“Still, though, would anyone swap a series win in New Zealand and/or a first Grand Slam coronation in Dublin in Johnny Sexton’s last Six Nations game for a place in the semi-finals? Surely not.”
Ah here 
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“It is open to question whether it is a lonely place delighting in an Irish rugby team getting beaten, a team that is more diverse now than it has ever been and managed by a north of England man who used to play rugby league for Wigan, a coach whose strength, pride and values all come directly from growing up and playing with working-class people”
This bit from Johnny Watterson is curious. If you take out the 4 imports 10 of the remaining 11 starting players went to private schools. That’s hardly representative of the nation as a whole and with the private schools now operating as a de facto academy system that is unlikely to change soon.
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How many of the starting 15 play for leinster ?
No. Well meaning is for Sunday soccer, not a fucking World Cup. You’re not comparing like with like here.
11
You counting Beirne?
On absolutely no level is that diverse
Maybe it’s 10 is it?
Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD)(35)
Mack Hansen (Connacht/Corinthians)(20)
Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD)(56)
Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians)(51)
James Lowe (Leinster)(25)
Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) (Captain) (117)
Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster)(29)
Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD)(58)
Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne)(20)
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf)(71)
Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne)(45)
Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy)(78)
Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution)(100)
Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD)(56)
Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College)(35)
Replacements:
Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne)(25)
David Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians)(55)
Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers)(35)
Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University)(4)
Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere)(40)
Conor Murray Munster/Garryowen)(111)
Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution)(9)
Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas)(6).
10, but it would be churlish not to say 11 given Beirne is a Leinster Academy graduate.
And Clongowes
I suppose Clane is diverse.
Swift editing
Aye, all Kildare shitholes are the same to me.
Id often head back to navan that way from the m7. Lonesome country
Best players getting scholarships to elite programmes is hardly unrepresentative.
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I wonder what were Andy Farrells working class values according to this fella ?
The real joy from Irelands world cup exit comes not from the team but from the seethe and excuses of the smugby media. It’s fucking glorious.
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Things are bad when even the great GT just phones it in and doesn’t read what he’s written in the previous sentence😀
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Seems churlish not to
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If they can get behind the Lions, they can get behind the Rose.
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