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2024 Guinness Six Nations
Conspiracy theory?... Irish fans chime in? (long-ish)
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<blockquote data-quote="Leonormous Boozer" data-source="post: 932520" data-attributes="member: 45598"><p>I don't think anyone in Ireland was claiming we were world number 1, NZ has too much in the bank despite us being the best team in 2018.</p><p></p><p>I also think having a recent winning streak is bigger for English sides than anyone else, if you look at Saracens' and England's recent dominant runs it took a massive effort to knock them off their perch despite a long period of abject form, they just kept winning and then they fell off for about a year after a loss. Call it a habit, arrogance, whatever you want, Leicester were the same back in their heyday if I remember correctly and winning suits the English, you're fragile after a loss and generally let it snowball. </p><p></p><p>Munster and Leinster lost important European games during their dominant years, Ireland have lost games they should have won in recent years just before their dominant period, and lost bang in the middle of last year which was the most successful year in Irish rugby to date. The England game wasn't good but equally, until Ireland let the last 15 minutes get away from them, they weren't absolute shite which is usually when you know we're in trouble. I don't think the Scotland game can be seen negatively either, it was an injury affected team winning away in the 6 nations, Scotland's first home loss since 2016 too and more than anything it showed the big players in this team have what it takes to play and win when faced with adversity, Sexton was running the show and building what would have been a BP win but for his injury, PO'M was MOTM after a bad performance last week, Kearney showed his quality too. </p><p></p><p>While I don't think we needed to lose to England like some are saying I don't think it'll dent the potential of this team long term especially after last week. And a loss that'll live long in the memory like that will really help motivate this team even further if they meet England in the RWC. </p><p></p><p>Looking further into it and I really don't rate 6 nations form as much leading into the RWC, if anything 2003 was the exception, the last three six nations champions in RWC years have fallen quite a bit short of expectations, France in 2007 were good enough to win that tournament at home, lost two games, England and Ireland were disastrous once they reached the knockouts in 2011 and 2015 respectively. In addition to that 4 win Ireland in 2007 and 4 win England in 2015 were the stuff of nightmares in the WC!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Leonormous Boozer, post: 932520, member: 45598"] I don't think anyone in Ireland was claiming we were world number 1, NZ has too much in the bank despite us being the best team in 2018. I also think having a recent winning streak is bigger for English sides than anyone else, if you look at Saracens' and England's recent dominant runs it took a massive effort to knock them off their perch despite a long period of abject form, they just kept winning and then they fell off for about a year after a loss. Call it a habit, arrogance, whatever you want, Leicester were the same back in their heyday if I remember correctly and winning suits the English, you're fragile after a loss and generally let it snowball. Munster and Leinster lost important European games during their dominant years, Ireland have lost games they should have won in recent years just before their dominant period, and lost bang in the middle of last year which was the most successful year in Irish rugby to date. The England game wasn't good but equally, until Ireland let the last 15 minutes get away from them, they weren't absolute shite which is usually when you know we're in trouble. I don't think the Scotland game can be seen negatively either, it was an injury affected team winning away in the 6 nations, Scotland's first home loss since 2016 too and more than anything it showed the big players in this team have what it takes to play and win when faced with adversity, Sexton was running the show and building what would have been a BP win but for his injury, PO'M was MOTM after a bad performance last week, Kearney showed his quality too. While I don't think we needed to lose to England like some are saying I don't think it'll dent the potential of this team long term especially after last week. And a loss that'll live long in the memory like that will really help motivate this team even further if they meet England in the RWC. Looking further into it and I really don't rate 6 nations form as much leading into the RWC, if anything 2003 was the exception, the last three six nations champions in RWC years have fallen quite a bit short of expectations, France in 2007 were good enough to win that tournament at home, lost two games, England and Ireland were disastrous once they reached the knockouts in 2011 and 2015 respectively. In addition to that 4 win Ireland in 2007 and 4 win England in 2015 were the stuff of nightmares in the WC! [/QUOTE]
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2024 Guinness Six Nations
Conspiracy theory?... Irish fans chime in? (long-ish)
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