It's not meant to be a "European championship" tournament though. It's an invitation tournament.
Probably see this within the next three years.
Aren't Ireland the favourites for the world cup?
I'd hope so but it seems fairly evens between Ireland and Italy at the moment.
Surely that's what Japan is for.
I missed that announcement and was just reading about it there. Both Italy and South Africa pulling out means it's just France and ourselves in the race.
.Who's the perv nowI want France to win but a world cup in Ireland sounds a lot better.
Redheads
Technically haven't t pulled out.
I forgot about that.Who's the perv now
Imagine the craic a World Cup would be here. Of course, that's as long as global warming doesn't accelerate and Galway and Limerick don't disappear
$$$$$$$$$$I forgot about that.
Yeah, a World Cup in Ireland would be nice, I don't even see what would be the argument for France.
The mad thing is, I can't imagine the Top 14 teams being for a WC considering their relationship with the national team. It'd be a Coalition Of The Unwilling.
The relationship is a lot better now and 2023 is in a long time.
Fair enough. Out of interest, does it look like they can continue to repair the relationship?
To be honest, I don't know. They seem to be willing but the risks are huge for Top 14 clubs, every single one of them can be relegated if they lose their players for too long, so in my opinion the federation have to take some of the financial responsibilities through federal contracts, particularly since french players are extremely expensive.
I agree. Centralised contracts have been fantastic for Ireland. Who has the balls and power to push that through though?
He hasn't been with the Chiefs for long, since 2015. He was taking care of the backs and they were extremely good, the Chiefs have super clean set pieces and very effective offensive gameplans. Like all the Chiefs' staff, he is very good with young players and with all the injuries he has shown a great adaptability, also he has been very good in the ITM cup with the Tasman.
Sounds good to me! Cheers.
Bastereaud is out with a concussion as well. He's a fantastic player, but he's got a habit of going for Sexton to limit our play.
Pat Lam is the Connacht coach, although he is leaving for Bristol from the start of the 2017/2018 season. Connacht's HC for next season is Kieran Keane, the Chiefs's Assistant Coach to Dave Rennie. Leinster's HC on the other hand is former Irish Second-Row Leo Cullen, with Stuart Lancaster interestingly as Assistant Coach (Cullen's more of a DoR and Lancaster is essentially the HC).
Haha, I missed that earlier, I had a migraine
Truth be told, Ireland won more comfortably than the scoreline suggests. Even in those conditions however, I still feel the team's attack can become a bit blunt and ineffective at times, something which has cropped up in the past (Against NZ in Dublin and today). The most annoying aspect about it is that we do not have a lack of technically-polished players. All right, the team's skills may not quite be of NZ calibre but they're not a million miles away. Maybe it could have something to do with our attack being too scripted or the fact that we possibly play too deep in attack (The opposite being the uber-flat Australian attacking style).Haha, I missed that earlier, I had a migraine
On the match this evening, France seemed to give up early in the second half. The way it went, you'd get the feeling that if Ireland had taken their kicks in the first half, they may have given up even sooner. Miserable conditions and a ground out win, one injury change, fairly acceptable for Ireland I reckon.
Yup, that sounds about right. They were talking in the analysis after the match about how they seemed to be turning down spinning it out wide even when they had numbers over. I think some of the tries against Italy showed the handling and offloading skills are there - it's a conscious tactic I think to play like they did today, plus the fact that they were getting mangled for the first 20mins at the breakdown.
