The boss explains it here, might be true or he might just be trying to impress the off the ball lads.
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Rassie is a great lad
Did Rassie do much good at Munster before boks came looking for him ?
Shows the value stats now have in approach and strategy. Impressive
He done an incredible job but had an average enough crop of players to be fair.
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Sure arenât the New Zealanders Tongan or some outb SP Island.
A cod of a carry on.
Listened to a few of the Irish players interviews on second captains post match. The hurt in their voice. Like whatever you think about the whole rugby scene and the shite talk around it, how soft faced double chinned cunts like Ewan (and I think this of journalists in general) can have the neck to slag off fellas who have absolutely put their bodies on the line in a match and also burst their bollix their whole lives to reach the top of an incredibly punishing sport is really hard to understand.
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Itâs rare nowadays you see the total devastation in a players face like you did in sextons post game.
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The knowledge that in the end, he wasnât up to the task sadly, through either his or the managements fault
Gerry is hurting, hurting bad
Nobody died. A brilliant Irish team just lost a game of rugby and they died with their boots on. As with France, there was more honour in this Irish Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit than any of the previous seven. Over the last two years they have become a team to engender pride and continued to do so until the last throes of their 28-24 defeat by the All Blacks on Saturday night. And there are more important things and far greater suffering in the world.
Yet, and the same is probably true of Les Bleus, it has never felt so difficult to grasp and come to terms with another quarter-final exit, because the overriding feeling was, well, if not now, then when?
For the third time in the last four World Cups, Ireland have topped their pool with four wins from four, beating Australia, France and this time South Africa, in perhaps Irelandâs greatest ever World Cup victory, and still the outcome is the same.
There will be questions asked about putting out close to first-choice sides in five games over six weeks, about the relative lack, ultimately, of real innovation in attack, but much of this is with the benefit of hindsight and is scoreboard analysis.
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One abiding thought is that the All Blacks were so stung by last yearâs series defeat at home that not only did Joe Schmidt tailor their game accordingly against Ireland, but that the fear of failure brought out an intensity and a willingness to make 276 tackles, of which a staggering 100 were in the final quarter.
[ Five things we learned from Irelandâs loss to the All Blacks ]
In a Sunday morning debrief with the media, Scott McLeod also revealed that the All Blacks had to learn a different tackle technique in readiness for Irelandâs attacking game, ie away from their normal habit of defending the man to defending the ball.
Still, though, would anyone swap a series win in New Zealand and/or a first Grand Slam coronation in Dublin in Johnny Sextonâs last Six Nations game for a place in the semi-finals? Surely not. But, of course, the problem with this quarter-final defeat is that, as with the French, it surely never offered a more gilt-edged opportunity of reaching a final. What that would have done for Irish rugby is hardly worth thinking about.
It just feels like a golden chance missed, all the more so after Ireland had compiled the third longest winning sequence in the history of Test rugby.
As Jonathan Liew wrote in the Guardian on Monday: âYou strive for four years, put a plan together, beat the best in the world, and none of this protects you from heartbreak.â
[ Three moments where Ireland could, and should, have beaten New Zealand ]
When is an Irish team ever going to go into a quarter-final with the same momentum and body of work as this one?
This latest last eight exit will invariably beg the question, why canât Ireland get past the quarters? Did Michael Lynaghâs try at the end of the 1991 quarter-final cast a spell on Irish rugby forever more? With each passing four years, has it become a monkey on the back of successive Irish teams?
Everything about this Irish team suggested they were calmness personified, that they betrayed all the characteristics of their head coach Andy Farrell, and that it was no longer an issue. And maybe it isnât. Maybe it was just the bad luck of the draw, the same bad luck that did for France.
No less than the outraged Fijians at the end of their match with England, Wales harboured misgiving about some decisions in their defeat by Argentina (and particularly the lack of a red card for Thomas Lavanini), as did Ireland and France with Wayne Barnes and Ben OâKeeffe.
Antoine Dupont was more forceful in expressing his disappointment with refereeing, which he said was not up to the standard required and thereâs no doubt that far too many decisions, especially at scrums and the breakdown, are swayed by an individual refereeâs interpretations.
Wayne Barnes gives a decision during the Rugby World Cup quarter-final between Ireland and New Zealand at the Stade de France. Photograph: Andrew Cornaga/Inpho/Photosport
Barnes could have given penalties on at least two occasions against either team in Irelandâs late 37-phase drive before deciding that Sam Whitelock had legally won the final, decisive penalty, when other referees might reasonably have decreed that he didnât release. Inconsistency is the biggest problem in the game today.
But likewise, whether or not this Irish team was carrying some form of mental baggage will also be down to an individualâs interpretation. Those who believe it to be true will cite Johnny Sextonâs missed penalty or the knock-on by Caelan Doris as examples to substantiate their case.
Those who donât believe it to be so will merely content that missed penalties and knock-ons happen in every game. Perhaps only the players themselves or Gary Keegan know. Perhaps not even they do.
However, whether slightly or largely imagined, it has long since become a âthingâ, and therein lies one of the biggest disappointments or anticlimactic aspects of this latest World Cup final defeat. Hence, that hoary old chestnut about glass ceilings will remain a âthingâ for another four years.
Andy Farrell admitted this was âthe endâ for this team, and certainly in the context of a World Cup, that is as true as ever. At 28.1, Irelandâs squad had the second highest average age at this World Cup, behind only South Africa (29.1). Ireland had 17 thirtysomethings, South Africa have 19.
Sexton and Keith Earls have already now retired, and by 2027 James Lowe, Bundee Aki, Jamison Gibson-Park, Conor Murray, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Jack Conan, Peter OâMahony, Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw will all be in their mid-30s at least.
And, of course, the next tournament will be in Australia, not a two-hour flight from home, and there will be no Johnny.
The World Cup felt like now or never, maintenant ou jamais, for Ireland and France. Last weekend those dreams died, and France 2023 lost its hosts and best supported visiting team. In the ultimate irony, boring England, the land of Brexiteers, are flying the flag for Europe as the tournamentâs only unbeaten side. Much of the fizz from le Mondial has gone.
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So should I go on RIP.ie or not?
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A lot of comparisons with France there, the same country who have reached numerous semi finals and the final twice. Itâs almost as if Scruff is trying to deflect from Irelandâs failure
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I would have thought the answer to this would be an overwhelmingâŠyes.
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Yes I thought poor owl Gerry was deluding himself here.
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France themselves have now had three quarter-final exits in a row.
But I think theyâll definitely win the World Cup in 2027. France is rapidly becoming the centre of world rugby.
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France have been in three finals - 1987, 1999 & 2011. They should really have won in 2011 when NZ choked and just about scraped home.
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Lads on here seem surprised people are actually hurting after the result on Saturday.
This isnât the football team where itâs one big jolly up.
Pro sport is cold enough but the aftermath of the game on Saturday is what itâs all about. If it doesnât hurt why bother?
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Its ok to hurt mate, but its not ok to delude yourself as to why it hurts or why youâre hurting.
Deluding yourself is how we end up back in the 4 year cycle.