RWC Review: No. 6 Ireland

[M Two One]

The 2011 Rugby World Cup has ended and unfortunately for the rugby faithful, this means that we'll have to wait four years once again, but don't be disappointed, this was a special tournament. New Zealand hosted this time around, and with that, we realize that we may not see the rugby mad country host again for a very long time.

We hope that you all savoured every moment and every match, no matter what the outcomes were, the disappointments or heartache. What impressed us the most is how well second tier nations developed over the past four years, which is great news for the sport on a worldwide scale.

Development is the key to this game, as any, and this world cup has opened the door to a large number of new fans.

As we take a look back, Shaggy, psychic duck and M Two One review the twenty participants from worst to first over the next week. The rankings were put together through several opinions based on performances.

Feel free to debate and discuss. The 2011 Rugby World Cup may have ended, but rugby lives on 24/7.

Ireland's world cup could be viewed as either a success or a disappointment, depending on how high your personal expectations were. Coming into the tournament, the Irish lost all four of their world cup warm ups, most the home-and-home against the French. With their final defeat to England at home, it almost seemed to lift a bit of weight off of the players' shoulders as the media no longer put the Irish in a favorable position.

Drawn into Pool C with Australia, Ireland was immediately looked at as one of two possibilities (the other being Italy) to move on to the quarters in second place. The Italians came away with a huge victory against the French a few months prior during the 6 Nations and with a solid effort against the Wallabies in their first match in New Zealand, it looked like a possibility after all that they could make it out of the group over the Irish.

Ireland's first match against the United States was a decent performance marred mostly by poor ball handling and dreadful kicking, even for bad weather. Fly half Jonathan Sexton went 1 for 5 on penalties before eventually being subbed off for Ronan O'Gara, but wing Tommy Bowe put together a quality performance scoring two tries, including the one that changed the face of the match at the death of the first half. Despite their disappointment, the Irish managed to pull out the stops against the Aussies by kicking their way to a memorable win. At this point everything was turned upside down as Italy's performances against Russia and the United States were of the quality expected from a team taking part in the 6 Nations.

With Australia securing wins against the bottom two nations, Italy needed to secure a win over the Irish in the final match of the pool to have any chance of moving on. Ireland proved their worth by not only securing the win to put them on top over Australia, but also dominated the Italians throughout the second half of the match. O'Gara started this one and brought a solid kicking game to combine with three tries, two of which were scored by wing Keith Earls who had two in the prior match against Russia as well.

Heading into their quarterfinals match against Wales, Ireland were once again viewed as the underdogs despite topping their pool. While they were tied with Wales during the first stage for points allowed, in a three way tie for second best, they were nowhere near the same level of scoring production that the Welsh possessed so far. The match didn't start well either with Wales scoring a try within the first few minutes. Ireland came back early in the second half with Earls scoring his fifth try of the tournament to draw level, but soon after, the Welsh took over. Ireland was eliminated in the group stage four years ago as favorites, but this time it was in the knockout stages by a strong Welsh team. Thinking about it that way, despite the final score, they have much to be proud of.

The next four years will surely be a big transition for Ireland as many of their staples will be retired by the time the 2015 Rugby World Cup comes along. However, young players like Keith Earls and Cian Healy among others give the nation hope of reaching well beyond the quarterfinals in a nation close to home. - M

 

[big ginger 8]

Might want to change home and home matches.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Good article, summed the tournament up perfectly best tournament we've ever had but still pretty average.

 

[M Two One]

Thanks, glad you liked the review.

Might want to change home and home matches.

Done, I added too much description to that portion.

 

[Groundhog]

yeah its a fair review beating australia is the highlight of our world cup history but the welsh match was such a dissapointment

 

[coonor]

the Australia game was truly brilliant but it was all with the aim of getting to the semi final in which we failed. That one game shall go down in Irish rugby history however every Irish wanted more and every Irish player was there for more than just a brilliant game but a achievement and record that would go down in history however they did not achieve this.

 

[Thingimubob]

Out of interest were Ireland really underdogs vs Wales? Remember us getting written off by the pundits on ITV quite a lot! Then again, didn't pay a massive amount of attention to the build up as I was trying to keep my mind off it during the week

 

[M Two One]

Many pundits had Wales going through from what I seen and the odds from LV were in favor of them as well.

 

[Heath Taylor]

USA were far from outclassed by Ireland,yet when they faced Australia their kicking improved and,more notably the forward pack in the scrum....I expected Ireland to win over Wales but they didn't take the chances at goal and instead kicking for touch,and most likely that's what kept them out of the semi final.