Irish Times again breaking news about Irish fixtures. Seems in summer ‘26, when Ireland are playing Aus, Jap & NZ, there will be a development tour elsewhere. Lads crossing figures and toes hoping for the Americas

Rest easy Ed, the rescue play is coming together nicely!!!

Have never seen a more bat shit game in my life

Was only thinking recently that we wouldn’t see the annual round of contextless Irish selection data to critique our coaches… I was wrong… here’s the context… SA: Used 48 players - 11 have played 1 or 2 games (if this is now a metric), playing 3 games more than Ireland… Continued…

Ireland: A tale of 2 halves… perhaps a tale of 2 different games?!? Since RWC ‘23, Ireland generally win the 1st half, draw the 2nd half and lose the last 20mins, it needs to change… 🧵

We are so back! Or are we? Improved player performances, lineout, handling, execution in the red zone, all good stuff! But I’m surprised by just how positive the media reaction as been, Australia were very poor and I doubt what Ireland did well translates to the Springboks… 🧵

I’ve never climbed onto a bandwagon so fast, or pushed my way into the middle so eagerly… GET IN!!!! #TP7 COYBIG

That’s a step in the right direction, Australia were terrible though. Might be a long day next Saturday, hopefully they can go up a few gears still. JGP @15 👀

Think I’ll stop by World Rugby’s HQ on my way to the Aviva, just to see if I can buy any of the lads a beer, cracking work they’re doing

The aging Irish squad doesn’t appear to me to be solely a top down problem. Ireland is simply a sample of the provincial squads… Average Age 1st 23’s: Ireland: 28.6 (this weekend) Leinster: 28.8 Munster 28.9 Connacht: 28.1 Ulster: 27.3 Ireland: 29.1 (vs NZ) - removing NIQs

Euro 2028 Games: Aviva Stadium Dublin: 7 games Principality Stadium Cardiff: 6 games Ireland batter Wales, YET AGAIN 💪 Shove your roof!

After development tours, capping any young French fella that moved, Fabien Galthie has come to the obvious and correct conclusion, just play King Charles Ollivon wherever you need him 🤷🏼‍♂️

Thornley’s Ireland 23… some interesting, some not so much. Unless they significantly improve the lineout, handling and carrying I doubt a few changes in personnel really matters…

Lots of discussion about the Irish pack’s ability to win offensive collisions and ability to get over the gainline… so what the best carrying pack available? J Boyle, D Heffernan, S Wilson F Wycherly, I Henderson J Van Der Flier, J Conan, T Aherne - Per Opta 24/25 season stats

Per the Irish Times, Ireland A will play England A, at Thomand Pk, the week before the 6N, Friday 30th Jan. URC fixtures that weekend: Munster @ Glasgow Connacht @ Zebre Leinster @ Edinburgh Ulster v Cardiff

Winning next week is possibly a bad thing for Ireland, likely cements Aus as #2 seeds at the WC, we have the freest of free hits here… am hoping for a team like… McCarthy, Sheehan, Clarkson, Aherne, Beirne, Timoney, Doris, Prendergast Casey, Crowley McCloskey, Farrell Lowe, ToB, JoB

World Rugby trying to get those poor South African’s again I see

Looking forward to listing to this BBC pod, this week… Scotland were bang in this match for 2m 41s, just need to add that other 76mins next time to make history

Great podcasting this from the BBC, the boys rank where Scotland’s win this weekend over New Zealand, sits in the pantheon of great Scottish wins. Some might call that premature, but when you’re able to back it up, it ain’t arrogance!!! @edjenx.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/r...

South Africa will beat France this weekend, by 10+, France are just missing too many players. But! I’d be worried looking at this if I were a Bok fan… France are 3.5 years younger, key Bok players will age out soon and there is nothing in the URC to compare to the young Top14 talent 🤷🏼‍♂️

Excited for France v SA at the weekend… 6 Nations Champs v Rugby Championship Champs… a score to settle from the 2023 RWC… a team and their supporters that really, really cares, plays a team that really, really doesn’t give a shit… Vive la France 🧵

Since when did total URC mins in the season become the metric by which some Irish fans deem if a player is allowed to play for Ireland? Jack has the most minutes at 10 and the most wins at 10 this season, so we should definitely start him right? That’s Jack Murphy btw… didn’t think so.

This is 🌶️ Fekitoa claiming he signed a big contract and THEN had a medical, claims Munster tried to back out on bogus medical findings 🍿 Was told before he ever showed up on his first day, that he could move on. Publicly it was all blamed on his wife 😬 www.independent.ie/sport/united...

Glasgow v Bulls… can they both lose?

Wessels ban now official, perhaps the communication is brief as this can be appealed, but it appears quite unwise not to explain the evidence upon which this is based. www.unitedrugby.com/latest/disci...

Munster battered Leinster last weekend… lots of frustration amongst Leinster fans, lots of articles and podcasts discussing Leinster’s underlying problems… Just heard a podcast pretending that Leinster fans & media are making excuses for them. Whatever sells subscriptions I guess 🤔

Rumours flying around about a big ban for Wessels and Josh Murphy being free to play Munster this weekend. SA fans in full meltdown and Rassie stoking the flames… this is 2025’s “see you in the final” 😂

Leinster’s team to play Zebre will be so inexperienced, missing 26 players… something like: Jerry Cahir, McKee, Slimani Deeny, Mangan, Penny, Deegan, Soroka McGrath, Byrne, Tector, Cooney, A Osbourne, McErlean, J Kenny Smyth, Usanov, Sparrow, Spicer/Ronan, Culhane, Connors, Gunne, Gabriel

Sport gives a rhythm to life… eg in rugby we have Autumn internationals, winter European games, 6N in spring, European knock outs coming into summer…. Munster’s win at Croker has elevated the Thomond Pk rematch to a completely new level… big date in the calendar now

Average age of the Springbok squad named today for the Autumn Internationals? 29.2 years old. Their reserve panel of young, up and coming players will be 31.0 years for the RWC (29.0 today). Average age of Ireland’s squad 28.0 years old. Age ain’t our issue, talent and opportunity is!

Kinda hilarious that today of all days we get a glimpse of David Nucifora’s diagnosis of the problems at Munster…

🚨 After the Northampton loss and every big Leinster loss, the general line from their coaches is the process was right, but variance/luck and errors went against them. 🧵

Fair play Munster 👏 👏 that’s a comprehensive beating, a team with a plan and desire, very impressive and very annoying as a Leinster fan

Munster the better team BY A MILE in that half, got a little lucky in the last couple of minutes, but that’s a very big lead 😬

Andy Farrell watching Furlong win scrum pens on Milne

Frustratingly, Hansen gets an injury then Tommy O’Brien is removed for Leinster, hopefully those 2 things are related, otherwise with Nash also injured there’s a bit of a problem there…

Leinster win, Munster get a LBP, Edogbo, Gleeson & McCarthy have stormers, the 2 10’s play really well… we’d all take that, no?

Mike Adamson “let’s play no offsides”

Rugby’s generation game… a lot of negativity about Ireland’s squad age building towards the 2027 RWC, is that negativity supported by data? 🧵

Irish 23 not named in yesterday’s squad: Milne, Herring, O’Toole McCarthy, Izuchukwu Kendellen, Coombes, McNabney Murphy, Murphy Forde, Farrell J O’Brien, Keenan, Nash Stewart, Loughman, Jager, Murray, Soroka, Devine, Byrne, Gavin Maybe our first 23 ain’t the best ever, but the depth is

Having your 3 LH’s and 3 hookers coming from the same club is daft… personally Coombes should be there and at least 1 centre who is not about to get their bus pass… but besides that, let’s beat the AB’s again. Disciplinary action should be taken about this sock/shoe combo ⬇️

Irish squad day, can’t wait for all the nebulous claims of “form”. Prop scrummaging like his on rollerskates, who cares? He’s in great “form”. Fullback who can’t catch the ball, who cares? He’s in great “form”. It’s ok just you say that you really like a player from the team you support 🤷🏼‍♂️

Andy Farrell popped up on lots of podcasts yesterday… curiously, he kept bringing up one surprising name, proactively, in all interviews… Harry Byrne. Ridiculous as it might sound, I wouldn’t be shocked if he was name in the Irish squad tomorrow 🤷🏼‍♂️

Great news, but probably v bad news for Tom Aherne, Izuchukwu probably gets in as 2nd row, Timoney as last back row www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/... Caelan Doris and Joe McCarthy set to give Ireland double fitness boost ahead of November internationals

If you’re an 80’s child then I have a lovely TV recommendation for you… I Like Me : Amazon Prime You won’t regret it

Believe me later… but Crowley starts v New Zealand… he’s only started 1 from 2 and gets a rest already, ideally you’d like him or Casey playing here, will have a week off after Leinster…

Irish squad next week for the Nov series… might have less surprises than yesterday’s budget, we can all name 30+ correctly… questions for me: - will they include 3 or 4 TH’s, Jager v O’Toole for that last spot - will they consider Aherne & Izuchukwu as 2nd rows - presumably, Murray to miss out? ….

Ireland play the All Blacks in 4.5 weeks, so presumably we’ll have an Irish squad in 2 weeks for everyone to agree on… season comes at you fast

Gleeson was the highlight of the weekend for me, lad just needs to get minutes and very good things will happen.

“Wanna go to the cinema later?” “Do you mind if we go on Monday? The rugby season starts at 6” “But you were watching rugby last weekend, what season was that?” Some people never get it