Irish Rugby –why does no one mention the elephant in the room?

I have never written about rugby before apart from a brief piece about watching the final day of a six-nations championship. I figure I don’t know enough about the technical aspects of the game to be able to give a qualified opinion. That has never stopped many a correspondent before me but just to be fair to everyone involved, I will stick with some comments about how the game is structured, particularly from an Irish viewpoint. Let’s be straight up and honest here; I’m Irish and while I am capable of taking a neutral standpoint, I want Ireland to win every time they take to the field.

The Ireland rugby squad in paris before the game.

Over the years, Ireland have had mixed form in the game of Rugby Union. We have won six nations championships and grand slams, but not many. In fact, three of our four grand slams have been won since 2009 in the modern professional era. There is no shame in that given that our opponents have far more resources than us. There are apparently 600k registered rugby players in England and 400k in France. Ireland has around 50k, similar to Wales and Italy with Scotland having the fewest. Add to that the fact that rugby is only played in small pockets in Ireland and is to a large degree, though not entirely, centred around private schools. As far as I am aware, rugby is the sixth most popular sport in Ireland.

So you could argue that to some extent we punch above our weight or that we have done well, particularly in recent years under internationally renowned coaches such as Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell. We could have done even better but for some strange refereeing decisions in the 2023 World Cup quarter final, which we lost narrowly to New Zealand. Unfortunately, our record at this competition is poor and we have never advanced beyond the quarter finals. Given that there are only ten strong rugby playing nations on earth (some would say 8), and that we have participated in every World Cup since 1987, we should have done better, given our resources.

The reason we haven’t is, in my opinion, because we (the IRFU) are at heart, dyed-in-the-wool rugby traditionalists and we don’t respect the World Cup enough. The RWC is a relatively new tournament (1987) whereas the six nations, in its various formats dates back to 1883. In other words, we place too much emphasis on what is, in my view, a restricted tournament. Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time in South Africa and I was very impressed with the way they prepare for rugby tournaments. First and foremost, the emphasis is on winning the World Cup. They have now won the RWC four times, one more than even New Zealand so they must be doing something right. Now I am not going to compare the resources of South Africa with those of Ireland. Rugby is their national sport and they have a playing population that runs into millions. But having resources is one thing; using them correctly is the key. South Africa plays in the Rugby Championship, the southern hemispheres equivalent of the six nations. While there are only four nations in it, each plays the others twice (it’s once in the European 6 nations) and the opposition is arguably of a much higher standard.

Having said that, is there a huge emphasis put on winning the rugby championship? No, there isn’t. The view is that it’s nice to win but the main focus is the RWC. In 2025, during my visit, South Africa played an entirely second string team in their first game against Australia. Needless to say, they lost but there was no panic; the view was that new players had gotten valuable experience which will stand to them in the RWC in 2027. South Africa went on to lose a game to New Zealand but in a very competitive championship, they eventually ended up as winners. Were there wild celebrations? No chance; the focus is on building for 2027. Contrast that with the wild celebrations when Ireland wins a six nations or a Grand Slam? Granted we don’t win that often so we are entitled to celebrate but I just wish we would change our focus a little.

I have just watched us lose our opening six nations match of 2026 to France. Given the competitiveness of the tournament, it is unlikely we will recover to win it. But that’s OK. Due to a severe injury crisis, we had to field a lot of inexperienced players in Paris but they didn’t do too badly and hopefully the match practice they got in the white heat of the Stade de France will stand to them in RWC 2027 and will give us a more balanced squad which will allow us to cope better with injuries. Hopefully we have also reached a level of maturity where we don’t start calling for managers and coaches to be fired because we don’t succeed in the six nations, as was often the case in the past.

This brings us to the title of the article. What, you might ask, is the elephant in the room? It’s the Lions tour, pure and not very simple. The reason so many of our key players are currently unavailable is due to injuries picked up on that exhausting tour. Some others have lost form since the tour, simply because, in my view, they are totally knackered. Ireland had more players selected on the 2025 tour than ever before with 15 of the 38 players and this was seen as an honour. The players seem to like it and I don’t wish to spoil their fun but to me the entire thing is outdated and a throwback to the days before professionalism and air travel. Now I can see the rugby traditionalists quaking in their boots and screaming at me about the proud tradition which started in 1888 etc. My answer is so what? This is 2026 and Ireland is a proud independent country who can take on and beat any nation in the world on their day. Why should we have to join with England, Scotland and Wales to go to play a southern hemisphere team which we are quite capable of beating on our own? In 2025, the Lions beat Australia twice, both times narrowly and lost one of the test matches. Then in the autumn when Australia came to Dublin, Ireland beat them comprehensively on our own. As the man said, go figure.

When you look at it in the round, it makes absolutely no sense. Lions tours only happen every four years and they only visit New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in sequence so those southern hemisphere teams only play the Lions once every twelve years. I’m sure people in New Zealand (and France) were smiling to themselves last summer as they watched the best players from Britain and Ireland knacker themselves playing in an outdated tournament. I know people from South Africa were smiling because I was there at the time.

Lions tours were fine back in the day before air travel became common. In those days, players travelled by ship and the entire tour took about six months with over thirty games. Nowadays, tours are much shorter as there are so many demands on players time. Back in the 50's, 60's and even into the 70's and 80's, there was no European Cup and no United Rugby Championship. Irish International players played for their clubs and played the then five nations plus an occasional test match against a touring southern hemisphere side. An Irish international in those days even with a long career, would be lucky to reach 30 caps. Ollie Campbell, the famous out half, only got 22. Tony Ward only got 19. Our two most famous players, Willie John McBride earned 65 and Mike Gibson got 69, but they had very long careers untroubled by injury. Compare that with Brian O'Driscoll's 133 caps and Johnny Sexton's 118 and it shows the stress that is placed on modern day players.

Of the 15 Irish players selected for the 2025 Lions, only five were in the team in Paris tonight, while two more were on the subs bench. The other eight are either injured or off form, in other words, knackered. I rest my case. By contrast, the French looked fresh, invigorated and full of running. Why wouldn’t they you say? They didn’t spend last summer chasing balls down in Australia. I watched the review and the analysis of tonight’s game and no one on the TV panel mentioned the Lions tour as a contributory factor in Ireland’s loss of form. Not surprising really when you consider all three members were former Lions.

While France has never won the World Cup, they have gone very close, reaching the final twice and losing narrowly. The only Northern hemisphere team to actually win a World Cup is England, in 2003, and that was an outstanding team. In every other RWC year, players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been absent either through injury or loss of form as a result of previous Lions tours.

Ireland, and in fairness England also has had no problem beating New Zealand, South Africa and Australia in one-off autumn internationals in recent years but we cannot achieve it in an RWC tournament. Why? For me, the answer is clear. My message to the IRFU and their counterparts in the other unions is: Forget about Lions tours; take care of your best players and train them to peak for the World Cup. That’s the tournament that matters. Everything else is just window dressing. Lions tours are only about representation and should be confined to history. If you want to pick a Lions squad every year from the best of the home nations’ players, do it, and give the players trophies or mementoes as a reward for the honour. But don’t drag them halfway round the world to play meaningless games and knacker them, thus eliminating any chance of winning the RWC and effectively guaranteeing that the southern hemisphere dominance of this tournament will continue indefinitely.