Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="BPM" data-source="post: 1134274" data-attributes="member: 59968">I agree with the concept that losing can sharpen a team but not &#039;always&#039;. I think a lot depends on the mentality of the team in question. Ireland need to break their QF hoodoo and while losing to SA in the pool is unlikely to be terminal, it might put a badly-timed seed of doubt in to the players minds. Particularly when you consider the majority of the side have just lost crunch games with Leinster.I want Ireland to do well, but&nbsp; can&#039;t help but think their history of QF exits and the draw aren&#039;t helpful.I also agree that the sequence of games can be important. Having the big games later in the pool schedule probably favours the pool B teams come QF time.From and England POV, having the big games first up is a bit of a double-edged sword. Given where we&#039;re at, we probably would have benefitted from having the lower ranked teams first to build up a bit of momentum. At the same time, if Borthwick can get a couple of decent scalps in the first couple of rounds, it could be the confidence boost we need. Also having a much improved Samoa side in the final game means we&#039;d have a competitive game to sharpen us before the QFs.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BPM, post: 1134274, member: 59968"] I agree with the concept that losing can sharpen a team but not ‘always’. I think a lot depends on the mentality of the team in question. Ireland need to break their QF hoodoo and while losing to SA in the pool is unlikely to be terminal, it might put a badly-timed seed of doubt in to the players minds. Particularly when you consider the majority of the side have just lost crunch games with Leinster. I want Ireland to do well, but can’t help but think their history of QF exits and the draw aren’t helpful. I also agree that the sequence of games can be important. Having the big games later in the pool schedule probably favours the pool B teams come QF time. From and England POV, having the big games first up is a bit of a double-edged sword. Given where we’re at, we probably would have benefitted from having the lower ranked teams first to build up a bit of momentum. At the same time, if Borthwick can get a couple of decent scalps in the first couple of rounds, it could be the confidence boost we need. Also having a much improved Samoa side in the final game means we’d have a competitive game to sharpen us before the QFs. [/QUOTE]

Verification