Ireland’s World Cup campaign came to it’s inevitable end on Saturday morning with a young Welsh side showing enough composure to knock the Irish bandwagon off it’s rails. It was a fun adventure while it lasted, and the players chosen outperformed in a lot of ways but ultimately this defeat was cast two years ago with Ireland’s failure to experiment since they won the Six Nations Championship.
In truth, the lack of faith in Ireland’s youth and diversity has been disappointing over the last six years with few given a real chance to compete at international level. Sure some, by necessity, have made it through, and interestingly most have become integral parts of the team, but the numbers have been nothing like those tried by Wales, France and Australia over the same period of time.
Whether through commercial pressure, short term goals, a complete lack of faith in the ability of the contenders, or pandering to the new breed of . . .
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