{"id":206632,"date":"2025-10-17T13:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206632\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:45:07","slug":"ireland-are-the-laughing-stock-of-world-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206632\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland are the laughing stock of world rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll admits that only Rugby World Cup success can stop them from continuing to be the sport\u2019s \u201claughing stock\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite reaching the quarter-finals eight times out of 10 attempts, they have yet to progress beyond the last-eight stage.<\/p>\n

Since the start of the millennium, they have enjoyed plenty of success in the Six Nations and also picked up some outstanding results elsewhere, such as winning an away series against the All Blacks in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s World Cup \u2018obsession\u2019<\/p>\n

However, that has not translated into World Cup<\/a> progression and O\u2019Driscoll<\/a> claims that it has become an \u201cobsession\u201d for Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is there, it is, but I don\u2019t know how much they\u2019re talking about it in camp in truth. But why would we not? Because we wouldn\u2019t be talking about it if we\u2019d been to semi-finals and finals, we wouldn\u2019t be talking about it two years out,\u201d he told Off The Ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve an obsession because of our lacklustre performances in it over nine World Cups. We will be the laughing stock of world rugby until we get to a semi-final, and that\u2019s the reality and we\u2019ve got to own that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was part of that. We had a great chance in 2011, the chance we had in 2015 was huge against an Argentina team that were there for the taking.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay we had four big injuries, blah, blah, blah. We were smashed in 2019, 2023 will haunt us forever because you get that and you\u2019re in a final \u2013 I truly believe we\u2019re in a final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ireland squad: Caelan Doris returns as captain while British and Irish Lions duo ruled out<\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s comments came after Andy Farrell named his squad for the upcoming Autumn Nations Series, where they will face the All Blacks, Japan, Wallabies and the Springboks.<\/p>\n

There are once again few surprise selections as the head coach opts for the tried and tested, but it is a risk given the advancing age of the squad.<\/p>\n

The World Cup may still be two years away but many believe that Farrell should be bringing through younger players ahead of the tournament in 2027.<\/p>\n

It all points to the 50-year-old placing his trust in those experienced internationals when the global showpiece comes around.<\/p>\n

2023 World Cup process \u2018was good\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that Andy\u2019s experience of disappointment at Rugby World Cups as head coach is that experience [in 2023], and it\u2019s very different than the other World Cups. That was a cusp moment,\u201d O\u2019Driscoll said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the process was good, we just didn\u2019t win a crucial moment that would have been the difference between a semi-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do all of that again, maybe we put ourselves in a better position when we get there to get a more favourable result, because he doesn\u2019t have the baggage we all carry with us from the 80s, 90s and 00s.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Driscoll also believes that while the likes of South Africa and New Zealand are looking to build depth ahead of the 2027 World Cup, it is pretty much impossible for Ireland to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are that nation, too, where we\u2019re not three or four players deep, we\u2019re never going to be. We\u2019ve got four provincial teams, all four aren\u2019t ever competitive at the same time \u2013 or hardly ever,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not creating four world-class players in each position, we\u2019re just not.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ranked: Ireland\u2019s four full-back options to replace Hugo Keenan for All Blacks clash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland legend Brian O\u2019Driscoll admits that only Rugby World Cup success can stop them from continuing to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[12429,348,3482,2274,50,5903,8631,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-206632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-brian-o","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-internationals","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-rugby-world-cup","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}