Rugby world cup post mortem

Not sure how you got that from my post. I never said they would come last or have empty stadiums.

The tournament which keeps the light on and rugby afloat is the 6 nations so naturally enough that is the competition we should focus on. As I said if NZ and SA got into the 6 nations they would focus on it as well.

No, but you implied it when you said we viewed keeping Irish rugby alive as to the reason we focus on the 6 nations. As if focusing on a world cup would suddenly be the death of Irish rugby.

Also, given England, France and Wales don't focus on the 6 nations above world cups I don't know why you think SA and NZ would be different. They treat it the exact same way.

There's a reason the only the only team who dont prioritise the WC are the team who've never been beyond a quarter final.

I said they don't focus on 6 nations above world cups. This is what Dupont said after winning the grand slam last year.

"We have the World Cup in mind, but first we will all enjoy the end of the Tournament together. We will focus on the World Cup afterwards.” 

Eddie Jones got sacked because of poor results in 6 nations and the press turned on him because he belittled the 6 nations

France went all out to win this year, all teams make it a priority and SA are bending over backwards to get into the 6 nations.

Ireland said 2 years they had a focus on winning the World Cup and it was a priority. Both Farrell and Sexton.

Have a bad week and you are not out of WC. As we can see England are the only team who haven't lost a game.

England have won 1 World Cup, that's it between all NH teams. Hardly qualify as England and Wales having a solid record IMO. Winning the competition would provide a solid record.

My point, is the 6 nations is Ireland rugby most important competition, it keep rugby alive in ireland and without it the IRFU would go bust. The World Cup is not critical, yes it is a goal to win it as the team said 2 years ago but trying to win it does not mean we should stop our focus on the 6 nations. Like all the other teams in the 6 nations, plus as I said if the SA team gets in wait till you see what they focus on

I doubt the player care what you think about them celebrating a Grand Slam to be honest. Have you ever achieved anything close to it? personally I haven't so I am not going to comment on how the players should/shouldn't celebrate the achievement

Our lineout was a mess and with Paulie it was transformed into one of the best in the World. We had huge issues in both the SA game and the NZ game with teams closing the gap. It was interesting to listen to James Tracy on OTB he is very good at reviewing the games.

I do agree Paulie maybe lacked some experience and when it started to go wrong he didn't seem to be able to correct. It wasn't a player issue either as different hookers/second row etc was rotated and we still had problems.

So in reality it was an issue with the gap and also an issue with the lineout itself malfunctioning after a sustained period of been good.

Maybe, like NZ done with Joe and SA have done previously with Eddie Jones, Ireland could look at a consultant type role for the 12 months of the World Cup to give a different perspective if we have a 4 year cycle on the coaching ticket. Certainly in 2019 that would have helped.

I do agree this time I felt we had a team which could win it, previous World Cup I was hoping for teams to get knocked out or getting an England type draw to get anywhere. Maybe 2011 was the only other one I felt we could win because that was an incredible team

In terms of quality of players, we have stayed at number 1 the longest for any NH team, we have beaten every team in a record run, SA and NZ a few times in that run. We have provinces which are close to the top in Europe. We have good players. We also have a U20 team just after losing a WC final so we have good players coming as well. Tweaks is what we need.

Yes it wasn't "because we are like Mayo" because they are completely different sports and situations.

But what is like Mayo is this thread a week after a loss.

Like Mayo threads a week after an All Ireland people start bending their minds to suggest that losing was not that big a deal, and that winning the competition or game you have failed to win so many times was not the be all and end all, and that the journey or some other malarkey in between was more important.

Well as a Mayo person I think many Irish rugby fans would agree with me when I say I don't care anymore about the journey or the other malarkey in between, I'd like to win for a change to see what the winning is actually like.

Kinsella does a good overview of what was going on in the lineouts.

I noticed this was raised in the media this week, can't remember who said it, but more or less why didn't anyone question the coaching and was Paulie been given a pass because of the player he was.

Honestly we are just repeating ourselves. Truth is Ireland's players and coach's have made them into one of the most consistent teams in the World, with a long winning streak against the top teams in the World. One loss v NZ, which was a close loss and either team could have won, does not change that. So calling into question the quality of the players and of the coach's just seems like a total over reaction. if they managed to get ireland to the top and kept them they have to be doing something right

Questionable if SA and NZ had better coached forward, are you basing that on the lineout alone?

Who's Ireland? Sexton had the following to say after winning the 6 nations this year.

"Honestly, I couldn't make it up. It's like living in a dream - I'm actually worried I'm going to wake up in the morning. It's the best tournament you can play in [the Six Nations]".

There's certainly no doubt in Sextons mind that the 6 nations is the pinnacle.