Rugby

[Yung Led Zeppelin]

Not following this at all (and couldn't really pretend to be a big sports fan in general) but caught the Portugal-Fiji game watching with my dad last night. What a match!

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Fuck. Spectators definitely got their money's worth though. Me heart those last 5 minutes!

[Circlepit]

Those last 5 minutes were painful. Almost suffocating to watch.

[Blizzard Beast]

Unbelieveable match,that 37 phase attack near th eend  was unreal.
At least we bow out this time with a decent performance,fair fecks to New Zealand they got their tactics spot on.
Had Jordan not held up that potential try it could have been our night.

[jobrok1]

Gutted for the Lads.
But Christ! What an incredible game.

[open face surgery]

That was a torturous ending. Fair play to the bais.

[astfgyl]

Moral victory?

[Anvil]

Amazing match.  Completely gutted. 

That is the first time in ages Ireland didn't have an answer to the opposition's tactics.  Quarter final jinx continues for 4 more years, at least.

[Carnage]

Chicago all over again - the first All Black try was preceded by a forward pass. Ireland won that game.

[John Kimble]

That was very disappointing. T'was probably a great match for the neutrals though.
Most frustrating of all was that even though we didn't play well, we were still within 4 points of NZ. That's what's annoying, NZ were excellent and yet we were within one try of beating a team that seemed to have completely outplayed us. We didn't play particularly well against South Africa either, yet still won. Think of how good this team can be when they're playing to the best of their ability.
Gutted, this was our time to shine.

[John Kimble]

Edit double post

[Anvil]

Don't think the semi finals are going to come anywhere close to how good these quarter finals have been.   

[jobrok1]

Some weekend of games, all round.

[Blizzard Beast]

That France South Africa game was epic one of the best games of Rugby I ve seen in years.
Some brilliant South African tries scored too.

[Cailleach]

What he didn't say, however, was just how deeply that series loss had impacted the team and how, once Ireland had flown home to continue their celebrations, every waking thought the All Blacks had was geared towards rebuilding themselves for a likely quarter-final rematch 15 months later.

All Blacks outhalf Richie Mo'unga revealed after the 28-24 victory that almost every leaders' meeting and training camp in the last year had some kind of focus on a likely quarter-final
 It was a staggering admission that the All Blacks had been so profoundly damaged and shocked by what Ireland exposed last year that they went about rebuilding a fundamental part of their game with the express mission of exacting a cruel and cold revenge in France.