Ireland will be pushing 30 on average by the RWC

They are 28.9 years now and will be 29.5 by the RWC....on average. And they are the form NH team. 

Why are Ireland winning, beating Oz, the Boks and France in recent months? These are tough guys....competitors. They are smart and battle hardened. There are no passengers.

And here we are wringing our hands about a few players in their thirties. Ireland has 5 of them. 

Sure every player over thirty has to assessed for continuing fitness and stamina....but we would be far worse without our experienced players. Time to learn from Ireland.

I'll tell you why......read O'Driscoll's autobiography......he says that S c h m I d t is by far the best coach he has ever played under.......but saying that the Boks lost to them thanks to our pathetic coach who is nowhere near in the same league as Schmidt and is clueless when it comes to selections.

As for Ireland, they are at best solid. England will beat them this 6N and they wont challenge in the WC. They lack class acts in that side.

Yeah there is nothing special in that side bar some good players like Bowe, Zebo, Sexton, Murray, Heaslip and O'Connell......the rest are solid to average.

What they do have is a rugby master as a coach. By all accounts a great rugby brain and a masterful tactician.  

France look decidedly bloody average this year

I don't care what you see in terms of the coach.....I will take BOD's word for it as he should know given he is one of the best players that has ever played the game. He has far less to work with than England and the Boks and he is producing good results.

That Kiwi knows his stuff......he is twice the coach useless Meyer and Lancaster are.....both crap at their trades  

On a good day Dave....yep they do. Still,  it's interesting to see how information is discarded. I only post about old players....our old players aren't as good as their old players.....they aren't that good really.....by the RWC they will be toast.....it's all the coach.

Nope....none of that is true and it's not the real learning here. This is just another data point among the many that show great rugby teams are closer to 30 than 25 in average age. Because experience, nerve and strength are huge factors in test rugby.

Are you saying O'Driscoll is speaking crap regarding the Irish coach.

What I do know is that their older players are no better than our older players.......all are liabilities really.

Difference is, we have an abundance of young talent to replace these worthless old boys, something Ireland does not have.

Therein lies the difference.

If the Irish coach had the Bok talent at his disposal, the average age of his side would not be nearing 30 - its Meyer's incompetence that has us stuck in the dark ages.

Meyer is useless.....5 out of 9 confirms that......it will get worse the longer he stays. Sadly we are stuck with this clueless man for the WC, but post WC he will be toast