Ireland are the best in the rugby?

Question

Ireland are the best in the rugby?

Answer 1

The All Blacks are the best team in the world at rugby and they will win the next world cup easily.

Answer 2

?! Ireland? the All Blacks are the best, not the Irish.

everyone knows the northen hemisphere nations are inferior to southern hemisphere nations.jeez!

Answer 3

I agree and therefore reiterate the above statements.

Ireland are a founder member nation of the IRB (the International Rugby Board) and by virtue of their membership they acknowledge the international governing body's ranking of international rugby teams. As you can see from the IRB's extremely complex points system http://www.irb.com/EN/World+Rankings/ - the result of statistical analysis and a strong indicator of genuine world rankings - Ireland are currently not the 1st, not 2nd, not 3rd, not 4th, but the 5th best rugby team in the World. New Zealand, France, Australia and South Africa, through more consistent results, are proven to be better rugby teams than Ireland on current form.

If you are referring to the Six Nations rugby tournament which has not yet finished then a glance at the table - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_un... - is enough to realize and come to terms with the fact that Ireland aren't even the best team in Europe. They share the same number of tournament points as England and sit in second place behind France who beat them at Croke Park thus emphasizing the fact that the IRB table doesn't lie. France are better than Ireland. Not many serious rugby supporters would contend that the selection, condition and performance of the two Southern Hemisphere teams Ireland beat in the Autumn was of a sufficient level to give any real credence to the results,  albeit outstanding results, Ireland achieved against them. In short, it was South Africa's development team and Australia were playing with hangovers.

Incidentally (Fox was writing his answer while I was writing mine) I agree that Ireland put in a truly world class performance against England and they totally outplayed the former world champions. If capable of playing at that rythmn week in, week out, the world rankings would probably be very different but unfortunately for Ireland they tend to save all their hate for England and miss out on a Grand Slam by celebrating before the final whistle against teams like France thus throwing away the big titles. They have five World Class players in O'Driscoll, O'Gara, O'Connell, Wallace and Easterby whereas players like Hickie, Dempsey, O'Calaghan and their entire front row, whilst very good players, are not quite up to the standards set by their opposite numbers in the nations that lead the IRB World Rankings.

The New Zealand All Blacks are by far the best rugby team at the moment and I think that France, Australia and South Africa are the only three teams with a genuine chance of upsetting them at the World Cup. I think Ireland will struggle to get out of the group stages.

Answer 4

nope its france of course

they have a good team good players this irish spirit but not enough to beat france or nz

Answer 5

Not by a long shot!

I suggest you look at New Zealand to start with, head of the IRB ratings and playing as always a huge game every test.

Australia is reeling but are still good.

France have beaten Ireland already this year

And then there is the problem with the Springboks as well.

So Ireland being the best ... No

Answer 6

One thing is for sure: they're very good, even better and better....They seem to benefit from the European cup since they play y in province -somehow an antechamber of the national team-....but still not the best

Answer 7

Not in the um, other form of rugby (and the better one, in my opinion!).   They sure aren't the best in rugby league.

Answer 8

YES THEY ARE!!!!! O'Gara, Drico, Stringer,Darcy, Horan the list just goes on and on of world class players!!!!! and there not afraid to cry :)

Answer 9

with o'driscoll playing ireland are the best in the northern hemisphere, without him they miss the control.

Best in the world - no.

If it was possible for the world cup the final between the 2 best sides would be new zealand v new zealand A

Answer 10

Reality check Irish rugby fans:

You are not the best in rugby.

You will not win this world cup.

You will get beaten again by Argentina.

Answer 11

Ireland are good but not that good. That might be bad when I say that about my own country but I still support them. They were brillant against England in Croke Park and will never get a result like that again.

And Diarmid I'm female!

Answer 12

I don't think they're that good.....

Answer 13

i wouldn't say they r the best. however i believe they are the most exciting to watch

Answer 14

i personally think so but technically New Zealand are ranked the top in the world

Answer 15

YES

Answer 16

Not even close to the All Blacks.Just ask Brian O'driscoll

Answer 17

yes for me they're the best(even if I'm french), they play a beautiful and clever rugby!

Answer 18

...nope, try S.Africa, N.Zealand...

Answer 19

No, France are, in the 6 Nations.

Answer 20

No chance after todays performance they were p**s poor against scotland and were very lucky to come away with a win.

Answer 21

YEs they are good and on a certain day ...they will beat any body in the world.

We will have this answer only later this year when the world cup kicks off.

At this stage the Alll blacks are on top and then South Africa,,,

Answer 22

Is that a question, or an ill-informed statement?

The best International Rugby team are without question the Newzealand All Blacks.

The best team in the 6 Nations are France