RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland
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@His-Bobness As we are talking famous Irish writers, I once had a curry and a beer with Seamus Heaney.
@sparky A Nobel laureate poet with a taste for curry and a beer. Now that’s Irish.
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@Bones said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@gt12 I feel like someone has nicked Chris' account.
I think we should insult Ta$man, just to check.
@gt12 said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Bones said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@gt12 I feel like someone has nicked Chris' account.
I think we should insult Ta$man, just to check.
You need us.
Without Agent James, Will and Leicester - we lose!
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@MajorRage Fair enough. You have a different view. I think the Irish started getting up the noses of a lot of people when they started playing well and winning. I suspect the two things are connected. Granted, some of the Irish commentators (like their English counterparts) peddle garbage about NZ poaching talent from ‘the south sea islands’, which is really just a reflection of their own ignorance of NZ as a Polynesian country and also perhaps a defensiveness at the fact their first choice team is stacked with three Kiwis, an Australian and a South African. But generally, I stand by what I said and intended to communicate. Ireland has given a lot to the world, their culture is admirable and their rise in the rugby arena has made for a more interesting international environment.
@His-Bobness I suspect you are right with them getting up the noses as they got better. Had Sergio Parisse been a complete arse, I doubt it ever would have gotten a mention. In fact, he might be.
I get really bored of the England hating across this board. Rarely get a sporting thread involving England without a few talking about how they hate England. Don't see why this needed to be mentioned in a column about NZ vs Ireland rugby, let alone the main point in the opening monologue.
Each to their own, I suppose.
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@MajorRage Fair enough. You have a different view. I think the Irish started getting up the noses of a lot of people when they started playing well and winning. I suspect the two things are connected. Granted, some of the Irish commentators (like their English counterparts) peddle garbage about NZ poaching talent from ‘the south sea islands’, which is really just a reflection of their own ignorance of NZ as a Polynesian country and also perhaps a defensiveness at the fact their first choice team is stacked with three Kiwis, an Australian and a South African. But generally, I stand by what I said and intended to communicate. Ireland has given a lot to the world, their culture is admirable and their rise in the rugby arena has made for a more interesting international environment.
@His-Bobness said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@MajorRage Fair enough. You have a different view. I think the Irish started getting up the noses of a lot of people when they started playing well and winning. I suspect the two things are connected.
I've no doubt there's a considerable element of truth in that statement. I've witnessed it ad nauseum in sports when teams start winning regularly. And to be fair, a lot of people acknowledged how well Ireland played over the last few years and how well they've set up their systems.
Any team that starts winning tends to attract bandwagon supporters and national teams magnify that. The issue is the attracted occasional fan tends not to understand the subtleties, nor the culture. Hence you get an increasing percentage of mouthy piston wristed gibbons that irritate all concerned.
But for all that, I can only think of two Irish players that came in for any opprobrium. One that mouthed off to our captain and was near invisible in Ireland's biggest game, and one who is near universally derided for his character.
And I think Test rugby is in a better place with a stronger Ireland.
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@stodders said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Billy-Webb what's your tipping form been like so far in the competition Billy? Just wondering if it merits a hedge
It's actually been pretty good results wise (not points difference though).
Hedge away@Billy-Webb said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@stodders said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Billy-Webb what's your tipping form been like so far in the competition Billy? Just wondering if it merits a hedge
It's actually been pretty good results wise (not points difference though).
Hedge awayHope you made some $ @stodders
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Ireland are a really fucking good team. They are very well coached and have some excellent rugby players. They deserved to be No. 1 at the start of the tournament and it is a fucking excellent result that our limited AB team could get over them to advance.
It's also great that as part of this victory we can say piss off to the guy who sledged our captain and a player who - despite being really fucking good, maybe the best Irish player ever - still seems to be an absolute piston wristed gibbon. Not in the leave it on the field Coles etc away, but a chase referees down the tunnel to have-a-go-at-them way.
Both are true and it's pretty classless to conflate them IMO.
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Ireland are a really fucking good team. They are very well coached and have some excellent rugby players. They deserved to be No. 1 at the start of the tournament and it is a fucking excellent result that our limited AB team could get over them to advance.
It's also great that as part of this victory we can say piss off to the guy who sledged our captain and a player who - despite being really fucking good, maybe the best Irish player ever - still seems to be an absolute piston wristed gibbon. Not in the leave it on the field Coles etc away, but a chase referees down the tunnel to have-a-go-at-them way.
Both are true and it's pretty classless to conflate them IMO.
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@kiwiinmelb said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
The morning after , It’s funny how one game can completely change perceptions,
All of a sudden with a fully fit squad and a winnable semi final in front of us , we look very well placed
Losing to France was a master stroke, all hail king Fozzie.
@chimoaus said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Losing to France was a master stroke, all hail king Fozzie.
Cunning bugger, eh? He's in the Semis and Gaultier isn't.
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@Chris-B
That's likely because he hasn't yet realized that the Crusaders are a bunch of cheating fluffybunnies. I'm hoping he'll come around.
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@antipodean
Loved mccaw. Loved winning a three test series against you in NZ too.Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony on this forum knows exactly what’s up too (is this a sports forum or a reality tv celebrity gossip forum??!!) .
You got pumped a whole bunch of times in the last few years by us and you’re struggling to deal with that and despite us losing you know in your hearts we’ll be back to challenge you in the future again. Fluffy bunnies doesn’t even cover the insecurity and whininess of this forum. You should be glad your team takes us more seriously than you do. good luck going forward. New Zealand and South Africa in the final again. Fair play. You’re the pinnacle of the sport we all love.
@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony!!
You should have seen some of shit we gave Akira for being a dickhead...
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@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony!!
You should have seen some of shit we gave Akira for being a dickhead...
@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony!!
You should have seen some of shit we gave Akira for being a dickhead...
We also used to bag Frizell a lot before we got so dependent on him. I mean, it’s one thing to ditch a winger for hitting the town, we have 47 of those in the squad. Ain’t no way we’re tossing our prime beef out like that, the no dickhead policy has limits!
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@mariner4life said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Chris-B said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
set my alarm for 4am and start drinking?
i probably would have done that this week if i didn't have a skin full on saturday arvo/night and woke up super dusty sunday
Doesn’t it get so much tougher at our age ?
I think the bottle of red wine I had after the IPAs wasn’t a wise move but it seemed fitting while watching the election.
@MN5 said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Doesn’t it get so much tougher at our age ?
I think the bottle of red wine I had after the IPAs wasn’t a wise move but it seemed fitting while watching the election.
Fuck me. The youth of today seriously need to harden up.
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Ireland are a really fucking good team. They are very well coached and have some excellent rugby players. They deserved to be No. 1 at the start of the tournament and it is a fucking excellent result that our limited AB team could get over them to advance.
It's also great that as part of this victory we can say piss off to the guy who sledged our captain and a player who - despite being really fucking good, maybe the best Irish player ever - still seems to be an absolute piston wristed gibbon. Not in the leave it on the field Coles etc away, but a chase referees down the tunnel to have-a-go-at-them way.
Both are true and it's pretty classless to conflate them IMO.
@gt12 said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Ireland a really fucking good team. They are very well coached and have some excellent rugby players. They deserved to be No. 1 at the start of the tournament and it is a fucking excellent result that our limited AB team could get over them to advance.
It's also great that as part of this victory we can say piss off to the guy who sledged our captain and a player who - despite being really fucking good, maybe the best Irish player ever - still seems to be an absolute piston wristed gibbon. Not in the leave it on the field Coles etc away, but a chase referees down the tunnel to have-a-go-at-them way.
Both are true and it's pretty classless to conflate them IMO.
Or run from the stands when not playing ....
To be fair, it's pretty easy to look at the reaction on here to Sexton and think it's all because Ireland have certainly had the better of us last few years. If I was going to be angry at players about that though, he'd be a bit down on my list. Irish back row firmly at the top of it, followed by the centres.
I'm not angry at O'Mahoney though. Just enjoying seeing our boy Cane get his revenge on a pretty tasteless sledge.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony!!
You should have seen some of shit we gave Akira for being a dickhead...
We also used to bag Frizell a lot before we got so dependent on him. I mean, it’s one thing to ditch a winger for hitting the town, we have 47 of those in the squad. Ain’t no way we’re tossing our prime beef out like that, the no dickhead policy has limits!
@voodoo said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Victor-Meldrew said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Every Irish person that reads this forum and reads all of the CONSTANT and incessant WHINING about the supposedly offensive and egregious and horrible personalities of Sexton and O’Mahony!!
You should have seen some of shit we gave Akira for being a dickhead...
We also used to bag Frizell a lot before we got so dependent on him. I mean, it’s one thing to ditch a winger for hitting the town, we have 47 of those in the squad. Ain’t no way we’re tossing our prime beef out like that, the no dickhead policy has limits!
I did wonder when Telea was disciplined it indicated the team had got it's collective discipline together like it famously did after 2004
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@MajorRage Fair enough. You have a different view. I think the Irish started getting up the noses of a lot of people when they started playing well and winning. I suspect the two things are connected. Granted, some of the Irish commentators (like their English counterparts) peddle garbage about NZ poaching talent from ‘the south sea islands’, which is really just a reflection of their own ignorance of NZ as a Polynesian country and also perhaps a defensiveness at the fact their first choice team is stacked with three Kiwis, an Australian and a South African. But generally, I stand by what I said and intended to communicate. Ireland has given a lot to the world, their culture is admirable and their rise in the rugby arena has made for a more interesting international environment.
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@mariner4life said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Stargazer said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
the fuck were the other 4 million people doing??
Disgraceful
Watching replays of the Warriors I assume.
@Nepia said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@mariner4life said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@Stargazer said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
the fuck were the other 4 million people doing??
Disgraceful
Watching replays of the Warriors I assume.
Who?
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The Great Teacher
Who can hate the Irish? This is the country that gave us Yeats and Joyce and Wilde and Beckett, after all. A good chunk of us in this part of the world have roots in Ireland. And does anyone recall that the Irish, of all peoples, probably hate the English more than anyone?
But aside from their outsized contribution to literature, drama, music and oratory, the Irish have recently become rather good at rugby. To be sure, they have picked the brains and talent of other countries to do that, but in the process they have developed their own style, cohesion and power to the point that they have struck fear into the hearts of the traditional rugby superpowers. As that Irishman Wilde said: “Be yourself; everyone else is taken”.
Ireland’s exit in the quarter final of this World Cup is no disgrace. They just came up against an All Black side that was wounded and may have wanted it more. As well, to quote Andy Farrell in his post-match presser, these knockout games can swing on small moments - Jordie Barrett’s try-saving tackle, Sam Whitelock’s steal at the end, Sexton’s missed shots at goal. A tiny adjustment in the curtains of fate could have changed the denouement entirely.
That the ABs, to win that match, had to dig deeper than they have done in probably any other match since the 2011 final against France spoke volumes not only for their new-found resilience and self-belief but also for Ireland’s never-say-die commitment and ability to keep picking themselves up from setbacks. This Ireland team were never beaten, until the final whistle. Every drop of blood that could be shed on both sides was done so.
As for Sexton, sure he can be ornery, mouthy and hard to like at times. But is he more so than Fitzy or Coles or Marshall? Put it this way, if this 38-year-old warrior been playing in black would any of his most bitter critics here have been so quick to condemn him? And could anyone in their heart of hearts really claim that Ireland’s recent successes have not made watching rugby union a richer and more thrilling experience?
As for the All Blacks and their lame duck coach, it has been a tough few years, unquestionably, with a host of undesirable ‘firsts’ on the team resume. One could almost smell the regret seeping from the hard-nosed money men at Silver Lake. But the quarter final felt like a form of redemption and a reminder that sport, like life generally, can swing on the smallest of moments.
To quote another great Irishman in James Joyce:
“To learn, one must be humble. But life is the great teacher.”
Firstly, I really don't have a problem with Ireland growing and becoming no.1 - it's good for the game and we end up with nail-biters like Saturday. But as far as I'm concerned, there's banter and there's obnoxious disrespect for the opposition and what the game is about.
On the former, what goes on the pitch stays on the pitch,- think POM, Gregan, Fitzy, JdV or Colesy - but it's fair game for supporters to take the piss out of those situations in the same spirit, particularly when the biter is bitten.
If Reiko said something after the match, then that's bad too and I'd pretty much imagine he got a talking to by the leadership group, but he doesn't act like that all the time. I'd put Maro Itoje in the same camp and it's been bloody great to see Borthwick stamp that sort of stuff out. He's a better player for that.
But there's a clear distinction between that and the sort of stuff which Sexton gets up to almost as a deliberate policy - abusing the refs, Hollywood dives and generally acting like a childish fluffybunny after the game. I'll include Rassie & Eddie Jones in that camp as well. It crosses a line and it's bang out of order. It's a blight on the game and Sexton does nothing but demean his reputation as one of the great rugby players.
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@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Meh. You are better than us but all the bad mouthing of sexton by all blacks fans comes across as weak to me. He pumped you a good few times and that doesn’t sit will with you because he’s not meek and self effacing like you expect us to be. But guess what. Winning is what counts and we’ve gone from never beating you to pumping you five times in ten years. Would be a sad and soppy game if we turned everything into a saddo popularity contest. Maybe have a bit of grace and realise he’s one of the best you’ve come across.
Sorry, mate, but this is one of the worst takes on Sexton I've ever read. He is loathed by every group of rugby fans around the world, not just us AB fans who supposedly expect him to be meek. He's "pumped" plenty of other teams many more times and their fans all agree that he is a fucking cock (still a great rugby player, and probably the second greatest Irish player in m lifetime, to be fair to the man).
@junior said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
@ShitMcCaw said in RWC QF: All Blacks v Ireland:
Meh. You are better than us but all the bad mouthing of sexton by all blacks fans comes across as weak to me. He pumped you a good few times and that doesn’t sit will with you because he’s not meek and self effacing like you expect us to be. But guess what. Winning is what counts and we’ve gone from never beating you to pumping you five times in ten years. Would be a sad and soppy game if we turned everything into a saddo popularity contest. Maybe have a bit of grace and realise he’s one of the best you’ve come across.
Sorry, mate, but this is one of the worst takes on Sexton I've ever read. He is loathed by every group of rugby fans around the world, not just us AB fans who supposedly expect him to be meek. He's "pumped" plenty of other teams many more times and their fans all agree that he is a fucking cock (still a great rugby player, and probably the second greatest Irish player in m lifetime, to be fair to the man).
Keith Wood?
