Every test match in rugby is important. You seem to place a lot of emphasis though on a result from a match from a year ago, or three years ago as an indicator that the same outcome is going to happen in the here and now. Rugby and sport doesenât work like that.
Take a sport youâre more familiar with hurling. Limerick were the best team in the world in 2018. They were fairly shit in 2019 though despite just about everybody predicting they would reach 2018 levels of performance and retain their world title.
So youâre implying that predicting on last yearâs results is the way to go and itâs fair to be surprised if they arenât repeated the following year? Youâd have to make Ireland favourites so
Iâll take this. Yes they are important but they wonât be the deciding factor for tomorrow where NZ are still favourites. The fact that we have beaten them a couple of times certainly gives more grounds for optimism but that is not to underestimate NZ strength and track record at world cups.
To give a hurling analogy - itâs like teams beating KK in the league back when they were at their peak. It didnât mean that theyâd beat them in Championship but if they couldnât beat them in league then it was much harder to see them pulling off a shock in the summer so it was something always useful
Ewan hasnât done his homework. David Campese didnât face the silly dance. He was usually gearing up to rip New Zealand apart - 1991 World Cup semi final at Lansdowne Road, a case in point.
@tallback - you seem to be one of the few who is able to talk sense in here. NZ are 12-13 point favourites tomorrow. I know you have confidence in Ireland to win but if youâre wrong do you still see Ireland being beaten by a bigger margin than that?
Itâs certainly possible against the All-Blacks, theyâre one of the few teams that can get the run on you. I think one of Irelands strengths though is their defence - and itâs something that they can really look to as a basis of success against NZ.
28 years ago but more importantly, also the amateur era. In the professional era strict guidelines have been set down and teams have been fined for not standing in the correct position to face it. In truth the haka used to be a rarely seen thing and a big event, it tends to lose its glamour when rolled out weekly to face down Namibians and Canadians.
