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

Demolished? Please stop! We lost by 4. France lost by a geehair.

Probably could've been a penalty/ YC against Barrett aswell, given how Keenan landed.

Jesus, of course not.

Doesn't have to be the nearest, any All Black on the pitch will do.

Wales well beaten, England will be well beaten. I said demolished OR beaten. It will be an all SH final and another SH winner like 90% of previous tournaments.

SH dominance in the World Cup is and always was OVERWHELMING, as in never in doubt.

Na, it was Beirne who put Keenan off balance. Jordie had already been flattened.

At elite level it usually comes down to fine margins and who is that 1 or 2% better when it matters. Unfortunately that wasn't us.

The performance of the 6 nations teams at the world cup was overall poor. Scotland, Wales and Italy completely underperformed and I read nothing into Wales win against an awful Australia. England have yet to be tested, but I can see the game against SA being over after 20 minutes. You'd expect France to beat SA, especially at home, and you'd expect us to beat NZ, expecially if they had 2 yellows.

The biggest issue for NH teams at the WC is consistancy and the ability to string 3 or 4 good games together which you need to go far in it. Its frustrating.

SH teams have generally always been a level above their NH counterparts. Ireland only best NZ for the first time in 2016. France have always been widely inconsistent and, at times, just bad. Same with the other NH teams. They all gone through periods of being great to awful.

The SH have always been consistently excellent and are consistently used to winning. Very few NH have been capable of doing that over long periods. This world cup is probably the first ever where two NH teams have looked as strong as their SH counterparts. It's no surprise that the teams who have a more consistent winning mentality have pulled out the victories.

As for not wanting the six nations to be diminished, it is already as there's only two good teams in it. The rest are average, at best.

One of the two -SA or NZ (if they make it) are not going to 'peak' at the right time Awec. That's knockout competitions for you.

When exactly do you 'peak'? The final? Or the QF, in which case you are descending as either SA or NZ will now, because somebody has to win it.

I don't think you can 'peak' for one game.

I don't see any other option but to do the same again, arrive at the tournament in our best possible shape and take it from there. It may just be as simple as, 'try again, fail again, fail better.'

Is there a case to be made for not over-complicating or over-thinking it?

You didn't address the point that only one team at a world cup 'peaks' correctly or can 'peak' correctly.

I agree that we probably should have more confidence in the squad rather than the team and rotate more. But in a group like ours that could catch you out too.

. They brought in Keane and Harrington, maybe others, to talk about the winning mentality thing, so they were doing some work on that.

I honestly, a week away from the defeat, don't think there is much more to be done than what we did, just do it a bit better next time.

I agree, generally speaking the Irish team isn't that consistent. The last 24 months have very much been the exception to the rule. But the reality we don't produce enough good rugby players to consistently produce excellent results.

I thinknthe subtler things are the mentality and the culture around Irish rugby. Someone posted here before, we view world cups as a additional extra and we make 6 nations a priority. Most other top nations do the opposite. Our club system is a god send in terms of allowing the national team do as well as possible. We'd be in terrible shape if our club system mirrored France or England.

Until we start shifting our focus to winning a world cup I don't think much will change.

Why is Hansen always listed with the others. He's been eligible for Ireland since Birth.

We dont need to produce "world class" backs. theres very few of them..

Porter has got away with plenty of that style of scrummaging which is partily a reason why it hasnt changed.

There was plenty of criticism here/in the media of our lineout in the 6nations and well before this world cup. its far from good enough for that and not for the world cup.

Come on. A lot of teams don't even bother competing in the line out. But SA and NZ do and effectively. Put any sort of pressure on our line out and it crumbles.

Thats the difference between WC and 6N. Much more pressure on everything...line out, scrum, etc

So yes we have a mediocre line out. We can win the 6nations with it, but certainly not a WC.