Replying To Viking66:  "We won the wooden spoon in 1986, the year before the 1st RWC. We won it again jointly in 88 and 89. We won it jointly in 91, the year of the 2nd RWC. We won it outright in 92. We finished 4th in 93, 94 and 95, the next RWC year, before jointly winning it again in 96 and 97 . We won it outright again in 98, the year before the 4th RWC in 99, in which year we were joint winners of the wooden spoon again. In 2000 Italy joined to make it a 6 Nations competition, and we haven't won it again since.
Basically since the world cup started we have only really been a top rugby country this Millennium. Recently enough."

Replying To CastleBravo:  "You're still not answering my point. You say we're now a top rugby nation since 2000. Fine.

But how can we be simultaneously a top rugby nation, regularly at or near the number 1 spot in the world, yet somehow simultaneously be outside the top 6 or 7 teams as you claimed earlier?"

Replying To CTGAA10:  "Killingfields,are all champions cup rugby matches this season behind a paywall??I know RTÉ aren't showing urc matches and tg4 are showing some.."

Replying To alalalalalum:  "The rugby team are a cossetted bunch since birth. They've never been criticised. Look at rte coverage when they lose. One particular pundit praises them to high heaven even when they're beaten off the field like they were with S Africa. Never their fault when they lose"

Replying To Viking66:  "Alot of those lads got sent to Boarding School. Hardly cossetted from birth. They likely didnt have the option of running to mammy any time they had a problem like most people had growing up."

Replying To KillingFields:  "Saying a lot of the rugby players went to boarding schools isnt true."

Replying To Viking66:  "Some of those 10 times we weren't 1 of the 7 or 8 teams. There's a competition in Rugby called the wooden spoon. We have won it more times historically than any other country."

Replying To KillingFields:  "cossetted bunch? Never criticised. read rugby media and theres plenty of criticism."

Replying To CastleBravo:  "OK you actually said 7 or 8.

But you're still not addressing my point. This entire debate is whether the Ireland team are serial chokers at the World Cup.

You keep emphasising how crap Ireland were pre-2000. Yet the post-2000 Ireland teams perform no better in the World Cup than those Ireland teams you have repeatedly claimed were dire.

Repeatedly failing at the top stage despite being heavily favoured, like Ireland do, is almost the definition of choking."

Replying To Viking66:  "They lost to France in 2003. Well beaten by a better team on the day.
In 2007 they were in a group of death, luck of the draw, and lost to France and Argentina. Never made a QF.
In 2011 we lost to Wales in the QF. Wales won the Grand slam a few months later. They were very good at that time.
2015 we lost to Argentina in the QF. We were missing Paul O'Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien and Jared Payne injured before the game even started, then Tommy Bowe had to go off injured in the first quarter. To put that into context thats 3 of the best forwards, and our best back and playmaker. Would Kerry have won the AI final this year without the 2 Cliffords, White, Meanwhile and O'Shea? Not very likely. And Donegals challenge wouldve been far better in the closing stages after they got it back to 4 points at the 3/4 mark if Mchugh and Thompson hadn't had to go off injured before that. Injuries to key players often determine results in any sport.
In 2019 we were one of the favourites, ranked 1 in the world, and 3rd or 4th favourites for that year's RWC. Japan hosted the tournament. We lost to them in a very contentious group game. They scored 4 penalties, 3 of which were incorrect offside penalties as determined by World Rugby subsequently. No good to us on the night. Losing to Japan meant we went through to a quarter final against the tournament bookies favourites, the All blacks. We lost.
In 2023 hopes were high again. We beat the Boks in the group stages, before losing a really close game to the all Blacks in the QF. We would actually have got a better draw had we lost to SA, as France had shocked the All Blacks in the group stage.
So no, I don't think we are chokers. There have been 10 world cups, we weren't anywhere near the level of the top teams in the 1st four of them, for example we had never beaten NZ in history since the 19th Century.
Since then we lost quarter finals that we weren't clear pre match favourites for in 2003, 2011, 2019 and 2023. We were ravaged by key injuries to our most important players in the 2015 loss to Argentina, and we never made a QF in 2007."