Yearly Archives: 2007

Road to the World Cup: Predicting the quarter-finals

Irish Rugby - Road to the world cupWith Ireland’s world cup campaign creeping closer and closer it’s time to look into our crystal ball and see what lies ahead for Ireland on the rocky road to the world cup.

By now you should have a good idea of the pool fixtures, if not shame on you, let’s recap.
Ireland will face four teams in pool D. Firstly Namibia this Sunday followed by Georgia, France and finally Argentina. The top two placed teams from each pool will qualify for the quarter-finals, while 3rd, 4th and 5th placed teams will be eliminated.

So Ireland have two secure 1st or 2nd place to go through to the quarter-finals, but what happens next? Well this depends where Ireland finish, let’s run through some possibilities.
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Howlett joins Munster

Doug Howlett joins munsterDoug Howlett the New Zealand winger has signed a two and a half year contract with Munster which begins on January 1st 2008. It seems Howlett is looking to experience life outside his homeland and will be moving his family to Ireland later this year. This is a great signing for Munster and I’m sure he will be welcomed by the team and supporters.

O2 Irish Rugby Advert

O2 Irish Rugby JerseyO2 have a new Irish Rugby advert, I haven’t seen this on T.V yet but it looks great. The advert is 40 seconds long and features some familiar Irish rugby legends.
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O’Sullivan in charge till 2012

Eddie O’SullivanEddie O’Sullivan has today signed a four year agreement which will extend his contract as the Irish coach until 2012.

It seems to be odd timing for the IRFU to extend the contract with the World Cup only weeks away. I’m sure this could have been done after the World Cup, that way the IRFU could decide whether Eddie is the right man to coach the 2011 world cup squad as well.

It’s a strong message by the IRFU, they are obviously happy with the job Eddie is doing. We can only hope that Eddie will deliver during this, the most important coaching period of his life.
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Ireland still in third gear

Ireland 23 – 20 Italy

Ireland v Italy - Italian rugby logoIreland managed to grind out a win against Italy in Ravenhill this evening, with a flurry of tires in the last five minutes.
Clearly a three point win against Italy is not the perfect scenario going into the World Cup, however credit to Italy they are a physical team who made Ireland work very hard for the win.
Up front Ireland were once again struggling to gain command of the set pieces, this seems to be a recurring problem for Ireland as they lack the physical power at times to clear out opponents.

With a little over two weeks till Ireland’s first game of the World Cup, it’s now or never. Ireland are lucky not to be facing either France or Argentina in their first two games, hopefully Namibia and Georgia will give Ireland the extra time needed to move into first gear and complete their preparation for the big boys.

Have Ireland got enough time to move into first gear?

Stringer out with back spasm

Peter Stringer is unlikely to be fit for Fridays match against Italy. Stringer has been suffering from a back spasm and at this late stage Eddie is unlikely to risk the #1 scrum half ahead of Ireland’s first world cup game on the 9th. Stringer will attend training on Thursday night where himself and staff will decide whether he can play.