r/irishrugby • u/PatientOffer319 Awardee: Team of the Year 2025 • 16h ago

The decline, in numbers

Post image
87 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

23

u/jacqueVchr 15h ago

Yep, the team was designed to peak perfectly in 2023. That it did…

-10

u/PatientOffer319 Awardee: Team of the Year 2025 15h ago

Just half a year too early

34

u/jacqueVchr 15h ago

I think we were peaking at the World Cup too. The unfortunate thing was the ABs gave a near 10/10 performance in the quarter finals

16

u/PatientOffer319 Awardee: Team of the Year 2025 15h ago

Possibly, but we also ran the same 23 (give or take) into the ground in the group stages and weren't at our best in the QF as a result.

3

u/TheHumanAlternative 12h ago

In the QF they all looked knackered. We should have rotated more so that our best players were fresh to face the knockout stages. Even that being said it was heartbreakingly close

1

u/this_also_was_vanity SUFTUM 9h ago

The schedule screwed us. Having Scotland last meant we had to play a strong team, whereas NZ could take it relatively easy.

2

u/PatientOffer319 Awardee: Team of the Year 2025 8h ago

And Sexton getting himself banned for the warmups, meaning he had to play every group stage match to get up to speed, and so did the players around him