Originally posted by Dowlinz
View Post
I think what you are really asking for is a more expansive gameplan that is more entertaining to watch and has more potential to ask questions of the very top teams (NZ, SA, etc.). I think that there is a false narrative that we don't play wide. In the GS season and the tour to Australia we played good rugby, against the All Blacks in Chicago we played good rugby and against the All Blacks in 2018 we played good rugby (the narrative judges the game on the score board but we cut them open 5 or 6 times which is very rare to see). I'd be very happy to see Ireland get back to those kinds of performances with a mix of hard running in the tight and quick switches to the blindside and in midfield. This year's failures were not about the gameplan as much as they were about terrible accuracy in everything we did. I can buy the argument that this was driven by Schmidt instilling a fear of failure, but I can also buy the argument that individually and collectively the players were off by 5% and at the level they are operating being off by that much is not possible.
I'd agree with you 100% about a winning culture. Forget about France 23, win games, expand the ways the team can play, expand the depth of the squad. Look after your pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.
Comment