That will be posted on the dressing room e wall jockstraps will be broken before the goys bursht onto the pitch
They donât rate or respect Ireland (or the Qantas Wallabies). Theyâre already thinking ahead to a semi final against England.
We have them on the ropes.
Ewan is keeping busy
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However NZR has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with iwi Ngati Toa who have the trademark on the Ka Mate haka. It acknowledged the All Blacksâ right to perform it.
What are you talking about? The haka isnât a marketing ploy. Itâs a traditional war dance. It has no connection with commercialism in any way. And we made sure we doublechecked that with the TRADEMARK OWNERS first.
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Found myself nodding along in agreement with all of that.
I found myself laughing out loud. Ewan trolling internationally for a bit of name recognition now.
âI canât speak for Maoris⌠but Iâm about toâŚâ
Irish culture is drinking coffee and bitching about the government?
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World rubby have enforced teams to stand and face it??? What the absolute fuck?
Thatâs a farce - What ever about arguments of cultural exploitation - forcing teams to stand there and look at those idiots doing the hokey pokey is ridiculous⌠fuck it - the Irish dont play amhran na bhfiann outside of Dublin - these fuckers shouldnt be doing their dance outside of NZ.
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Despite Irish media talking up their rugby team since the 2016 win over the All Blacks in Chicago, and again in November last year, McKenna says much of the country doesnât respect the team.
"A lot of the players go to private schools. The team is pushed as if it is the national game, so a lot of people hate it [rugby] for that reason because there is a lot of well to do players in the team.
"A year ago when they beat the All Blacks there were a lot of people who were full of s⌠basically. In the media there were a lot of people talking about we are the team of 2018 we are the world number ones, âwe can win this world cup, we can do thisâ.
âThey are overly celebrated as heroes for achieving relatively little.â
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Ewan about 20 years behind the curve with his haka piece.
You should trademark that.
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did you know?
the Japanese word for penis is âchinkoâ
I did not know that. Very interesting Dikkuheddo.
Nail on the head from Ewan. The rubby set are happy to call these lads the best in the world when it suits but, when that leads to them being expected to deliver on the big stage, they revert back to giving it the poor mouth. Canât have it both ways. Either the wins over NZ were meaningful and Ireland are expected to do well in this tournament (and another qf exit is, by extension, an abject failure) OR they were pointless friendly wins and, when it matters, NZ will batter Ireland.
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We canât win unless Jonny is on the pitch, and my fear his they will target him for an âaccidentalâ head tackle
There are question marks over New Zealand. Their pack is unsettled as it has been in a long time. Thereâs still two veterans of the 2011 final in the pack - Sam Whitelock and Kieran Reed whoâs best days are behind them. Brodie Retallick coming back into the starting line up tomorrow, after only 30 minutes of match time (off the bench) since doing his shoulder three months ago against South Africa. Owens Franks had locked the scrum for the best part of a decade, before getting axed from the World Cup squad after poor performances against South Africa and Australia in this years Rugby Championship and now you have an inexperienced Samoan, Nepo Laulala in at tight head. Theyâre not sure as to whether they have the right mix in the back row.
Like all New Zealand teams though, they are dangerous. Their three quarters line is electric with ball in hand. They have that ability to up the ante and score very quickly and blow teams away in a 5-10 minute spell with the running talent in their back line. South Africa dominated large chunks of the pool match, but two New Zealand tries out of nowhere in about four minutes decided that one.
If Ireland play well, get back to 2018 levels of performances, they can win this. I did see finally some encouraging signs in the Ireland performance against Samoa last week. If Ireland look as stale, tired and predictable as they have done in most of their 13 test matches in 2019, theyâll be hammered.
Murray and Sexton on the pitch and on song is an absolute must for Ireland to win.
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I think there is a big performance brewing in Ireland. Most of this team have beaten NZ before too, some a couple of times, so that mental barrier is largely gone. I still see NZ as favourites but I think they will need to play exceptionally well to beat us. This NZ team, while still very strong, is not the team of 2015. I think Ireland have a stronger pack and Iâd rate our half-backs and centres at similar levels to NZ. I think they have an edge in the back 3 but hopefully we can reduce the opportunities there. I genuinely think we can win it.
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Remember the Welsh faced down the haka and dined out on it. Then lost the actual game of rugby but that did not seem to matter.
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I recall Wales making New Zealand do their haka in the tunnel one year in the Millenium Stadium. Must have been a good 10 to 15 years ago