Only Crowley Iād say didnāt come on?
Conan made a bit of a difference tbf.
Ya Farrell likes lads light and quick footed.
Youād wonder what its like for both sides of the exchanges there between the Green Kiwis and the All Black players. Its gotta be a weird feeling for both, I mean, youāre both New Zealanders and you both know it. Strange one.
Fickou butchered a try chance for France last night after about 5 minutes that would have put them 14-0 up. All he had to do was pass it to Billie Barry outside him and he was in but he hung on for the glory himself. Would have made it a totally different game
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Itās replacements pal, replacements.
Itās finishers
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Shades of the 2012 6 Nations where we had to go face into Wales in the first match back after that sickening quarter-final defeat to the same opponent. It quickly turned into a damp squib of a campaign with a postponed fixture against France thrown into the mix.
Having to wait until 2027 for another shot at a semi-final appearance feels like an eternity. Itāll be 40 years since the competitions inception. Iāve been watching Ireland in rugby World Cups since 2003 and Iād rank Saturday as the most deflating result. Worse than 2011 as weād have gone on and reached the final. Youād nearly wonder should they scrap the Lions tour and have a World Cup on a biennial basis. Iād much prefer it.
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Yea I donāt get the complaining about the draw. If it was handpicked in the summer weād have had 4 hammerings this weekend
Jez I dunno this could be an incredibly exciting period. Iād say 10/12 of the 23 will be moving on.
Youāve a resurgent Munster too which wonāt go down too well with a lot of the Dublin based media.
Iād love to see a Munster v Leinster Champions Cup final but is that Munster resurgence being mainly based on a victory versus a rotated Leinster team in the Magners/Pro Direct/Celtic League/URC semi-final? I know they won in South Africa afterwards but they performed better in the Champions Cup under Rassie.
Iād agree that the creation of a young team backboned by those U20 grand slam winning teams is exciting though.
The British media- your Sky Sports, Stuart Barnes types bought into peak HEC competing Munster more than the D4 media.
Rassie had one bad squad when he was over Munster.
A lot more exciting young players in Munster now.
Healy a huge loss.
I think Munster have probably been 5th or 6th best team in Europe but they werenāt really close to Toulouse, racing, Leinster, La Rochelle and sarries.
I think Leinster will really pay for carrying the can with Ireland.
It will leave a more open European cup.
Theyāll give Crowley a horrid time of it too desperately trying to compare him to sexton.
THE MIGHTY MEN OF MUNSTAH
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I though the French peaked 2 years ago. Injuries didnāt help but they have also fallen off a lot defensively. Shaun Edwardās was lauded when he came into the french set up but the code seems to be cracked now. They shipped a lot of tries and scores in the 6 nations and the same for a few of the pre tournament challenges.
Add in the fact they were at home and the expectations on them and they were likely to wobble.
Ah here - Ryle Nugent and his āGlory Glory Munsterā spiel, Hook and McGurk regularly waxing lyrical while on a scaffold in Thomond, Thornley in full cheer-leading mode in the IT. Utter revisionism to say that Munster didnāt get bought into by the āD4 mediaā whatever that is.
Rugby
Have the team arrived home yet?
The Irish Rugby team have a lovely history of making absolute tools of themselves when they come home from big games/tours.
The Lions are a busted flush. If the tour goes ahead in 2025 to Oz, itāll be the last one. Canāt see why anyone would be arsed watching the best of GB & Ire take on the Aussie rabble, who were thrashed by an average Welsh outfit.
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Sean Oā Brien having a wild night out in Carlow after the 2015 World Cup is a classic of the genre. He ended up eating a raw spud the same night. Having said that a friend of mine was only saying the other night that If heād wandered into a house party in our college accommodation in UL at the time weād have probably put on a feed for him and given him a heroās welcome. He was blaggarded by the Carlow IT lads so he was.
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Zeebs/Murray Lions Tour 2013, Paddy Jackson/Stuart Olding Japan 2016, Sean OāBrien in Cassidys in 2019 also rank highly in their tale of woe.
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