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

I agree, but on a level playing field there is nothing between the top teams. There has to be a reason why the SH teams do so well at this specific contest and I think part of it is because of it's timing.

How you deal with that given the commitments NH teams have is anyone's guess. Would I be in favour of taking the foot off in the 6 Nations in order to win a World Cup - absolutely not TBH. I wouldn't want our competitions diminished so there has to be care taken in getting the balance right.

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.

I watched the game but didn't really follow the media.

Were we really going around saying that we would win it? Reading some media since the game it seems quite a few were glad we got put out.

and perhaps thats the problem, yes take the game seriously but in a WC year experiment with selection, certainly against weaker teams , to build a squad that can be relied on for WC , and players like VanderFlier and Furlong can be rested and fresh for the big games.. Thers not much wrong with Irish rugby, but we still have not won a knockout game in 12 World cups, a few tweaks and that can be rectified.

10 World Cups! Lets not make it seem worse than it is!

That made me feel a lot better. A NZ YouTuber I watch just started this weeks vid watching the final moments of our game live. His relief and his awe that we put so many phases together makes me feel better.

Its important we don’t wreck were we are at by kneejerk reactions

What's he like as a defender?

Fine? He showed some good Hussle in the SA game, made a great covering tackle, which ironically lead to one of their tries

The next time you have the opportunity to watch Ulster against really good opposition keep an eye on him. He gets out if position too often. That's what is holding him back. I'd love if he fixed it because he is an electrifying player going forward.

I don't think he'll ever reach Mack Hansen's level though, there's not many in World rugby on his level.