Andy Farrell is supposed to be very different, more relaxed, wants players to enjoy their rugby.

He was a fan of the exceptionally talented Brian O’Driscoll though.

Zebo lost his place on the team after he went to play for a French club. This is typical. Although the IRFU have no actual stated policy of not picking players who play in other countries I can only remember them/ any Irish coach, making three exceptions to this non-rule over twenty years. Geordan Murphy, Tommy Bowe and Jonny Sexton. That’s it.

I’m sorry but this statement is suggesting that Standsr and O’Mahony aren’t talented. Don’t you know that CJStander won the player of the match so many times at both European cup and the pro 14 comps that they started calling it “the CJStander award”?

Peter O’Mahony is an exceptional defensive lineout operator and was the captain of every team that he ever played with. Talentless players don’t have records like this.

Having talent and being reliable are not mutually exclusive qualities.

Australia still has more rugby players than Ireland does. At pro and at amateur level.

No he’s not a sore loser he’s a man trying to save his job.

What the author really should have mentioned is that Galthie’s job is under threat and that many French rugby fans want him gone. Since their World Cup exit Galthie has been dealing with serious amounts of hate from fans. The president of the FFR came out and stated that his job was not in danger to defend him.

In this context his criticism of the refs performance comes as no surprise. He’s in danger of losing his job. This is why he’s talking about this five months later. And this is what bothers me about this statement and the meeting that he’s talking about. The timing. If his French team hadn’t looked dodgy at times during the six nations and his job was secure he wouldn’t have brought this up. Or if a journalist brought this up he wouldn’t have given such a full reply.

If Ben O’Keefe really did agree that he made mistakes that could have impacted on the outcome of the game then Galthie’s complaints are reasonable. But that doesn’t mean that they should be publicised in major sporting websites and newspapers.

World rugby needs to keep these discussions private or no one will ever want to referee. Still, calling the statement “disgusting” is too extreme. Self serving, definitely. But it sounds like his complaints themselves are valid.

Are you serious? Is winning the rugby championship not a priority for the countries competing?

Why is England looking a bit dodgy this year in your opinion? What had changed for the worst?

No. No t-shirts. Not even a conversation about it a week later apart from “it wasn’t that great was it?” The match wasn’t considered a classic by anyone who watched it. People in Munster do actually love great rugby and we celebrate great matches. Not forgettable ones. Still, it was nice to be in a stadium with a big crowd.

We all hoped for more after last years Munster v South Africa at the same venue. That was really exciting and really boosted the confidence of the b players who played in it. I guess our expectations were too high.

Very few people here watch super rugby and knowing the name of more than one or two New Zealand teams is rare.

I remember thinking the same the first time I watched an Australian soap opera as a kid in Ireland.

What was the movie?

If both the union and the super rugby franchises are losing money and can’t find more sponsorship/ to money/ sugar daddy’s to save them then maybe they need to all follow the Barcelona football club model and sell these entities to the fans. Let the fans then vote on decisions around the clubs too.

How? Those four countries have only 12 votes out of 51 since the 2023 rules and before then only had a possible 8 out of 26. If they ever voted together which rarely if ever happens. Myth.

It was Anthony Foley, the head coach of Munster at the time, that gave Felix Jones this opportunity to be a coach at Munster in the Summer of 2016. AF had also been a player and captain at Munster before becoming a coach at Munster, like Gerry Flannery and Paul O’Connell. When he died in October and Rassie, who’d been only a couple of months there as the director or rugby, stepped into the role of head coach he kept FJ on his coaching team. Few on this site will have heard the name Anthony Foley but he was a natural leader and tactician. The Irish rugby team lined out in the shape of an 8 to honour him when they played the ABs in Chicago. I’m sure Rassie helped Felix Jones develop as a coach but so too did the great Anthony Foley. Who gave him his opportunity.

Hurray! It’s rare for Ireland to win in France so this was a real achievement, red card or not. Now Ireland has a shot at a never before achieved double grand slam. Double grand slam!! Time to pray again.

SR sides and the best sides in general. Toulouse are a good example.

“ It is easy to hate Europe. It has the Six Nations that does what it wants when it wants.” What on earth does this mean? As a European who has never lived in Australia this makes no sense to me. What possible difference can it make to an Australian when the six nations is played? If it affects Australia in some way (why would anyone there care?) then why exactly would any European country want to change when it’s played anyway? The competition was established over a century ago and doesn’t clash with other tournaments in other sports in Europe and it’s a Winter sport. Of course it’s played when it’s played. That’s a rubbish reason to hate Europeans or European rugby.

If David Nucifora made significant changes to the system in Ireland people in Ireland would be talking him up. He didn’t. This is not to say that he didn’t do a good job but the vision for how the sport should be run professionally and at an amateur level, and developed in Ireland came from men who preceded his tenure, in the IRFU.

The IRFU also limited the number of foreign players to five per province before Nucifora took over. This obliged the provinces to find and develop local players. Rassie Erasmus compared his role as Munster coach to precision farming, making the most of a small pool of players with little choice to buy in more. It motivated coaches and the IRFU to provided courses and coach coaches at lower levels and even PE teachers in schools.

I’m sure that David Nucifora has done a fine job but all of the key ingredients to Irish rugby’s progress were there long before he took over. He initiated the sevens program (government pressure promoted this move) and the womens team. However the provinces being established as the pro teams that were owned entirely by the union, their four academies being set up, centralised contracts, the IRFU investing in players and coaches first, before upgrading stadiums (Scotland invested the other way around) and doing their best to keep the best players at home, were all policies that preceded Nucifora. He inherited a job working for a healthy rugby union. Ulster, Munster and Leinster had all won Heineken cups prior to his involvement and had built up fan bases and the popularity of the sport. What is most remarkable about David Nucifors is not in my opinion, that he was given this role and what he did since, but rather that the then head of the IRFU voluntarily gave up a large portion of his own power to him so that this role could exist.

Yeah, we should all spend thousands going to an away match and then sit quietly in the stands (no uncouth singing) clap a few times at the end and then go home. Like the civilised Southern Hemisphere crowds. What are we thinking? Singing and cheering loudly at a World Cup match? How immodest!

In Ireland rugby is the fourth most popular team sport. Gaelic football dwarfs it. It’s close in numbers to the other soccer and hurling.

Rob kearney has been called many things, handsome, talented, drop dead gorgeous, intelligent, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard him called “Ireland”. I’m pretty sure that he is just a man. And that other Irish people don’t have identical opinions. Although I can see perfectly see why you might mistake him for a god.

Actually that’s not really what happened. The biggest influence on what the IRFU did with professional rugby was the FAI. The IRFU was against rugby ever going professional because they saw what happened to soccer in Ireland when that happened. Celebrated, hugely popular clubs lost their best players to England, attendances fell massively and many clubs died a death and the sport became less popular than ever within a couple of decades.

The IRFU once rugby went pro never even toyed with the idea of doing what the FAI did. They made the provinces the pro sides (they’d always existed) under their control from day one and refused any club permission to be fully pro. They copied the central contracts from NZ after a couple of years of top players leaving the provinces to play in the prem. They decided the limit on foreign players, invested in coaches and academies while Wales and Scotland invested in stadia. But nearly every decision the IRFU made was based on what the FAI did that failed.

Thank you Henry Jones. That as the nicest article that I’ve read about Saturday and really captures the love and joy that the country for ur wonderful rugby team.

As a country we are still very different from New Zealand in how we love rugby. This is the only thing I’d quibble with about the article. In Ireland we love each sport as a parent with many children loves and is proud of each child. Rugby is doing very well now and we will all celebrate with, support and praise our wonderful rugby players and when Summer comes we will (the same people) support our excellent hurling / Gaelic football team and when Katie Taylor boxes people will stay up until all hours to watch her.

We all grow up playing about three field sports, Gaelic football is the most universally played, equestrian sports are hugely popular and pretty much everyone accepts that it’s great to love more than one code. Like every other Irish person that I know (save one soccer fan) I hope that this is always the case, that children play a variety of things and then choose to specialise in the sport that they really love. And if that means that in the long run we don’t ever achieve the records that New Zealand has in rugby then I’m absolutely ok with that, as almost every Irish parent is.

So, to put it simply, no, Ireland is not the new New Zealand. And that’s ok.

I’m incredibly happy for the Irish team! After their series win in New Zealand
where only a few Irish fans got to cheer them it was wonderful for us fans as well to be able to be there in real numbers to witness this achievement and to support them.
The deserve this grand slam, they’ve worked for it, played some terrific rugby, come through some really tough times with injuries and have still managed to have this incredible year. It’s brilliant to see.. and yes, France are also a great side.

The Ireland players looked nervous, so many little errors, little fluidity, the English really looking strong, I was really worried for a while. But they won! Hallelujah! What a year for Irish rugby! Between the last six nations and this one they e been fabulous! Sometimes shaky its true but they have consistently found a way to win. The matches against France and Scotland were so impressive in different ways. They deserve it.