RWC 2015 Review.

[Oldschool]

A couple of issues to kick this off.
NH v SH
While each NH needs to review their performances, there are a number of issues of common interest.
1. Law changes and the timing of their introduction. It seems to me that the SH always see to get more time to implement/adjust.
2. Referee styles/interpretations between the two Hs.
3. The length of the club season.

Ireland.
Four provinces and four different styles and further down the tree.
This just has to change.
Precursor - The SH teams tour every Autumn to the NH.
Touring strategy. We last played NZ on tour in 2012 and are not scheduled to tour there again until 2021 I think.
Don't know when we last toured SA or Australia on a separate tour.
If you want to beat the best, you have to play the best.
We should do no more split tours.
The impact of Lion's tours means we do a mivkey mouse tour that summer
Food for thought.

[Oldschoolsocks]

I think there's definitely room for 4: Dates of WC suit the SH season, the Rugby Championship is run over the summer for 6 rounds between August and October and this year it was cut in half from 6 to 3 rounds specifically for the WC. point being that the NH season is a mismatched wreck with fixtures shoehorned in to suit the money men in England and France.

I think the Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Italian unions should at least consider a more viable season for their league, letting the French and English fracture the international season is really giving the SH a definite advantage

[All Blacks nil]

“I HAVEN’T DONE this before. I know I’m going to get a few things wrong, because it is inevitable when you first go into something.”

Joe Schmidt in May 2015.

Undoubtedly Joe will learn from any mistakes he feels he has made. At the end of the day, three major factors would have been in his complete control.
Logistically, it seems to have been a relatively seamless RWC with the players and back room team seemingly quite happy, with facilities, accommodation, preparation etc.
Joe would have had full control (in consultation with his coaching and management team) on
1. Selection -extended squad, 31 man squad and actual matchday selections, use of replacements.
2. Tactics
3. Logistics - pre tournament and actual tournament logistics, which as I've said seem to have been most satisfactory, although a RWC in the UK will have been a logistical doddle compared to having to go to RWC 2019 in Japan.

What will Joe have learned that will make him a better coach?
What few things did Joe, as he knew he would, get wrong?

Personally, I think Joe will have learned an awful lot from this experience. Just as a player benefits from the experience of his first World Cup, a coach has to learn so much, especially when things go wrong.
Kidney suffered from not having a Plan B. Don't expect Joe to fall into that trap again in 2019.

[Logorrhea]

Surely he should have foreseen the loss of O'Brien, O'Connell, Payne, O'Mahony and Sexton all at the same time.
Surely he should have made the players that weren't as good as our best, better than they could are.

Joe needs to develop psychic powers and take over coaching of all four provincial teams. Otherwise he should just move aside and let Axel, the one true coach, take over.

JOE OUT

[nc6000]

The great thing about the RWC is how much we learn from it. We learn so much from it that we keep making a balls of it every 4 years.

I'm guessing we'll have some other way of making a 1/4 final exit in 2019.

[All Blacks nil]

As Joe has said, he would make mistakes.

As he reviews RWC15, what mistakes do you think he will identify.
Injuries and too a lesser extent SOB's indiscipline ( a player can be too manically aggressive) were outside his control, but what,if any, mistakes do you think Joe will have felt he made.

[Oldschoolsocks]

As Joe has said, he would make mistakes.

As he reviews RWC15, what mistakes do you think he will identify.
Injuries and too a lesser extent SOB's indiscipline ( a player can be too manically aggressive) were outside his control, but what,if any, mistakes do you think Joe will have felt he made.

Deliberately quoting an ex Irish international out of context?

oh Wait...

[RoboProp]

Three different threads started by the same punter to say the same thing. Is this some kind of record? Can we just merge all the AB0 threads into one called the 'Great big Joe witch hunt orchestrated by turnips who want Axel to usurp Joe.' Catchy

[Oldschoolsocks]

Three different threads started by the same punter to say the same thing. Is this some kind of record? Can we just merge all the AB0 threads into one called the 'Great big Joe witch hunt orchestrated by turnips who want Axel to usurp Joe.' Catchy

gotta love a tryer

[Peg Leg]

Three different threads started by the same punter to say the same thing. Is this some kind of record? Can we just merge all the AB0 threads into one called the 'Great big Joe witch hunt orchestrated by turnips who want Axel to usurp Joe.' Catchy

Very Catchy.
At least title them something relevant to the OP FFS!

TECHNICAL SUPPORT....
TECHNICAL SUPPORT....
TECHNICAL SUPPORT....

[Peg Leg]

Well there's your answer RP, your title is too long!
Care to suggest an alternative?

[Kinger83]

It's sad to see Irish people taking enjoyment out of the fact that we're out of the world cup.

[Peg Leg]

It's sad to see Irish people taking enjoyment out of the fact that we're out of the world cup.

Plus One

[RoboProp]

Three different threads started by the same punter to say the same thing. Is this some kind of record? Can we just merge all the AB0 threads into one called the 'Great big Joe witch hunt orchestrated by turnips who want Axel to usurp Joe.' Catchy

Very Catchy.
At least title them something relevant to the OP FFS!

TECHNICAL SUPPORT....
TECHNICAL SUPPORT....
TECHNICAL SUPPORT....

AB0 taking no Schmidt, innit

[All Blacks nil]

That's good.

The next captain thread was opened on June 11th

The "will Ireland open up" thread was opened on September 4th

Both pertinent questions to Ireland's RWC chances and to their future prospects post POC.

[RoboProp]

That's good.

The next captain thread was opened on June 11th

The "will Ireland open up" thread was opened on September 4th

Both pertinent questions to Ireland's RWC chances and to their future prospects post POC.

The Gordon D'Arcy says it all thread in the same vein. I'm sensing a motif. Old School even started a RWC review thread earlier

[All Blacks nil]

Mea cupla
re Darcy quote which to me is a damning indictment of Irish back play.

Oldschool's review centred on SH v NH as well as Irellands touring strategy, Lions tour etc. which are perfectly valid subjects to question but are probably for another day.

With respect to Oldschool my idea of a review of the RWC is an actual performance review at RWC15 and a review of what we could control.

I.e
Selection
Preparation
Game plans and
Playing performance.

As we speak you can be sure JS and DN amongst others are in session. They will not leave their head in the sand and blame the Lions tour, the lack of Irish summer tours to Tier 1 Southern Hemisphere nations etc but rather will identify Ireland's faults, mistakes and shortcomings in RWC2015 and strive to correct them.
They will also identify positive aspects of the campaign and seek to develop them.

[Logorrhea]

They will also identify positive aspects of the campaign and seek to develop them.

Who gives a shite about them? We haven't finished eating our own yet. Stay on story and focus on the negatives. Specifically the Irish back play and most importantly the inexcusable exclusion of x-factor. Joe should have selected more Munster players, fewer Leinster players, and made them all play the exciting brand of rugby that they grew up playing and is rigidly enforced within the provinces.

[All Blacks nil]

They will also identify positive aspects of the campaign and seek to develop them.

Who gives a shite about them? We haven't finished eating our own yet. Stay on story and focus on the negatives. Specifically the Irish back play and most importantly the inexcusable exclusion of x-factor. Joe should have selected more Munster players, fewer Leinster players, and made them all play the exciting brand of rugby that they grew up playing and is rigidly enforced within the provinces.

With regards Munster players the only Munster player's that in my view could/should have been better utilised were Zebo and Ryan. Not too many dissenters there.m
Keatly's, who had been in great form circa the Six Nations when he started and played well against Italy, form tailed off towards the end of the season and by selection time was correctly assessed as being number 4 choice outhalf. Jackson had a super finish to last season and Madigan's versatility had been invaluable to the squad. ( Madigan, Henshaw midfield anyone)
Kilcoyne could have been in the squad if Ireland had picked 3 loose heads. Healy was a calculated risk but was a world class player and Jack McGrath has really stepped up and possibly overtaken Healy on current form. Kilcoyne a definite number 3 in my book.

As I said elsewhere the development of the "back up 10" was badly handled
The selection of Keatly for his one and only appearance at 10 for Joe was a glorious missed opportunity to put his 12/16 times picked "back up 10" through the necessary mental rigours and preparation that come with the mantle of starting 10 in a big game.
Madigan's ( the back up 10) only start for Joe in 2 years prior to the RWC prelims and tournament was against Samoa a year ago. Fair enough if he was a bolter, but as I said Madigan was the "back up outhalf " in 12/16 selections.
Madigan's first start at 10 for Joe in a meaningful match was against Argentina
That to me was a major and avoidable flaw in Ireland's attempt to build a RWC winning squad.

So far I'd have McGrath for Healy, and Madigan to have started more often. Zebo for either DK or RK and Ryan as fourth choice second row ( no quibble there), but to start with POC injured to release the more robust presence of IH in the back row.

If that is parochialism, so be it.
to me it is an honest appraisal of what I saw and which unlike others I addressed before the game.

Select form players all the time.
The biggest match of Joe's tenure and he starts Healy and Murphy. Regarding Murphy, was Joe not at the Welsh match? There was no need to play Healy in front of an inform McGrath.

[All Blacks nil]

.duplicate