I can’t believe they all fucking sang along with it.
Actually, wait. I can.
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You don’t understand the genius of Rassie, he won’t go to town on Ireland in a test match with a numerical advantage for large parts of it . He’s made a note of where the holes are in Irish team and will keep them for a bigger day. Rassie is the GOAT.
Oh I’d agree he’s a genius.
Incredible he knew he was leaving Munster after three months. Stayed the year and all the players still love him.
I heard about player getting called out for drinking at a team meeting and Rassie butted in and said he was drinking and played well and you played shite so what’s your excuse to a senior member of the squad.
Even the way he turned up in Munster a few days early and walked into live style sports bought a Munster top and landed into the middle of a training session.
He just gets it. A huge what if for Munster.
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He also went down to the docks to greet several Munster players in their workplace.
No one else would think of doing that.
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Is that actually a very useful series of matches overall? Team shown up a bit but better to learn that in meaningless games. Added a few new players and increased the depth a bit.
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People might like them a bit better after they got the shit kicked out of them and kept going. Will stand to those Leinster lads.
Team still has massive issues scoring tries against good opposition when they get into the 22. Serious lack of pace and power in the backs now. Really pedestrian.
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Ignore the “there’s nothing to learn from these Tests” characters.
- We’ve around 5 players in our preferred starting 15 that looked finished
- We need to gear up lads like the McCarthy’s & a couple of younger centres
- We finally know Baby Prender is not Test standard
- Finally our tactical kicking is miles off where it needs to be if we want to continue with the aerial game.
Those alone are great learnings and we still have 2 years to improve.
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JGP will not box kick us to the last four of the RWC. We need other avenues of attack.
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They’ve moved on from that beautiful passing game they were playing a few years ago that was so good in full flow. They don’t seem to have come near a groove in finding what replaces it since. That’s my hot take anyway. Farrell has picked guys out and promoted them before and been proved right, Gibson park and lowe. But I don’t see it with Prendergast, I actually think he’s being promoted beyond what he’s able for yet and its not fair on him, he’s a liability for the team and his strengths don’t nearly outweigh his weaknesses. I think they were hoping he was going to kickstart whatever their new plan for attack is, but he is definitely not the answer.
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Myself and @neilld are working on some lovely wraparound movez and spirals for 2027 but internal politicking from the Irish rubby old boys club might hold us back.
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The last two passes he played to JGP on the right wing last night was kamikaze stuff. Crowley will be quietly pretty pleased I’d say.
They really should have known about prendergast. They’ll be still hoping he’s going to come up to the level. Crowley has to make himself undroppable or they’ll keep going back to prendergast. The players are starting to come through to provide the replacements and some of the older lads might go a long way as impact subs yet. We’re struggling more than ever against bigger teams.
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Ok I’m as anti-Prendergast as anyone but it was the dying minutes and he was as well off trying anything. Has to be in his teammates minds that they can’t trust him to make tackles. Surely the rest of the team are going to be pissed off if he keeps getting selected.
They are surface level issues.
The team is lacking in identity currently. What type of game is Farrel looking to play? I’m not sure he knows.
The physicality is one thing but it can be addressed … difference making backs are much harder to address.
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It’s a harsh reminder that the hype kills these young outhalvss. From Leinster alone we’ve had Ross & Harry Byrne, David Hawkshaw & now Sam Prendergast all hyped up to varying degrees but premature hype all the same. They’ve Casper Gabriel getting the same Prendergast hype now.
Frawley needs to go to Connacht exclusively as a 10 because with regular minutes in a static position he could be a decent deputy to Crowley or at least put pressure on Baby Prender to cop on. Crowley has a lot to work on but he’s our best 10 at present.
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Loving the discussion here, chaps.
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I have a dim view of a lot of the Leinster players that are clearly third choice but haven’t moved, no ambition. Its worked out great for Cian prendergast. Deegan should have moved long ago. Frawley should absolutely move to Connacht or ulster. One of them should sure get carbery back, you’d think Connacht would suit him.
I’ve been saying for a long time that porter is a liability in how many penalties he gives away. He’s obviously a machine and they’ve flogged him to play huge minutes but surely McCarthy overtakes him very soon. Porter would be a pretty class impact sub to have.
Ryan is just shy of international class, but there should be a few players to pick ahead of him with everyone fit.
90 seconds to go in the 1st half, down to 13 men and he box kicks it back to South Africa, no-one will convince me that this isn’t anything but stupidity.
Surely they could go through 2 or 3 phases and kill the time.
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Against a team who dominate the sky. They want those kicks…kicks in behind or long, low and infield is the only way.
I don’t think Ireland disrupted 1 maul legally last night either.
Ireland can fix a lot of the physical stuff… it’s only a bit of pushing like.
But clever backs 
I suspect with him that he is shifting on the ball because he doesn’t like contact. Have seen it myself as well with my own eyes a few times. Heard a few bits as well that his teammates are often bulling with him for this reason.