Rugby world cup post mortem

They didn't need the luxury of hindsight. They just needed to watch Scotland vs SA or any recent game we had against Scotland. They're a fairly average side and always have been. There's a reason they haven't won a 6nations this century.

The point of the preseason games is so the players don't come in cold. How many warm up games do they need? It'd not like they need to learn how to play together either. You rotate for the Romania, Tonga and Scotland games. Also, rotating doesn't mean playing a completely different 23 players. New zealand played Uruguay the weekend before Ireland. They had players who started both matches, so 7nof their first team against Ireland hadn't played in over 2 weeks. Didn't seem to do them any harm.

11 of our first team who started against New Zealand played against Romania. Given was an afternoon game in those blistering conditions I really don't understand why that was necessary. And then seven days later 10 of the same players start against Tonga. Either pick up or the other to give the main players a run out but starting the majority of our first team players in both games was completely unnecessary. Even games against the likes of Tonga and Scotland will take a physical toll on players.

Saying it is a huge ask is based on the fact it's never done. Irish players rarely if ever are asked to play 3 international mstches in 3 weeks. They just simply aren't used to those sort of demands. I'd say it even rarely happens at provincial level. And that's before we even get into the hypothetical of them beating NZ and having to do it for 4 or 5 weeks in a row.

In which world cups did we rest players?

I think the other person answered the question in terms of the Scotland quality.

Two games in 2019 World Cup. Can you spot the rotation?

Irish player do it every 6 nations by the way.

Forwards

• 1 Dave Kilcoyne
• 2 Niall Scannell
• 3 John Ryan
• 4 Tadhg Beirne
• 5 Jean Kleyn
• 6 Rhys Ruddock
• 7 Peter O'Mahony
• 8 Jordi Murphy

Backs

• 9 Luke McGrath
• 10 Jonathan Sexton (Captain)
• 11 Keith Earls
• 12 Bundee Aki
• 13 Garry Ringrose
• 14 Andrew Conway
• 15 Rob Kearney

Forwards

• 1 Cian Healy
• 2 Rory Best (Captain)
• 3 Tadhg Furlong
• 4 Iain Henderson
• 5 James Ryan
• 6 Peter O'Mahony
• 7 Josh van der Flier
• 8 CJ Stander

Backs

• 9 Conor Murray
• 10 Jonathan Sexton
• 11 Jacob Stockdale
• 12 Bundee Aki
• 13 Garry Ringrose
• 14 Andrew Conway
• 15 Jordan Larmour

Arguing over not resting players enough when we lost the game largely due to Kelleher breaking off and getting held up. That was arguably one of the most intense games ever played at the WC, both teams were absolutely shattered by the end.

Well at least we all we know, you and some others will be bitterly dissapointed.

I do apologise. I must start posting gibberish from now on :-)

24 Teams? How's that going to work? Interesting because if they have a Round of 16 we can finally win a knockout game

The point of rotation is not just to give some players a break, more importantly its to give other players game-time.

You can't learn from your mistakes without game time, and Sexton is the perfect example of this. He was prone to nerves and mistakes when starting out. But with enough game time and experience he turned it around. Porter is another who improved with experience.

We need to sacrifice at least the next two 6 nations to give some fringe players a chance to get a lot of game time.

Unfortunately there is a cohort of supporters who say we need to win everything, including every 6 nations.

I'd take a WC Quarter final win over several 6 nations wins at this stage, because we've already ticked that box, numerous times.

I'd take their last 35 years over ours - 4 world cup finals, numerous semi-finals. You'd imagine they have a pretty good QF record, at least 50% win ratio.

Regards the last 4 years over ours, I think if we beat NZ, we had a great chance of winning the WC.

AKA the match SA won by 15 points and never looked like losing. If Ireland nned their very best team to beat Scotland it really doesn't say much for the players outside the first 15.

No, but having an understanding of rugby is something they should have. If the Irish coaches felt the Irish players are so unique that they vsnt play everyone game in a world cup, despite no other team doing the same then fair enough to them. Unfortunately, they were wrong.

Again, if it's total nonsense why does no other nation do it. We also don't have games against SA and NZ in the 6N. Not to mention how we rarely win 5 matches in the 6N and we nearly always rotate heavily vs Italy.

I'm not sure using a game where they lost 42-19 is a great example of how Ireland have no difficult managing three games in a row tbh.

Its a poor format alright and should have been removed about 2011 as the game progressed more into professional era

For me it would be a Grand Slam over any number of WC quarter finals.

I think it's going to be like the the current ERC - after tyhe pool stages you have the Top16 fighting it out for the QFs.

Winners of the 6 pools = 6

Runners Up of the 6 Pools =6

4 of the 3rd placed teams on the 6 Pools = 4