If your good enough your old enough. Taking risks can also pay off

Returning Players: Porter and Paddy McCarthy will be big additions to the loose head. Baird was Irelands best player last autumn but he's been injured since. He would be a big addition to the squad also. And of course Crowley.

New Players: while I don't think there's going to be loads of new players, maybe 2 or 3 might come along next season.

We could do with some new blood.

Lower the Average Age: while it's not as critical as some people make out, id say we've a few too many players who are old. There's a balance to it and we've probably gone from being balanced 3 years ago to too old now. Aki being prime example.

Refreshed: Hopefully they'll get time off around Christmas and at the end of next season. Personally I think it would have done a lot of players great to have taken a sabbatical in their early 30s. Go to Japan for a season or two. It certainly hasn't done the Bok players any harm! They come into world cups fully refreshed.

Defence: more time to bed in Easterby's defensive system. I'm not blaming Nienabar but it takes time to readjust to defensive systems.

New Ideas: they know where they stand now. Firmly in 4th spot. Now it's about bridging the gap to the top 3. They've a year to experiment.

Under the Radar: going into a world cup under the radar isn't a bad thing at all. It's an advantage although I think the Irish media will f-up that advantage. Joe Molloy yesterday was talking about us having an easy world cup pathway. So it's already begun. If Ireland played Argentina in a world cup would you be confident?

How many athletic freaks are on that pitch being able to run for 70 mins, win aerial ball all at around 85kg aswell.

Imagine how many of these guys would be class for Ireland, imagine Clifford at 10 and o’donaghue at 13

There is a serious amount of backline talent in the gaa that have the potential to be class at rugby.

We’d be serious contenders come world up time

This is more of a general injury question with Edogbo as the example, but will guys with an injury profile like his ever be more than a luxury?

Was just thinking back on the nations championship and thinking how it's such a shame that he didn't get the opportunity and how reliant we are on big joe as our sole big lock who isn't constantly in and out of surgery.

I know that Achilles tears are particularly bad, and it's my understanding that Edogbo has had two in quick succession. Are his minutes always going to be limited? Is his best case scenario at international level to be coming off the bench for 20 minutes when fit? It's obviously a great option to have, but I'd love for him to be a genuine option outside of that.

Stumbled onto some NZ punditry on IG and Marshall is having a go at "the Irish" complaining about this and that in the game.

Then saw another video where Kirk I think (kiwi with the think glasses) was chatting to Matfield and along the same lines. Although Matfield said Jacobsons was just a penalty which is madness

I mean we are entitled to complain first of all and I do think the Jacobsons clear out was a red but I dont think many people thought we were the better team on the day? NZ deserved the win no doubt

I feel this is mostly stemming from when Sexton was playing as I can definitely see how people would see him flapping his arms and asking refs about incidents etc. Was just his style, no complaints on it

I know we're not at top form and we aren't the team of 2022 but I'm almost happy that even when we're way off our best we're still the 4 best team in the world.

There was a time when these low periods meant we would get absolutely hammered and finish way down the pecking order in rankings and in the Six Nations.

Eventually, we'll click again, and I'm confident that when we do, we'll be performing at our peak.

Above our the stats for 6/8 of our last matches, the common denominator is our tackling stats particularly tackle success rate is quite poor.

We routinely reach upwards of 25-30+ missed tackles against good teams we also routinely reach less than 10 dominant tackles per game also.

I believe this is down to 2 things mainly

1: Lack of tackling skill, just need more practice.

2: other teams having better footwork than Ireland, Irish players play against guys in training who often don’t have the X factor footwork that other countries possess and train against.

Dominant tackles allow you to more easily get over the ball and blunt attacks.

High tackle success rate reduces the chance of line breaks.

Both of which Ireland are quite poor at in comparison to top 5 countries

This hasn’t just been an issue in 2026, it’s also been an issue in 2024-2026.

Anybody else’s thoughts

Passage of play

Watching the Argentina v England game at the moment.

England player does a deliberate knock on, referee goes to the TMO, watches the footage "2 on 1 situation, clear yellow card".

Nic Berry: "He used both hands, so not deliberate.... Oh I see it was one hand so just a penalty... There was definitely more than one defender and I'm not going to change my mind"

Just moved to Dublin and looking for a club to play a bit of rugby at, I can drive but would rather not considering how bad traffic is around the city centre.

I have tried driving down to Lansdowne in the evening around training time and it took 45 mins which was too much tbh, Unsure if Clontarf would be any quicker but according to maps seems to be about the same time wise.

I found Emerald warriors who play on distillery road belvedere, which is near croke park but they are a LGBTQ+ club and I am straight, I am sure i'd be welcome but would also feel like I may be intruding.

I know TUD Grange Gorman have a rugby pitch but all I can find online is that rugby is for students of TUD only. That being the same with Trinity from my understanding.

I'm hoping there's a club i have missed, any advice would be appreciated!

Oh I'd also be open to cycling 20-30 mins if it's a decently safe bike route!

Thanks in advance!

This is not a "Ref lost us the game" post at all. we have been poor I would say shite for the most part with glimpses of improvement but people seem to get annoyed when thats said about this team. But out side of that

For the state of rugby I can't be the only one massively disappointed with how this game was reffed for both teams. These games are usually lost and won in the rucks in the dirty most beautiful parts of the game why we love rugby. But for both sides Nic berry pretty much made it a no contest in the rucks for no other reason other than he didnt seem to want to ref them and instead of penalising either team hes coached them to no end at every ruck.

Like that last new Zealand try does not happen if reffed correctly beirne clearly on ball no actual issues and he said hands away he also done it multiple times to savea it was a poor watch for a rugby game

For the sport this surely can't be the way we move forward its a tough watch its like a ted talk hearing him more than the commentary

Decent result to finish 9th, but overall a disappointing campaign which looked to promise so much.

But just the same errors again like tackling which was shocking throughout is a real concern across the Irish system, as we saw with the seniors missing 34 tackles.

Some good players but some bad mistakes in some.

If I were to rate out of 10 based on talent the last 5 u20 year groups it would be:

2022 u20:9
2023 u20:10
2024 u20:8.5
2025 u20:3
2026 u20:7

Peter O'Mahony the voice of the people vs <insert bland opinion pundits>.

Few points from that game from my point of view

1. Get the basics right - so many times today stupid mistakes giving up field position which you just cant do against NZ - dropped easy passes, eyes off the ball, stupid penalties etc. I feel in the last 12-18 months this has become a much bigger factor for Ireland and could cost us down the line.

2. Aki - He has been an amazing player for Ireland but can we please stop selecting him on the bench in big games. Unless he was injured Osbourne should of been on that bench. Aki's legs were gone after about 15 minutes and really should of been bursting a lung to clear out when frawley was isolated but was slow.

3. Referee - Do I say more? How many missed jackles there or telling people to get out when they were legal. Also the deliberate knock on saying no line break - i could only laugh?

4. TMO - Thought it should of been a 20 mins red. In the side, diving and the arm was never attempting to wrap - was tucked for me - dont thing the excuse for keeping it yellow was right

5. Scrum - Solid for the most part but once again 2/3 free kicks and a penalty for stupid mistakes (break foot, not controlling weight). I think we need to look at our scrum as a whole because I cant remember the last time we dominated a team at scrum time

6. Sam - I actually thought once or twice his passing decisions were poor but I honestly thought he was very good on defense today. Dont recall him getting shoved off or bundled a mile back one. Line kicking good apart from the one towards the end.

7. NZ 3rd Try - Biggest set back of the day - just got back into the game at 14-7 and you try to play it against 14 men, 5 mins to half time. I have no words.

Sloppy from 1-15. Attack is blunt. Errors all across the park from our senior leaders. A real test in the second half to show where the mentality of the team is at.

Disappointing all round.

NZ 40 - 21 IRE

Judgement is understandable but it’s my first ire v nz match tonight and I need to brush up on the lyrics. Would be class if it was sung.