“An average return.” Those three words from IRFU performance director David Nucifora, uttered last week, will have stung Andy Farrell, his coaching staff, players and all involved with the Ireland team. Farrell inherited a team short on confidence after they signed off the six-year Joe Schmidt era by being ejected with force from the World […]

5 years ago

The Ireland captain feels ‘you guys’ in the media are not convinced his team can challenge the very best in world rugby. Johnny Sexton returned to the Ireland fold and rallied the troops by defending them to the media, before and after their win over Scotland. One hopes James Ryan was taking note as this […]

5 years ago

IRELAND 31-16 SCOTLAND Andy Farrell’s side did not have it all their own way against Scotland in the Autumn Nations Cup. Our Ireland player ratings reflect the big impact made by two impressive forwards. The first half saw Ireland go unrewarded on the scoreboard after a bright start. The Scots grew into the contest and […]

5 years ago

“Come the end of the week, there’s still pressure to get everything right but it’s probably done in a slightly different way.” Back in December 2018, Jacob Stockdale reminisced about what it was like to be in Ireland camp with Joe Schmidt as head coach. At the time, Stockdale had scored 10 tries in 12 […]

5 years ago

Uncertain times, even for some of our finest rugby talents. The state of the rugby nation delivered by IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora, this week, was as stark as you can get. Normally, the boss of a country’s head coach describing his first year at the helm as “average” would garner a lot of headlines, […]

5 years ago

Eight changes from the side that started against Georgia. “It’s a six-day turnaround so there’s not going to be that much time on the field to fix a few things,” Ireland coach Andy Farrell reflected after his side’s dour win over Georgia. “We’ve got to be honest with each other and make sure there’s a […]

5 years ago