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English World Cup winner calls on stuttering Ireland to finally show what they have got

Cian Healy and Jacob Stockdale (left) sum up Ireland's dejection following their shock defeat to Japan at the World Cup (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Jason Robinson has called on under-achieving Ireland to finally stand up and fight for their World Cup lives when they face Samoa on Saturday in Fukuoka.

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A World Cup winner in 2003 with England, Robinson knows from personal experience in 2007 what it is like to absorb the devastating blow of a pool stage defeat. 

England were trounced 36-0 by South Africa in Paris in their second match of the tournament 12 years ago. Yet, they somehow demonstrated fantastic mental resilience to bounce back from that humiliation to reach the final five weeks later against the same opposition.

Having since witnessed the Springboks use their own humiliating pool loss to Japan at the 2015 finals to provide the motivation for a resounding run to the semi-final and ultimately a third-place finish, Robinson is challenging Ireland – surprisingly beaten by the Japanese on September 28 – to come out and similarly deliver with their World Cup hopes very much on the line this weekend.

“When Japan beat South Africa it gave South Africa a huge kick up the backside. Now Ireland have been beaten by the host nation. Everybody has seen it, everybody has been talking about it. It is the biggest upset of the World Cup so far and now what I’m expecting to see is a backlash, those Ireland players just turning it around.

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They have some world-class players. They have got a team that I thought could really make a challenge for this World Cup and I still believe it is in there, it just needs to come out,” said Robinson, speaking on behalf of Land Rover, an official worldwide partner of Rugby World Cup 2019.

“I’m thinking this (loss to Japan) is going to have the same effect as it did on South Africa, who then ended up getting into a semi-final, because there is no hiding place and Ireland have been put through the cleaners. This is where mentally now it is huge for Ireland. They have to come out, they have to deliver. Over the years Ireland have never done themselves justice in World Cups and it’s such a shame. 

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“I’m not Irish but I know the quality of the players they have got in there. It is all well and good winning a Six Nations or whatever it is, doing well in the lead-up to these tournaments. But the World Cup is the one that players want to be remembered for.

“This is the one that you want to make your mark on and this is the one that will have the most effect on your team, on your country. For those players, it is going to be four years before it comes around again and some will never get the opportunity again. There has to be a reaction to them losing that game to Japan.

“Hopefully, we will see it because it will make the competition even better. I’d rather see Ireland in the quarters because potentially you want the best teams in there, but this is a real test mentally and we will see what they have got.”

WATCH: The moment when two of this Saturday’s World Cup games were officially cancelled

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Land Rover is an official worldwide partner of Rugby World Cup 2019.  With over 20 years of heritage supporting rugby at all levels, Land Rover is celebrating what makes rugby, rugby. #LandRoverRugby

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Flankly 50 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 59 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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