You might have to explain was discerning means
To certain posters.
South Africa and France could be one of the best rugby games of the decade.
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France won’t be at full strength but should be a cracker
I see Rassie had Andre Esterheizen playing in the pack on Saturday he did well against poor opposition but prob an option to have another player in squad who covers multiple positions
It should be an excellent occasion in Paris anyway.
Be best for all parties if this dalliance with the Yanks is quietly shelved and RWC2031 is shifted to a joint Celtic nations effort.
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That’ll be very challenging logistically with the tournament taking place in Australia.
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Sorry 2031.
Looks like a serious trip In 2027 with the breeders cup in the New York and then a 24 hour flight to Melbourne for Melbourne cup and you’d just be about right for the rugby World Cup quarter finals which will be underway the following weekend down under.
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Yer man’s head is almost Neal Richmond esque in the punchability stakes
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Not one pundit has been brave enough to give Barry Murphy his well-deserved 0 in the player ratings. Hopefully Thorndawg will finish that has-been off for good with a well-penned article this week.
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These last few paragraphs are interesting. Youd wonder could our bid be dusted off? US rugby in dire situation, arse fallen out of it completely since their bid. Domestic teams fallen apart, current intl team wouldn’t beat AIL Div 1. Not sure they’ll have the coffers and may even be happy to relinquish, who knows?
Bit of well-directed shrewdness towards World Rugby from the irfu, in combination with our neighbouring unions (except scotland), could be timely
Should they have left the guy with the harmonica do it?
Such is the vice like grip rubby has on the forum 3 days later the quality of the anthem rendition is still being debated.
Hard to argue anything other than this is rubby country 
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Would it really be a worthwhile investment? By union or state?
I see my auld pal from Corbally was singing… a nice free jaunt for him. Was Lyra busy?
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Ireland’s Chicago adventure was deflating in more ways than one
It had all been set fair. As the week wore on, the sun continued to shine and tens of thousands of rugby fans from both countries descended on Chicago in increasing numbers.
All manner of former Ireland internationals from different eras were part of the jaunts and the junkets.
Some supporters paid extraordinary numbers to be there, and for the majority of the Irish in the 62,000 sell-out attendance who travelled from this island and far afield, the adventure did not come cheap.
The American sports market has long been rugby’s great mirage and on Friday the chief executives of World Rugby (Alan Gilpin), the IRFU (Kevin Potts) and NZ Rugby (Mark Robinson) held court to discuss the countdown to the 2031 World Cup in the USA and plans for Ireland and the All Blacks to play there each year until then.
Potts spoke of attending a function with 600 Irish-American businessmen who met with the Irish players earlier on Friday and of tapping into the 40 million Irish diaspora. And then came the match.
Only time will tell whether it was more deflating for the IRFU’s intended sorties to the US – be it Chicago, Boston or wherever – or for the Ireland rugby team over the next month and beyond.
Soldier Field is the smallest and oldest stadium in the NFL, and its primary tenants, the Chicago Bears, are relocating to a new stadium further out in Arlington Heights. Suffice to say the Stadium looks the exact same as in 2016 and the pitch is even worse than it was then.
Hence the sight of groundsmen shovelling sand on to the various potholes after the warm-up, with another spraying green paint on said patches.
Then, with the clock on 2 minutes 46 seconds, the TMO Ian Tempest advised referee Pierre Brousset of the need for him to review in incident of potential foul play, namely when Beauden Barrett and Tadhg Beirne collided.
Only then did the officials discover that Tempest’s television feed was different from the feed on the big screens, one of which Brousset and his ARs, Karl Dickson and Luc Ramos, looked at plaintively before being advised to look at a pitch side monitor on halfway.
Kill an atmosphere
As the crowd’s patience wore thin, eventually Brousset and co determined that Beirne be given a yellow card pending a review for it to be upgraded. That decision took four minutes and 45 seconds. So, over seven-and-half minutes after the kick-off, there had been two minutes and 46 seconds of rugby. How to kill an atmosphere.
Furthermore, Brousset was not mic’d up to the crowd and the lack of communication for many among the 62,000 capacity was infuriating, not least when Beirne’s yellow card was ridiculously upgraded to a red by the FPRO Dan Jones.
Most risibly, on the half-hour, Brousset informed the Irish players: “number five, HIA”, ie the already red carded Beirne. You couldn’t make it up.
Long into the night at The Gage on South Michigan Avenue, on a straw poll of circa 30 or 40 Irish fans, none of them said they would be inclined to repeat the experience.
So, given the USA Eagles were beaten 85-0 by Scotland in Murrayfield on Saturday, and given Major League Rugby has shrunk from its all-time high of 13 teams in the 2022 season to just seven currently, this was not an especially encouraging augury for the 2031 World Cup.
Of course, the result coloured the experience for the Irish supporters present and the game itself was also a far cry from that 40-29 belter in 2016, never mind the 2023 World Cup quarter-final epic.
That tournament felt like Irish rugby’s Icarus Moment. It was probably the peak point of the greatest Irish rugby team ever, never to be repeated, and this second additional defeat to the All Blacks was perhaps further confirmation of that.
Which is not to say that this team cannot add more Six Nations titles, or break through that quarter-final glass ceiling with a more favourable draw – and reviewing last Saturday’s 26-13 loss only compounded the conflicting interpretations of the performance.
There were mitigating factors in the rustiness and the Beirne red card. The lineout wobbles and breakdown inaccuracies are fixable. Much of the kicking, not least from Jamison Gibson-Park, and chasing were of a high order.
Attacking variety
The power play for the try with 14 men was a highlight. Jack Crowley had some wayward kicks from hand, and his array of attacking grubbers and chips within 30 metres of the opposition line didn’t earn a return. But with Stuart McCloskey adding to the offloading, it demonstrated some new attacking variety.
Ireland fired more shots, if not hugely, than in losing 23-13 a year ago, but ultimately 13 points was again not enough. They needed to convert one of those half-chances, be it McCloskey’s intended offload for Jamie Osborne, or the latter not holding on to Crowley’s pass nearing the hour in the game’s pivotal spell.
For the first hour or so as well, Ireland defended with good line speed and accuracy, palpably frustrating the All Blacks save for that trademark coast-to-coast try finished off by the brilliant Ardie Savea. Whereupon they cut loose.
Lack of game time
The All Blacks only forced Ireland to make 47 tackles in the first half, but keeping the ball in hand and applying more width and temp after the break, that tally rose to 152 by the end, with Ireland missing 24 as the effort took its toll.
The All Blacks had the better of the possession overall (56 per cent), but in the last 10 minutes this rose to 88 per cent. Admittedly, with their lack of game time, more than ever Ireland’s best chance of winning lay in leading from the front, not playing catch-up.
Cue Bundee Aki’s pass not hitting Jamie Osborne or James Lowe on his outside from a defensive five-metre scrum in the preamble to Cam Roigard sidestepping over for the All Blacks final try.
Even so, the men in black were queuing up when a fifth try was ruled out for a marginal forward pass with the game’s last play, otherwise it would have been 33-13.
That felt like a chilling blast from the past.
As Andy Farrell observed afterwards, the next three weeks will now tell us much about this team and what the future may look like.
Id be fond his eldest brother. Pure meathead but good guy
Are you related to them as the mothers maiden name same as yours and you also share a certain sallowness as the 3 boys?!
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The family are all sound. Their sister was down this way teaching a while back and randomly came to the mrs one time for waxing. When she saw she was married to the guy that ran Corbally for 10 years she never came back.
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Id say it more likely she ran as you were trying to peep at her fanny
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My legal team have advised me to say - no comment.