don't have to go 37 phases, nobody is talking about fatigue. It had the most ball in play time of any RWC game this tournament, and chasing a game is particularly exhausting.

Bottom line is we got a nasty QF draw and NZ just performed better on the day. One of their best performances in years. It's the fact this team deserved more than a quarter final that makes it sting so much. France were in the same boat.

What was the reason for not playing the fringe players in the other games against Tonga and Romania ? Was Farrell afraid that momentum would be lost if they had poor performances against the so-called minnows? Perhaps Farrell didn't really believe he had the strength in depth to rest key players against the weaker teams.

One other question, was Kelleher being held up by Barrett purely a question of lacking the necessary strength to ground the ball? Would the likes of Furlong and Porter have had the power to get the ball down in that position?

I wonder if any consideration was given to taking Sexton off in the last 10 minutes and bringing on Crowley, I thought he was out on his feet and struggling, I know it would have meant ending his career prematurely but is it an elephant in the room. Did it compromise management.

Apologies, only dipping in an out

I think Johnny Holland summed it up fairly well yesterday when asked about introducing Crowley. He knows Crowley well and has coached him at Cork Con. He definitively said no, the management were not going to remove Sexton nor would he have done so if he had been the coach. Anything said since is just people suggesting something could have been different to potentially change the final outcome.

The fact of the matter is that whether Sexton was shattered or not, he still directed play for 37 phases and took us 40-50m downfield in those closing minutes. That was the single longest passage of ball in play time in this entire RWC to date so tiredness was significantly exacerbated by it and during it for every player on the field.

Crowley could have contributed, I'm sure but I doubt there's a coach in the RWC that was making that specific change. Perhaps you bring him on at 12 or 15 but I don't really see that happening either given Aki and Keenan are key guys too.

Seems that people are allowed to list out all the mistakes made and all the examples of underperformance.

They just aren't allowed to say that Ireland underperformed.

They are allowed to list out all of the things that were in Irelands favour pregame.

But they aren't allowed to say Ireland were favourites.

Strange.