Category: Six Nations
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Deep Dive: Ireland Should Use 2024 to Refresh & Evolve
If you’re so inclined, you will link every tangible or intangible piece of Irish success to a down period. The 2023 Grand Slam and 2024 Six Nations title could be diluted by the Rugby World Cup agony sandwiched between them. Those successes could also be juxtaposed to the 1990s where Ireland averaged less than one…
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Analysis: How Ireland Got Back on Track This Spring
I will make no bones about it, Saturday October 14th 2023 was one of Irish rugby’s biggest gut punches. This Ireland team were, and are, a better team than the All Blacks squad that knocked them out. Unfortunately sport is not played on paper, although thankfully, it also has no memory. Despite our concerns, Andy…
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Keeping or Gaining Momentum the Toughest Task in Round 3
One of the several wonders of the Six Nations is the clear balance of power held by momentum. Home advantage, your setlist of fixtures and the need to gather momentum are often pre-tournament talking points, but rarely echoed after Valentines Day. Yet what never gets mentioned is the weekend bereft of momentum, the island week;…
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From A to F, Awesome to Flawed: Grading the Six Nations
I am long out of the formal education system at this stage, but the thoughts of report cards still send shivers down my spine. Which it should. As a teenager, you don’t want to hear about what you need to work on, but if you’re a professional athlete, it’s part and parcel. Without an ability…
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Six Nations Came in Like a Lion, but This Week Won’t Be a Lamb
In the words of my content friend Riaan Louw: “Rugby!” There is something about this crazy sport that we all know and love that just incites a different layer of emotion from within. Take last Friday for example. The last time we heard Ireland’s Call blared out it was also in France, it was beautifully…
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Round 1 Crucial For Fast Starts, Stability and Success
The Guinness Six Nations. Rugby’s Greatest Championship. The first whisper of spring in the air; the first look at the test scene in the rugby sphere. This annual gladiatorial showpiece is everything we wish for in our sporting fix. It’s exciting and feral; frantic and tribal, and there’s a pinch of rugby sprinkled on top.…
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Top 2 the Minimum in Ireland’s Redemption Bid
Can we move past Paris yet? Can we ever? As our spread of World Cup scars grows larger, one mark sits deeper and longer than the rest. It’s still visible and aching, but it motivates. That one scar drives us on, seeking redemption. Ireland’s World Cup bid fell flat in Paris, but when they take…
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Is the Six Nations More Top Heavy Than Ever?
The Guinness Six Nations prides itself by its slogan “Rugby’s Greatest Championship”. This, in a straight speaking sense, is true. It is a wonderful tournament which ticks all the boxes any great sporting showpiece should. However, despite some thrilling recent springs and a scintillating World Cup in the Autumn; you’d be spared for feeling a…
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Is it Crowley’s Time to Shine as Johnny’s Successor?
Sport, as we all know and love it; is oh so cruel. If fairytales were real, Johnny Sexton doesn’t miss that late penalty attempt against New Zealand, he kicks a late game winning drop-goal or penalty, and Ireland make a first ever Rugby World Cup final. Instead, that remains just a vivid pipe dream, never…
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Farrell’s New Year Headache is Selecting A New Captain
Hello again… it’s been a while since we’ve spoken, and so much has happened since. We all thought the world was our oyster when we made Scotland look like Suttonians. Then came the All Blacks, the quarter final curse and a chance at redemption. Instead it was Sam Whitelock and a written off juggernaut who…